Porthole cover from Fraser wreck to go on display
History … Councillor David Lewis and Fraser Coast Regional Council Senior Museums Coordinator Angela Isnor examine the historic porthole cover that will become a part of a larger SS Marloo display at the Museum of Tropical Queensland.
A piece of Queensland shipwreck history, illegally removed from a site on K’gari (Fraser Island) and handed into the Fraser Coast Regional Council, will be sent to the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville.
“A porthole cover from the SS Marloo, which was wrecked near Orchid Beach on K-gari (Fraser Island), was left with Council in 2016,” Councillor David Lewis said.
“By law it should not have been removed from the site.”
The SS Marloo was a steamer ship built in 1891. It wrecked near Orchid Beach on K’gari (Fraser Island) in September 1914 with no fatalities.
After hitting something, and the Marloo starting to take on water, the captain ran the vessel aground on the island.
The wreck, which rests in about 8 to 9 meters of water, was added to the Queensland Heritage Register in October 2002 and delisted in 2015 as the Australian Government Shipwrecks Act protects all sites containing relics of shipwrecks.
Due to the shallow water, the wreck is sometimes exposed and was most recently visible in January 2021.
In 2016, in contravention of the Australian Government Shipwrecks Act, a Gympie man salvaged the porthole cover during a dive on the wreck.
The salvage was also not reported to the Queensland Department of Environment and Science (DES).
“For some reason the diver left the porthole cover with Council’s museum staff in Maryborough. They were unaware that the salvage had not been properly reported,” Cr Lewis said.
“As staff were going through our collection following the 2022 floods, we found the porthole cover and started investigating.
“The find was reported to DES, which indicated that it was considered a Commonwealth Relic and needed to be listed on the Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database.
“They also put our staff in touch with Dr Maddy McAllister, the Senior Curator for Maritime Archaeology of the Museum of Tropical Queensland, whose collection houses 31 additional objects salvaged from the wreck of the SS Marloo.
“It will now be sent to Museum of Tropical Queensland, where it will enhance the story the museum is telling about the SS Marloo.”
The transfer is in line with best practice museum standards where Council continually evaluates its objects for relevance to our key themes and stories and considers whether they might be better housed at another collecting institution, Cr Lewis said.
“By sending the porthole cover to Townsville, we’re ensuring that the object will be well cared for and will be shared with the public and enhance SS Marloo display.
“It's especially nice that this is happening during the National Trust’s Australian Heritage Festival, which in Queensland runs from 10 April to 14 May 2023.”
The theme of the Heritage Festival this year is Shared Stories, which “helps us reveal Queensland's layered history by sharing stories of our natural, cultural, built, and Indigenous heritage, and encourages the community to build deeper connections by sharing their own rich and diverse stories along the way.”