SS Brisbane

Meet the site

SS Brisbane is the largest substantial NT wreck surviving from the colonial period. The 85 m (281.5 ft), 1,503-ton iron steamer of the Eastern & Australian line left Hong Kong for Port Darwin in October 1881 with passengers – many of them Chinese – and a cargo that included luxury goods such as gilded mirrors and card tables. On 10 October 1881 her master missed the entrance to Darwin Harbour, struck Quail Island at high tide, refloated, and then ran hard onto Fish Reef, where she stuck fast. Attempts to refloat her on the next high tide failed, crew and passengers rowed ashore, and she was abandoned on 27 October. Much of the cargo was salvaged and auctioned in Darwin, with reports of salvage continuing into December.

Today the wreck is spread over a large area of the reef – NT Heritage's photogrammetry survey describes wreckage extending over hundreds of metres. The front half of the ship is exposed at spring low water as a jumble of boilers (one about 2 m across), ribs, plating and machinery, with anchors, winches and windlasses and a big section of the bow. The stern section is still substantially intact and lies deeper, to about 12 m, where the propeller, rudder and steering gear can be seen. Ceramic fragments and Chinese coins are scattered through the site.

Coral, sponges and soft corals have colonised the ironwork, and the reef around the wreck holds coral trout, cod, sweetlips, snapper, batfish and pelagics. DSAC describes it as an easy dive – shallow and simple to navigate once you are there – but the long trip, shallow reef and tides make reaching it the real challenge.

The wreck is protected under the Commonwealth Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018 and managed under an NT plan of management. For divers interested in Top End maritime history beyond the 1942 raid wrecks, it is the essential colonial-era site.

What you might see

Coral trout, estuary cod, sweetlips, golden snapper, batfish, trevally, queenfish, turtles, hard and soft corals, sponges

Location

Colonial steamer wreck on Fish Reef north of Quail Island and Bynoe Harbour, about 30 nm west-south-west of Darwin.