‘Wandra’, 1915

The ‘Wandra’ was a 36-metre, 164-ton wooden coastal cargo ship that was built at Coopernook near Taree in 1906 for Allen Taylor and Company, a timber company that today is a subsidiary of Boral. It was one of 12 small ships built for the company and is fairly typical of the many small timber-carrying vessels that once worked the NSW coast.

At its launch it was christened, incorrectly, the ‘Wandy’, but became the ‘Wandra’ when it was registered a month later.

It initially worked on the NSW North Coast. On two occasions – in February 1913 on the Manning River, and in February 1915 on the Bellinger River – it lost two blades of its propellor when it hit the bottom of the rivers.

On 15th December 1915, the ‘Wandra’ left Moruya Heads with a cargo of 48,800 super feet of timber bound for Sydney. After passing the Point Perpendicular Lighthouse (on the northern headland of Jervis Bay) it was hit by two large waves. The timbers in the ship’s hull parted under the pressure of these waves, and water flowed into the vessel. She started listing. The ship's pumps were started but made no difference.

The captain managed to steer the ship further along the coast and into the relative safety of The Drum and Drum Sticks (small islands just off the coast to the south-east of Currarong). Here the anchor was dropped and one of the lifeboats was lowered. The crew climbed aboard. As this was happening, the ‘Wandra’ sank.

The 12 survivors (everyone on board) rowed to shore and then walked to the Point Perpendicular Lighthouse which they reached at 1.30am. They were then taken to Nowra in a horse-drawn cart.

In January 1916, an advertisement appeared in the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’, ‘selling by public auction at 28 Market Street, Sydney, at 11:30 am, the wreck of the steamer as she now lies at The Drumsticks, near Jervis Bay Heads, including a cargo of hardwood, consisting of hardwood sleepers’. It is not known if a buyer was found.