A small underwater drone has uncovered a 64-metre shipwreck scattered across the seafloor along the treacherous depths of Rottnest Island’s ship graveyard.
WA Museum curator Ross Anderson said the wreck was identified as a 100 plus-year-old coal hulk from Fremantle Port’s bygone days.
He said historically, the old iron ships were workhorses used to service steamships in WA.
“Most of the 15 old iron and wooden ships recorded in the shipwreck graveyard were built as fast clipper ships to ply the lucrative grain and wool trades between the UK and Australia, built in the 1860-80s and scuttled around the 1920s-30s,” he said.
“They now lie dormant, waiting to be explored.”
Anderson said Hydrus, the underwater robotic technology developed by Advanced Navigation, gave the clearest and most comprehensive data set the WA Museum had received from this particular wreck.
“This type of high-resolution imagery is invaluable for maritime archaeological research and education on underwater cultural heritage,” he said.
“With tools like Hydrus, we can obtain accurate maps and 3D models of deepwater historic shipwrecks and learn more about untold stories beneath the waves.”
The Rottnest ship graveyard, sitting to the south-west of the iconic holiday island, became a burial ground for ships, naval vessels, aircraft and secretive submarines at the beginning of the 1900s.
Most of the wrecks remain undiscovered at depths ranging from 50 metres to 200 metres, making exploration risky and costly.
A map of the shipwreck uncovered by the Hydrus underwater drone in the Rottnest ship graveyard.
A human diver or remotely operated vehicle could cost between $20,000 to $100,000, depending on the depth of the exploration.
Drones used in the latest discovery reduced the cost by 75 per cent, pinpointed the exact coordinates of the ship and fully surveyed it in less than five hours.
The data has been shared with the WA Museum for its public archives and can be seen in life-size form at the Curtin University HIVE on its immersive Cylinder display.
Only 5 per cent of the ocean has been explored and charted by humans.
Included in the mysterious 95 per cent are 3 million undiscovered shipwrecks, with 1819 recorded wrecks currently lying in the depths off WA’s shores.
The teams now have their sights set on uncovering more maritime mysteries, like that of the luxurious SS Koombana, an ultra-luxury passenger ship which was ferrying more than 150 passengers before it vanished into the swirling wrath of a cyclone in 1912.
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