Your chance to see one of South Australia’s historic shipwrecks

While South Aus­tralia has many his­toric ship­wrecks, the Ethel is unusu­al for being on land rather than under water.

Sur­round­ed by tow­er­ing cliffs, it lies on Ethel Beach with­in Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park on the Yorke Penin­su­la, where it is nor­mal­ly cov­ered by sand.

Built in 1876, the Ethel was a 711-tonne, three-mast­ed iron ship. She ran aground in a storm while en route from South Africa in Jan­u­ary 1904.

One man drowned as he tried to swim ashore with a res­cue line, but the rest of the crew reached land safely.

The storm drove the ship onto the beach above the low tide mark, where it remained intact for many years.

The hull final­ly col­lapsed in the mid-1980s, but there is still plen­ty to see, with many large pieces of rust­ed iron jut­ting from the sand, clear­ly mark­ing the ship’s out­line. The boil­er of a sec­ond wreck, The Fer­ret, lies strand­ed in the surf about 50 metres away.

Vis­it­ing Innes 

Innes is one of SA’s favourite nation­al parks, locat­ed at the tip of Yorke Penin­su­la. It offers rugged coastal scenery and great oppor­tu­ni­ties for camp­ing, hik­ing, surf­ing, fish­ing and wildlife spotting.

There are nine camp­grounds to choose from inside the park bound­aries, or if you pre­fer a sol­id roof over your head, there are restored min­ers’ cot­tages avail­able for rent in his­toric Inneston village.

So why not take a trip this week­end to see the Ethel? You nev­er know when the oppor­tu­ni­ty will come up again.

Handy tips for vis­it­ing Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park:

• Innes is at the tip of Yorke Penin­su­la, three-and-a-half hours from Adelaide.
• The near­est town is Mar­i­on Bay, just out­side the park gates.
• Pon­dalowie Bay and Cable Bay are the clos­est camp­grounds to Ethel Beach.
• Make sure you pay your park entry fees and book your camp­site or cot­tage online before you go.
• Before you head off, get some tips from Senior Ranger Mark Davison. 

Care for our shipwrecks 

It’s also impor­tant to note that the Ethel ship­wreck site is pro­tect­ed under the His­toric Ship­wrecks Act 1981.

This means it’s ille­gal to dis­turb, remove or inter­fere with the ship­wreck. While vis­i­tors are encour­aged to approach and view the ship­wreck, make sure you don’t dis­turb the remains. 

His­toric ship­wrecks are impor­tant her­itage sites that can pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for research, edu­ca­tion and enjoy­ment for all. So please behave respectfully.

If you’re inter­est­ed in ship­wrecks, there’s plen­ty you can dis­cov­er in SA. Check out our sto­ries about themar­itime her­itage trailsandship­wrecks of the Riv­er Mur­ray, orhear from one of our expertsin the field, includ­ing his insid­er tips about explor­ing shipwrecks.

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed in May 2016.