Sunken tourism treasure
WHO’D SNORKEL A SHIPWRECK TRAIL? PROBABLY EVERYONE, IF ONLY THEY KNEW ABOUT IT
LOOKS like hearty backslaps are in order around town; from our friendliness status to our hotels, Townsville has been kicking major goals with the travelling public.
But what about the title as the nation’s most “Instagrammable location”?
Announced with little fanfare at the end of December, sure, there is no argument that our region is as picturesque as it gets, but the nation’s most Instagrammable location?
That’s huge.
The story in the Townsville Bulletin was accompanied by an absolutely stunning aerial photo by Conor Moore of the shipwrecked SS City of Adelaide, which made me think, “What’s that got to do with us?”
Was I the only one that choked on their (iced) coffee to find this stunning photo-worthy wreck, set in shallow waters and host to lush foliage and mangroves, was on our front doorstep?
Was I the only person who didn’t know about the SS City of Adelaide, a passenger steam ship, built in 1863, and converted to store coal for a Townsville merchant before catching fire in 1912?
Bought by Magnetic Island resident George Butler, the vessel was to be floated to Magnetic Island’s Picnic Bay for a breakwater, but ran aground at Cockle Bay, just a little to the left of Hideaway Bay, and remains there.
It’s only 300m offshore, it’s visible and snorkel-able at low tide. You can actually wade out to it – yet I’ve never seen a single sign anywhere that alerts anyone to this fact.
An ABC story quoted a spokesman from Magnetic Museum saying that since there was no loss of life, “it has no newsworthy factor”.
Aah, OK then.
I headed straight to the University of Google and what do you know, Magnetic Island has a trail of 20 shipwrecks.
That’s a tourist goldmine by anyone’s account.
So where are the signs?
Here we are with the most Instagram-worthy location, an activity that is free, requiring minimal to no equipment, and we aren’t shouting it from the rooftops? Crazy.
It’s bad enough we didn’t make use of the sunken tall ship Defender in 2017, a tourism travesty, but having regularly visited the island over the past 20 years, I’ve seen nothing pointing towards this buried tourism treasure.
We’ve heard of the Yongala, but have you heard of the George Rennie, the Moltke, the Presto, or the SS Bee?
Me neither.
Apparently there’s a divers and snorkellers trail for many wrecks around Maggie, with a GBRMPA archaeologist quoted as saying there are signs “out there” but “we could probably do a bit more”.
I say visitors travelling to Magnetic Island with a sole checklist of “see koalas” would have jumped at the chance to visit these wrecks, if only they’d known about them.
There is no mention at all of this activity on the Tourism Townsville website, so how would anyone know about it?
While struggling to compete with the flashy lagoons and boating experiences of our direct tourism competitors Airlie Beach, Cairns and Port Douglas, optimising our natural assets is a no-brainer.
See a koala and snorkel a shipwreck trail?
All we need is a sign …