Macedon - Rottnest Island snorkelling

The Macedon was a 67-metre iron screw steamer, built in Liverpool in 1870. On the afternoon of 21 March 1883 she left Fremantle on the first steamer service to the Kimberley, carrying about 50 passengers, including Surveyor-General John Forrest's survey party and their horses, mails, bullion and general cargo. After dropping officials at Rottnest she struck Transit Reef at about 5.40 pm; she was hauled off at dawn, only to hit a rock pinnacle that holed her plating and flooded her.

Everyone got off safely, along with the horses, mails, bullion and part of the cargo. Rough weather then broke her up further, and a later salvage attempt by Fremantle's Henry Atwell ended when a storm took his boat and diving gear; a salvage diver's helmet was recovered from the site in 1976.

She is still one of the most intact iron wrecks at Rottnest, although she has deteriorated. The hull stands to around main-deck level amidships, with a winch and bollards at the bow, the remains of the boiler, and scattered coal and iron cargo, while the stern has broken up. The Denton Holme lies right beside her and the Janet close by, all inside the Kingston Sanctuary Zone, and juvenile western blue groper may be seen around the wreck. She is reached by boat.

• Experience level: Advanced
• Depth: 3-6 m
• Access: Boat needed: about 1.4 km offshore in the Kingston Reef sanctuary zone, north-east of Thomson Bay. Moor on RIA's Kingston Reef courtesy mooring or in the sand west of the wrecks (owner's guide); the semi-submersible tour from Thomson Bay also visits. The reef surges even in moderate seas; wreckage comes close to the surface. Sanctuary zone and protected wreck.
• Historic Wreck (1883)
• Iron Steamship
• Kimberley Survey Voyage
• Intact Iron Hull
• Beside Denton Holme
• Kingston Sanctuary Zone

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