General News
24 April, 2024
Tribute held at Fiji wreck site
TWENTY-FIVE people shared a minute of silent tribute beside a cliff-top monument above Wreck Beach near Princetown on Sunday.
Participants in the special event hosted by Parks Victoria had walked along the recently-created Rescuers’ Track, named in honour of local residents who successfully pulled 14 sailors from the sea, after the wreck of the Fiji on 6 September, 1891.
The monument was erected in March 1892, over the grave of seven sailors whose bodies were washed ashore. Four bodies were never found.
Sunday’s silent reflection followed the laying of a wreath in memory of 11 crew members who were drowned when then they made a dash for the shore after more than 15 hours on the stricken vessel, stuck fast on a reef about 200 metres from the narrow beach.
Included in the group on Sunday were grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Louis Evans, a 16-year-old apprentice sailor hauled from the water.
Some had flown from New Zealand to participate.
Grandson Derek Campbell spoke on behalf of the family, to emphasise how none of them would have been born without the rescue of Louis.
“It is a thrill for us all to be able to meet and thank descendants of people who took part in the rescue 133 years ago,” Mr Campbell said.
John and Cheryl Tregea attended the tribute, with grandfather William Tregea leading the rescue attempt on the fateful night.
William, in his capacity as a justice of the peace at the time also conducted the magisterial inquiry needed before the burial of the victims.
Ms Tregea described the day as “emotional at times”.
“It turned out to be a bit of a gift we weren’t expecting,” she said.
“It was a really nice day; and it was a really positive day.
“I went with my second cousin, John.”
John Tregea farms the land William Tregea purchased at Newfield to this day.
Ms Tregea paid tribute to the efforts of historian and track campaigner Alan McLean in getting the memorial project complete.
“Alan has done an amazing job,” she said.
“Everyone is tremendously grateful for the work Alan has put in.”
Rex Mathieson of Nirranda, whose ancestral links include Willie Ward, a young man who rode from the wreck site to Princetown to seek help, spoke of his pleasure that a track now leads to the heritage site.
A pathway to the monument was first proposed in 1990.
“I argued for a track to reach the monument, funded and erected by the people of the Warrnambool district, but long since overgrown and inaccessible due to dense coastal scrub,” Mr Mathieson said.
He commended Parks Victoria for installing an information board near the monument.
After placement of the commemorative wreath by Mr McLean, the minute of silence was only broken by the sound of waves crashing onto the beach about 75 metres below.
The register entry covers the monument, the commemorative anchor on the beach below, and hull of the Fiji resting in six metres of water near the reef which proved fatal for the ship, leading to its place in Victoria maritime history.
Parks Victoria senior heritage advisor Dr Kim Wilson said walking with descendants of the Fiji survivors and rescuers was a “very special experience for me and all the Parks Victoria team involved”.
“We know it meant a lot to the descendants to reflect on the landscape and see the headstone and gravesite, which is now accessible again,” she said.
“It was moving to hear from them, including a contingent who came all the way from New Zealand, about their connections to the events that took place in 1891 where the memorial stands to this day.”
The special commemoration coincided with the launch of a revised edition of Mr McLean’s book “Mystery at Moonlight Head – the Fiji shipwreck disaster of 1891,” in which the new track and the listing of the site on the Victorian Heritage Register in February this year were explained.
