Wreck of Eglinton

The wreck of the 462-ton barque Eglinton in 1852 off the coast of Wanneroo, 50 kms north of Perth, was the sensation of the year in the Colony of Western Australia. Not only did it add to the list of maritime disasters for which the Western Australian coast had become notorious, it also deprived a very bare colonial market of a large consignment of valuable domestic goods. The ship, built in Quebec, Canada, had been keenly awaited and news of the disaster was greeted with disbelief.

At the time of the wreck, a birthday party was being held aboard Eglinton for one of the young passengers. The ship’s master was dumbfounded when his ship struck ground as he believed his vessel to be much further west than it actually was. Only one of the passengers, Mrs Bartram, the wife of a well-known local businessman, lost her life. She was one of the last people to be interred in Fremantle’s Alma Street Cemetery. While most of Eglinton’s cargo was eventually salvaged, a sufficiently large amount remained at the wreck site, to be salvaged by WA Museum archaeologists in the 1970s.  This gives us a glimpse into what was being imported into WA in the early convict era.