By Elloise Farrow-Smith, ABC
Ron Creber, manager of the Ballina Naval and Maritime Museum, says the area around Ballina and Byron Bay are shipwreck graveyards. Photo: ABC/Ron Creber
Ex-Cyclone Alfred is stirring up the past with stormy seas at Ballina uncovering a ship from the 1890s.
It's believed the ship, uncovered at a popular swimming beach, is the remnants of a paddle steamer The Comet.
Curator and manager of the Ballina Naval and Maritime Museum, Ron Creber, said the area around Ballina and Byron Bay were shipwreck graveyards, and The Comet could be the first of many to be uncovered by the wild seas whipped up by Cyclone Alfred.
"This is only a guess, but I think it's The Comet, a single screw wooden steamship, which was wrecked on the Richmond River spit in March 1890," Creber said.
"I got reports that people are vandalising it and it cannot be touched."
Creber said it wasn't the first time the wreck has been sighted, but it has never been so exposed.
"The ship first appeared last October but sand covered it over again. It's now reappeared, and it's really exposed in a dangerous part of the beach because that's the main swimming section."
What is exposed, he believed, was part of the hull.
"Planks of wood that are still intact in terms of being joined to each other, lot of exposed pins that they used, nails and copper sheeting.
"There is also another piece which looks like a keel, with the same pegs used."
Cyclone Alfred whipped up wild seas at Ballina. Photo: ABC/Emma Rennie
'Common that pieces will appear'
Ballina's mayor Sharon Cadwallader is also concerned about the shipwreck's location and its proximity to the high use swimming area.
She has raised the issue of safety with various authorities and is waiting on advice.
Creber said The Comet was around 50 or 60 tonnes, and was a single-masted sloop, possibly used on the river for trading or as a tug for bringing large boats into Ballina's Richmond River.
He felt it probably was The Comet, but then there were a lot of shipwrecks around Ballina.
"I think we had around 64 shipwrecks off the coast and in the river at Ballina so it is quite common that pieces will appear.
"Up at Byron Bay [in the past] in just one night they had five shipwrecks.
"I would not be surprised if people started coming saying there are shipwrecks on the beach at Byron Bay because they copped a lot of erosion as well."
According to Creber, The Comet was a single-masted sloop, weighing about 50 or 60 tonnes. Photo: ABC/Ron Creber
The maritime historian believed it was best to let the sailing ghosts of the past stay where they were.
"It is always exciting to find these things. Take photos, measure it and then let nature cover it over again," he said.
"It's something to be left alone, take pictures and nothing else."
The sentiments were echoed by a spokesperson for the Department Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water who said shipwrecks were fragile, and urged the community to "admire" it "from a distance".
"The discovery of a shipwreck along the Ballina coastline provides a rare glimpse into our maritime history," they said.
"In NSW, shipwrecks are protected under law, with penalties of up to one million for anyone found to illegally damage or disturb them."
- ABC
