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Joanna

Wreck Dive Wreck Dive | Boat access Boat access

Inside Port Phillip Open Water Rated Slack Water Wreck Dive Site

Two-Masted Wooden Schooner | Max Depth: 7 m (23 ft)

Historic shipwreck protected zone. Permit Required.
For more details please see vic-shipwreck-protection-zones.

Do not dive near the Joanna without a permit. The shipwreck lies in a 100 metre protection zone. If you enter this zone severe penalties apply. Stay clear!

Level: Open Water and beyond.

The Joanna was a small Victorian built two-masted wooden schooner used to transport lime within Port Phillip. It's the best-preserved and earliest known example of a Victorian built sailing ship located in Australian waters.

Joanna was part of the so-called 'Mosquito Fleet', a large fleet of small ketches, cutters and schooners that sailed the waters of Port Phillip and Victorian coastal waters between the 1840s and the early 1900s.

Diving the Joanna Shipwreck

The Joanna is located one a half kilometres from shore on the Western Bank of the West Channel, between Swan Island and St Leonards. The shipwreck lies on sand in two to seven metres above the sea bed.

The Joanna's cargo of bagged lime, which has now turned into concrete, can still be seen. Divers visiting the wreck often see stingrays living between the lime bags. The weight of the cargo has pinned down the hull and preserved it under the sand along with ship fittings and crew possessions.

On the south side of the wreck site remains of the ship's rigging, the anchor chain and rope can be seen. An information plinth has been placed on the site.

The site of the Joanna is very exposed to weather from the north and south. It should only be dived at slack water.

Joanna Dive Site Map
Joanna Dive Site Map | © Victorian Archaeological Survey

The site of the Joanna is a historic shipwreck protected zone with a 100 metre radius from:
Latitude: 38° 12.478′ S   (38.20796° S / 38° 12′ 28.66″ S)
Longitude: 144° 43.806′ E   (144.730102° E / 144° 43′ 48.37″ E)
.
A permit from Heritage Victoria is required to dive the Joanna. Anchoring is prohibited.

Joanna Shipwreck History — Built in 1856

The Joanna was a small two-masted wooden fore and aft schooner of 34 tons, built in 1856, at Mount Eliza, Port Phillip, specifically for work in the Port Phillip lime trade. She was 45.56 ft (14 m) long, with a beam of 14.6 ft (4.45 m) and draught of 6.7 ft (2.04 m). The vessel's frequent berthing at Lime Wharf on Yarra implies lime as the main cargo.

The Joanna had a single deck, square stern and carved hull. She was the pride and joy of its owner and captain, John Locke, a general merchant and Melbourne ship owner.

Joanna was part of the so-called 'Mosquito Fleet', a large fleet of small ketches, cutters and schooners that sailed the waters of Port Phillip and Victorian coastal waters between the 1840s and the early 1900s.

The lime trade involved the digging of shell from natural shell beds and Aboriginal middens in Western Port, Walkerville, Corio Bay and Mornington Peninsula. It was then crushed and burned in kilns to produce quicklime, which was then bagged in hessian sacks for transport to Melbourne. When added to water and sand the lime was used for mortar in stone and brick buildings, or for lime-washing walls. The bags of lime with imprints of the hessian bags can be clearly seen on Joanna.

With increased demand from the growing building trade, local lime was used to supplement the limited supplies of imported Portland lime. Initially, kilns were established at Portsea and Sorrento. Gradually the trade moved north to Rye and Mount Martha and then across to Geelong and Lara and then to Lilydale.

The mosquito fleet also carried tea-tree wood and bark. Tannin was extracted from the bark and used in the leather industry. Tea-tree wood was also a preferred source of fuel for baker's ovens as the ash did not stick to bread.

Joanna Sinking — Wrecked 9 July 1857

The Joanna had a brief career lasting only one year before it sank in a heavy gale. Joanna was loaded with lime and tea-tree from Point Nepean and anchored waiting for a favourable wind to sail to the Lime Wharf in Melbourne. A severe storm suddenly swept across the Port Phillip. The Joanna's anchors dragged and the ship was driven across Port Phillip and onto the western bank of the Western Channel on 9 July 1857.

The storm continued and Joanna filled with water and sank. After the storm passed, only the vessel's masts were above the water. Neither the boat nor cargo could be salvaged and the ship became a total loss. Only mastheads remained above water.

See also, Heritage Council Victoria: Joanna,
Australian National Shipwreck Database: Joanna, and
Dive Information Sheet: Joanna (1856-1857).

This vessel is one of the many historic shipwrecks included in Victoria's shipwreck-discovery-trail. Qualified divers can explore the wrecks of old wooden clippers, iron steamships and cargo and passenger vessels located along the coast and in Port Phillip. Some of these wreck dives are suitable for beginners, even snorkellers, while other wrecks require the skills and experience of advanced divers.

Heritage Warning: Any shipwreck or shipwreck relic that is 75 years or older is protected by legislation. Other items of maritime heritage 75 years or older are also protected by legislation. Activities such as digging for bottles, coins or other artefacts that involve the disturbance of archaeological sites may be in breach of the legislation, and penalties may apply. The legislation requires the mandatory reporting to Heritage Victoria as soon as practicable of any archaeological site that is identified. See Maritime heritage. Anyone with information about looting or stolen artefacts should call Heritage Victoria on (03) 7022 6390, or send an email to heritage.victoria@delwp.vic.gov.au.

Wathaurong (Wadda-Warrung) country
Wathaurong (Wadda-Warrung) country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Wathaurong (Wadda-Warrung) people of the Kulin Nation. This truly ancient Country includes the coastline of Port Phillip, from the Werribee River in the north-east, the Bellarine Peninsula, and down to Cape Otway in the south-west. We wish to acknowledge the Wathaurong as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging. We acknowledge Bunjil the Creator Spirit of this beautiful land, who travels as an eagle, and Waarn, who protects the waterways and travels as a crow, and thank them for continuing to watch over this Country today and beyond.

 

Joanna Location Map

Latitude: 38° 12.478′ S   (38.20796° S / 38° 12′ 28.66″ S)
Longitude: 144° 43.806′ E   (144.730102° E / 144° 43′ 48.37″ E)

Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2012-07-22 09:00:00 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-08 23:28:07 GMT
Source: Victorian Government GPS (verified)
Nearest Neighbour: Foig a Ballagh, 550 m, bearing 275°, W
Historic shipwreck protected zone.
Permit Required.
Two-Masted Wooden Schooner.
Built: Rye, Victoria, 1856.
Sunk: 9 July 1857.
Depth: 4 to 7 m.



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.

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