Lost wreckage of 800-tonne Dutch merchant ship which sunk 168 years ago killing 16 crew is found by archaeologists
The Koning Willem de Tweede sunk off the coast of Robe, Australia in June 1857 - killing 16 of its 25 crew members in the deadly plunge.
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The groundbreaking find was announced by the Australian National Maritime Museum and the SilentWorld Foundation after a gruelling four-year search.
The museum said that the breakthrough discovery"connects us to stories of trade and migration, having discharged over 400 Chinese miners just days before its sinking".
The merchant ship used to transport Chinese migrants to South Australia, who then walked to Victoria's Goldfields to live and work.
And the tragic sinking unfolded just days after hundreds of Chinese workers had disembarked from the vessel.
The 140-foot ship set sail in Guichen Bay, before it shockingly disappeared into the depths of the ocean.
Experts say the shipwreck helps tell the story of Chinese migration through the South of the country during the Victorian gold rush.
This prosperous era between 1851 and the late 1860s was marked by an influx of money and population growth due to many people seeking fortunes.
Spokesperson for the Australian National Maritime Museum, James Hunter, told Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) that archaeologists had uncovered several components of the ship.
He said that they had located the ship's windlass - which is a device that raises and lowers equipment to the ship sticking out of the seabed.
The spokesperson said: "We looked at things like the depth of the ship — the draught — and we've looked at the water depth it's sitting in, and that all seems to line up really well."
He also said that researchers found a "magnetic anomaly", about the same length as the 140-foot ship.
The museum praised the SilentWorld Foundation in collaboration with South Australia's Department for Environment and Water and Flinders University for making the find.
They hailed it as a "significant discovery" and added that "future monitoring visits are planned to further assess the site and uncover more of this important piece of maritime history".
SilentWorld said the discovery could not have been possible without hard work.
The project to locate the ship lasted several years.
They described visibility in the sea as "challenging", and added that teamwork with the department led to the "incredible" find.
Their search was hampered by "sand blizzards".
Hunter told ABC the ship may have run aground on the seabed and was eventually buried by sand.
Their team believed they had found the wreckage three years earlier, but Hunter said the sand made identification difficult.
The research team are planning to return to the site, hoping to find more of the wreckage intact.
The incredible find comes after an iconic wooden car was discovered in the wreckage of the famed US warship, downed by a Japanese submarine during WWII.
Historians were baffled as to why the 1940-41 black Ford Super Deluxe Woody was aboard the aircraft carrier - now 16,650 feet below the surface.
And in February, the terrifying last moments of the tragic ship dubbed the "Greek Titanic" were revealed after new images captured the ghostly remains of her wreck.
The Heimara sank on January 19, 1947, after hitting an islet in the South Euboean Gulf - killing 400 people in Greece's deadliest-ever boating disaster.
New research revealed the horror of her final moments, as well as artifacts from the wreck - frozen in time for nearly 80 years.
Among the relics were the shoes of the dead, some of them children's, as well as paper items and letters from the ship's nameplate.
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The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
The mane attraction: How many lions are in Australia and how well are they regulated?
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BBC News
6 hours ago
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An Indigenous Australian community is fighting to protect sacred springs from a coal mine
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People outside the UK can watch here In 2023, following a review of Adani/Bravus's groundwater monitoring data, the government banned their planned underground mining due to uncertainty over the impact it would have on the is challenging this ban in court. The company insists it has complied with environmental and legal standards."There have been no breaches of our groundwater conditions and the Doongmabulla Springs complex is not at risk from any of the mining we are doing now or are authorised to do in the future," it said in a statement to the Environment Minister, Andrew Powell, told the BBC: "We are committed to protecting the cultural and environmental values of the springs by taking appropriate enforcement action." A divided community The government's decision to approve the Carmichael mine has polarised Australia for nearly a Burragubba and his family argue that the mine is threatening their sacred water source, and that their rights, culture and connection to "country", as Indigenous Australians term their ancestral homeland, are being ignored. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007, requires "states to obtain free, prior and informed consent before undertaking projects that affect rights to land, including mining". While not legally binding, the declaration serves as a framework for harmonising relations between states and Indigenous controversy surrounding the mine has also long been a flashpoint in the climate debate, attracting both protests across the nation and strong support from local mining communities. The Queensland government had approved the project, citing its potential to generate jobs and boost is already one of the world's top coal producers. The Carmichael mine exports to the Asia-Pacific region, where demand for coal is projected to stay high, even as economies aim to use more renewable says it has invested more than $486m in the town where many of the mine's workers reside. But allegations of poor working conditions have Kim Nguyen, who has spent years covering stories on the Carmichael mine, has spoken to workers who say they have been exposed to unsafe dust levels, made to work in substandard infrastructure and faced a culture of fear when raising concerns. Queensland's mining safety regulator confirmed there were 875 pages worth of serious accident reports from 2019 to 2024, but said the mine's incident rate was "broadly consistent with industry averages".Bravus responded: "We have a zero-fatality record (…) We maintain high standards, comply with all legislation, encourage people to raise concerns anonymously or in person and these are resolved as they arise."After the state government declared it would approve the mine without Indigenous consent, seven out of twelve W&J family groups signed a land agreement with Adani in exchange for a community fund."It's split families," says W&J woman Jackie Broderick. "I feel terrible about the destruction of the land, but if we hadn't agreed [to the mine project], they would have just gone ahead anyway. We got out of it what we could," she believe the deal came at too high a cost. "Mining is God in this country. One mine has divided a whole nation," says a statement, Bravus said: "Adrian Burragubba and his allies in the anti-fossil fuel movement have tried for many years to discredit our company and stop our Carmichael mine, which has been operating safely and responsibly in line with Queensland and Australian law." Land rights claim In 1915, Queensland's Aboriginal Protection Act allowed the forced removal of Aboriginal people from their land. Many W&J people were sent more than 1,000km away. Families were separated and practising Aboriginal culture was 1993, the Native Title Act gave Aboriginal people limited land rights if they could prove continuous connection with it, including the right to negotiate on mining projects. The W&J people lodged a Native Title claim in 2004. With that, they had the right to negotiate with Adani, which offered benefits in exchange for signing an agreement. However, in 2012 and again in 2014, no agreement could be reached, so Adani sought approval through the Native Title Tribunal without Indigenous 2021, after 17 years, a judge dismissed the W&J Native Title claim, removing their right to consultation or compensation for future mines under the law. This was because they failed to establish a sufficient connection to the land."A judge ultimately made a determination that the native title did not exist in the claim area, and it's now subject to application to the High Court of Australia for special leave to appeal," says Tim Wishart, head of the Queensland South Native Title Service."I don't think it's a particularly fair system, but it's all we've got at the moment," he adds. Legal fight continues Adrian is now pursuing a judicial review in Queensland's Supreme Court, arguing that the mine violates his community's human rights by threatening a sacred argument is based on Section 28 of the state's Human Rights Act, which protects the right of Indigenous people to practise their culture and maintain their connection to land and water. It is a case that could set a precedent, says Alison Rose, Adrian and Coedie's lawyer."It will be a really important test case that will be followed by other First Nations [Indigenous] people who are wanting to protect culture and country," she is Adrian's fourth case against the government, using pro bono lawyers. Previously, he became bankrupt after fighting one court case and being hit with $680,000 in despite the bankruptcy, the court losses and internal community rifts, Adrian, his son Coedie and their family remain undeterred."We come from the water," Adrian says. "Without the water, we're all dead. Without land, we've got nothing."The Queensland government has requested the court strike out Adrian's human rights case. The verdict has yet to adapted by Selin Girit and edited by Alexandra Fouché
Metro
7 hours ago
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Lost 300-year-old ship carrying £101,000,000 worth of treasure discovered
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