Wild weather has exposed never-before-seen parts of a 155-year-old shipwreck at Inverloch, south east of Melbourne.
The Amazon ran aground at Inverloch on December 12, 1863, after being caught in a storm. It was believed to have been sailing from Melbourne to Mauritius carrying salted meat.
The Victorian Heritage Database lists the mid-19th century wreck as "a rare example of an international wooden trading ship" and the only wooden cargo vessel of its kind in Victoria.
Erosion exposes shipwreck
Earlier this year, Heritage Victoria maritime archaeologists Maddy McAllister and Peter Harvey began work to uncover more about the wreck.
While some of what is left of the wooden structure is visible during very low tides, most of it has remained buried until last month when rough seas exposed fragments of the ship's hull.
"The main body of the wreck stayed just below the low water mark until recent storms," senior maritime archaeologist Peter Harvey said.
"There's quite a lot of the beach eroded away and parts of the wreck that were never seen before are now visible," he said.
"Our plan is to recover some of the more fragile parts of the wreck that have become exposed and take them away from the beach to store temporarily in a salt water bath."
The large decorative fragment will then be reburied further up the beach, in a spot less prone to erosion.
Uni students help with historic dig
Earlier in the year, Ms McAllister and Mr Harvey led a team of surveyors that included post-graduate archaeology students from Flinders University.
Ms McAllister said the students were skilled archaeologists who were a great help over the week.
"It was a chance for them to put their skills into a real-world situation and also work with a very enthusiastic and fabulous community down here."
As part of the investigation, the team took samples of each kind of timber they found.
The samples have been sent to a specialist in Adelaide, who'll try to identify the exact species they're made of.
"That will give us more of an understanding of how the Amazon was constructed," Ms McAllister said.
Ms McAllister said the Amazon was on Heritage Victoria's list of the top 20 most significant and at-risk shipwrecks.
"Because of the changes down here in the environment, we just had to get down and record it while it's there and it's preserved in its current state."
There are 600 recorded shipwrecks in Victoria.
Winter storms decimate dunes
Bass Coast Shire Council has spent more than $160,000 to mitigate the effects of erosion in the coastal town of Inverloch.
Storm surges have washed away almost 40 metres of the beach during 2019, putting the local surf club and at risk.
The council has trucked in sand to rejuvenate the beach, and will install specialised sand bags as part of a range of 'more drastic' erosion mitigation plans.
"We've always had a trigger point of 10 metres from the edge of the dune to the surf lifesaving club," Sustainable and Environment manager Deidre Griepsma said
"We've got erosion into areas that we haven't seen before historically," Ms Griepsma said.
"We hope the extra sandbags and sand renourishment will stop the surf club toppling into the water but long term action is needed as well."
