History
The Lady Darling was built in Liverpool, England, and launched in 1864: an iron-hulled ship with a twin-cylinder steam engine and sails. She traded between Britain and Australia before working the coal run between Newcastle and Melbourne.
She left Newcastle with a load of coal on 8 November 1880. Near midnight on 10 November she struck something south of Montague Island, holing the hull near the engine room, and sank about half an hour later.
The wreck
The wreck sits on sand about 2 km off Cape Dromedary and about 8 km south-west of the southern end of Montague Island. The stern stands a few metres off the bottom, with a winch, metal decking and the two-cylinder engine easy to make out and the boiler partly buried. The bow is fairly intact and leans to starboard, with anchors nearby.
Sponges, jewel anemones, sea squirts, gorgonians and ascidians cover the structure. Schools of yellowtail and sweep gather over it, with bullseyes, nannygai and leatherjackets around the hull.
Protecting the wreck
This is a historic shipwreck: look, photograph and leave everything where it is. Shipwrecks that have been in Australian waters for 75 years or more are protected by law.
Where it is
What you might see
- Jewel anemones
- Sponges and gorgonians
- Yellowtail
- Sweep
- Bullseyes
- Nannygai
- Leatherjackets
Nearby sites
- Boat dive · Off Narooma, NSW South Coast Montague Island (Barunguba)Barunguba Montague Island lies 9 km off Narooma on the NSW South Coast, about 20 minutes by boat. Hundreds of fur seals live on its granite rocks, and the surrounding water is a declared critical habitat for grey nurse sharks.
- Shore dive · Wagonga Inlet, Narooma Bar Beach SouthA small, netted beach at the mouth of Wagonga Inlet, sheltered by the breakwall at its northern end. It is one of the calmest places on this coast to learn to snorkel, and divers use it too.
