First in an exclusive series dealing with the large colony of Egrets which have made the wreck of the City of Adelaide , at Cockle Bay , Magnetic Island , part of their domain.
Built in Scotland in 1850, a brig-rigged schooner of 1112 tons, she brought passengers to the Australian goldrush in the l860s . After a refit in l871 it became a mail steamer . Her record shows that it was converted to a four masted barque involved in coastal trade , brought to Townsville , where it worked as a collier for 10 years , caught alight .
Converted into a floating hotel in l916 , the ship was towed to Cockle Bay , but wartime conditions caused the novel venture to fail. Much of the timber and metal was stripped from the ship ; it was subsequently deliberately holed, settled down .
During World War ll the hulk was used for bombing practice and an Air Force plane clipped the mast wires and crashed , killing the pilot and crew .
Nowadays the wreck is visited by people on foot at low tide and included on island cruises. Last month the Townsville Bulletin reported that a stingray had severed the achilles tendon of a Melbourne nurse as she waded towards "the shipwreck off Cockle Bay ," not named in the story , wearing thongs .
The nurse had been taken to Townsville Hospital . Apart from stingrays , a knowledgeable island resident told our Shipping Reporter that the shallows around the wreck are known to contain venomous stonefish and it is unwise to walk about barefooted and in thongs .
