Emily S

Wreck Dive | Boat access

Fishing Trawler | Max Depth: 24 m (79 ft)

Emily S Wreck Dive
© Matti Tornio

Level: Advanced Open Water and beyond.

The Emily S wreck dive site lies about 350 metres north-east of Lawrence Rock on the sheltered side, near Portland on Victoria's Discovery Coast. A purpose sunk wreck she lays beautifully upright on her keel in 24 metres of water between two rocky reefs.

Diving the Emily S Shipwreck

The Emily S is an old fishing trawler, 30 metres in length. She is still in intact condition and is a great dive for beginners to those experienced with some easy penetration dives. A family of Weedy Seadragons can often be seen near the propeller.

Diving the Emily S wreck Portland | Sean Elliott

Emily S Section Plans

The dive site is on the lee side of Lawrence Rocks but is still very weather dependent. Best dived in good conditions with a low swell with light north or northerly winds. See WillyWeather (Lawrence Rocks) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Access is by boat, taking about 20 minutes from the Portland Harbour, Lee Breakwater Road North Ramp or the Portland Harbour, Lee Breakwater Road South Ramp. The GPS mark should be right on, but use your sounder in the general area to locate the wreck and it will show easily.

Emily S Shipwreck History — Built in 1946

Vigorous Tug
Source: State Library Victoria

The Emily S was a steel hulled stern trawler of 240 tonnes, built in 1946, at Mort's Dock, Sydney, as a tug with a length of approximately 30 m (98 ft).

Originally named Freda. Acquired in 1947 by the Melbourne Harbour Trust and renamed Vigorous.

Sold in 1977 and converted for fishing and named KD. Ultimately renamed Emily S and owned by Emily Kristina Pty Ltd, Portland. Out of survey, sold to the Portland Dive Club.

Emily S Sinking — Scuttled 1 September 1991

The Emily S was scuttled on Sunday 1 September 1991 by the Portland Dive Club to create an artificial reef.

Gunditjmara country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Gunditjmara people of far south-western Victoria which continues over the state border into a small part of south-east South Australia and is bordered by the Glenelg River to the west and the Wannon River in the north. This truly ancient Country extends 100 metres out to sea from low tide and also includes Deen Maar (aka Lady Julia Percy Island) where the Gunditjmara believe the spirits of their dead travel to wait to be reborn. We wish to acknowledge the Gunditjmara as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging.

Emily S Location Map

Latitude: 38° 24.164′ S (38.402733° S / 38° 24′ 9.84″ S)
Longitude: 141° 40.324′ E (141.672067° E / 141° 40′ 19.44″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2012-07-22 09:00:00 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 18:47:25 GMT
Source: Marine Life Network
Nearest Neighbour: The Nursery, Lawrence Rocks, 234 m, bearing 203°, SSW
Fishing Trawler.
Built: Sydney, 1946.
Sunk: 1 September 1991.
Lawrence Rocks, Portland, Discovery Coast.
Depth: 24 m.

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DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.

The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.