Not far from Ground Zero is a monument to the Coolangatta, a sailing ship wrecked in the area in 1846, after which the town was named in the 1880s. In 1973 heavy seas washed away a considerable amount of sand revealing the exposed ribs of an old timber vessel. It was widely believed and has been promoted as being the remains of the Coolangatta. Or was it?
The Coolangatta was a 63 foot 88 ton top sail schooner built in the Shoalhaven area of southern NSW in 1843. She was in the area to pick-up cedar logs harvested amongst the hills of the Tweed Valley. In August 1846, the Coolangatta was at anchor just north of the Tweed River entrance. A strong gale drove the boat ashore and she was stranded somewhere north of the river according to newspaper reports of the time. The captain and the crew journeyed overland north to Amity Point, a distance of over 70 miles. There was an attempt in December 1846 to refloat her, the vessel had been lifted out of the sand by rollers, repairs had been made but just as they were ready for relaunch another gale forced the vessel into a worse position than before and she was abandoned.
The Heroine was an 1894 Nambucca River built sailing vessel weighing in at 123 tons and 98 feet in length. She was transporting coal from Newcastle to the CSR sugar mills on the Tweed. In July 1897 she was anchored off Coolangatta waiting to enter the Tweed River. Storms generated by an East Coast low lashed at the boat causing waves to break over her deck, staving in her hatches. She slipped her anchors and she was driven ashore close to Coolangatta Creek. Fortunately the captain and crew landed safely but she was badly damaged and abandoned.
Over the years there have been reports of ‘a shipwreck’ being visible on Southern Gold Coast beaches. Roberts and Rowlands, the 1863 Qld/NSW border surveyors, reported on the remains of a wreck near the mouth of what is now known as Coolangatta Creek. In 1883 Henry Schneider , surveyor of the township, was told by a Tweed Heads local that the Coolangatta had been wrecked near the mouth of the creek that now bears this name. It is unknown whether a wreck was visible at the time, despite what is written on the monument.
A wreck was uncovered a number of times in the Twentieth Century, the first time was in 1936 where heavy seas eroded the sand revealing a portion of the ribs and crosspieces. The second was in 1954 were bulldozers mining the sand for rutile, ran into and uncovered the remains of an old wreck high up on the beach north of the Creek. The most recent sitings were in 1973 where beach erosion once again revealed part of a wreck. Posing a danger to swimmers parts of the exposed wreck were demolished with explosives for safety. In 1974 a portion of a wreck was washed ashore at North Kirra Beach.
In 2014 a team from Flinders University Marine Archaeology department and the Gold Coast Heritage unit conducted remote sensing surveys, looking for magnetic anomalies from iron used in ship construction under the sand at North Kirra beach. They also conducted an assessment of remains of the shipwreck on public display and in storage. Their final results are still unknown at the date of writing this description. Apart from the anchor embedded in the monument, the closest public remnant is in Queen Elizabeth Park next to the Coolangatta Surf Lifesaving Club if you would like to examine remains for yourself.
The question still stands, was the wreck uncovered here the Coolangatta or the Heroine? Or perhaps some other wooden vessel which had the misfortune to be wrecked on this part of our coastline.
This cache is located close to the mouth of Coolangatta Creek, on North Kirra beach. Best access is from the pathway, please be wary of muggles when entering the treeline. There are also a number of rocks and cotton tree branches to be climbed over/under - the terrain rating has been adjusted to accommodate this.