Sydney Cove (Preservation Island)

Meet the site

The Sydney Cove was a merchant ship on a speculative voyage from Calcutta to Port Jackson with a cargo that included rum when she began leaking badly and was run aground in shallow water at Preservation Island in February 1797. The Parks and Wildlife Service notes that she is Australia's eighth-oldest known shipwreck. The crew salvaged much of the cargo over several weeks, and 17 men set off in the longboat for Sydney; only three reached the settlement after walking much of the way, prompting two rescue voyages. Those voyages confirmed that Van Diemen's Land was separated from the mainland and started the Bass Strait sealing rush.

The wreck was rediscovered in 1977 and surveyed between 1977 and 1980, and a formal excavation by the Parks and Wildlife Service and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery from 1991 revealed the lower hull timbers, ships' fittings and a large quantity of artefacts, now displayed at the museum in Launceston. The Marine Life Network guide rates the site 5 out of 10 as a dive: not scenic, much covered in sand and protective netting, but with timbers and the shape of the wreck discernible in 3-4 m, and historically comparable in significance to the Pandora and Sirius. It stresses that disturbing the wreck is illegal. Local advice from Flinders Island Dive or the charter skippers at Lady Barron on current conditions, tides and exact positions is the best starting point for any dive here.

The Furneaux Group - Flinders, Cape Barren, Clarke, Preservation and dozens of smaller islands - is one of Australia's least-dived temperate regions. Granite dominates, but Flinders Island also has unusual limestone reefs, and the islands' position on the eastern approach to Bass Strait left a long trail of shipwrecks from the colony's earliest years. The Marine Life Network guide remains the fullest published account of the dive sites; since then Flinders Island Dive at Emita has made air and guiding available on the island.

All wrecks over 75 years old are protected under Commonwealth and Tasmanian heritage law: nothing may be disturbed or removed, and new finds should be reported to the Parks and Wildlife Service. There is no chamber on the island, so a diving injury means aeromedical evacuation to Hobart or Melbourne; dive conservatively and carry oxygen.

What you might see

Sand, seagrass edges, small reef fish

Location

Site of the merchant ship Sydney Cove, beached in 1797 between Preservation and Rum islands, in 3-4 m; one of Australia's oldest and most significant shipwrecks.

Facilities nearby

Whitemark: shops, fuel, hospital (no chamber), accommodation. Lady Barron: ramp, fuel, pub, store. Emita: Flinders Island Dive (air, hire) and Furneaux Museum.