The Shipwreck Coast
The coastline from west of Geelong up to the South Australia border has the fairly grim title of the Shipwreck coast, from the large number of sailing vessels that came to grief here from about 1810 onwards. The photos show the coast on a sunny day, with good visibility and quite a light swell. This is a bit deceiving; weather conditions here can be extreme, with stiff onshore winds, high seas and inshore fog. In short, a nightmare for sailing ships trying to make landfall and to get their bearings for the difficult entrance through Port Phillip heads and into the large bay that shelters Melbourne.
One of the most tragic wrecks has interesting links to the Callander area, picking up the names Loch Ard and Glen Ample, both of which are within a few miles of home. This link will take you to the story and one of my photos shows the actual gorge where the only two survivors were washed ashore.
Emigrant ships from Britain to Australia quite often took the ‘great circle’ route, a means of using the prevailing winds in the most efficient way and thereby making the voyage without stopping. The lighthouse at Cape Otway was built to give these doughty mariners a clear indication that they were reaching land at the correct place, often the only clear land that been sighted during the three month voyage.