Balmoral

Wreck Dive | Shore access

Two-Masted Wooden Brigantine | Max Depth: 5 m (16 ft)

Balmoral Dive
Source: Heritage Victoria

The Balmoral shipwreck lies in Port Fairy Bay off Richie Street on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast.

Diving the Balmoral shipwreck requires calm conditions and a very low swell. See WillyWeather (Port Fairy Bay) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Balmoral History

The Balmoral was a two-masted wooden sailing brigantine of 106 tons operating as a coastal trader in the southern parts of Australia's coastline. The vessel was built in 1861 at Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia and had an overall length of approximately 78.4 ft (24 m), beam 22.9 ft (6.98 m) and draught 10.5 ft (3.2 m).

Balmoral Sinking

While riding out a violent south-easterly gale at Port Fairy, the Balmoral parted its anchor cable and was driven ashore on 9 July 1868 where she ended up broadside to the beach. The bow was on a rock while the stern remained afloat, causing the vessel to roll alarmingly. Not long after the crew abandoned ship, the Balmoral rolled on its side and parted amidship.

Within an hour the vessel had broken up, littering the beach with wreckage. The Belfast Gazette commented that much of the hull timber was quite rotten. The vessel had previously been engaged in freighting freestone from Kangaroo Point to Melbourne to build the Law Courts and other buildings.

Heritage Warning: Any shipwreck or shipwreck relic that is 75 years or older is protected by legislation. Other items of maritime heritage 75 years or older are also protected by legislation. Activities such as digging for bottles, coins or other artefacts that involve the disturbance of archaeological sites may be in breach of the legislation, and penalties may apply. The legislation requires the mandatory reporting to Heritage Victoria as soon as practicable of any archaeological site that is identified. See Maritime heritage. Anyone with information about looting or stolen artefacts should call Heritage Victoria on (03) 7022 6390, or send an email to heritage.victoria@delwp.vic.gov.au.

Eastern Maar country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Eastern Maar people of south-western Victoria between the Shaw and Eumerella Rivers and from Yambuk in the south to beyond Lake Linlithgow in the north. This truly ancient Country extends as far north as Ararat and encompasses the coastal townships of Port Fairy in the west, Warrnambool, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Apollo Bay, Lorne, and Airies Inlet in the east, including the Great Ocean Road area. It also stretches 100 metres out to sea from low tide and therefore includes the iconic Twelve Apostles. "Eastern Maar" is a name adopted by the people who identify as Maar, Eastern Gunditjmara, Tjap Wurrung, Peek Whurrong, Kirrae Whurrung, Kuurn Kopan Noot and/or Yarro waetch (Tooram Tribe) amongst others. We wish to acknowledge the Eastern Maar as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging.

Balmoral Location Map

Latitude: 38° 22.535′ S (38.375582° S / 38° 22′ 32.1″ S)
Longitude: 142° 14.876′ E (142.247935° E / 142° 14′ 52.57″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map | Get directions
Added: 2012-07-22 09:00:00 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 19:05:00 GMT
Source: GPS (verified)
Nearest Neighbour: Socrates, 657 m, bearing 206°, SSW
Two-Masted Wooden Brigantine.
Built: Nova Scotia, 1861.
Sunk: 9 July 1868.
Port Fairy, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 2 to 5 m.

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DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.

The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.