Waratah (1934/04/06)

Near Nornalup

Waratah was built by Edwin A. Jack of Launceston, Tasmania, of tallow wood (Eucalyptus microcorys) and kauri (Agathis australis) as a steam launch fitted with a two cylinder compound steam engine of 5 NHP. On 15 January 1897 it was sold to the Western Australian Government for the Fisheries Department. It changed hands again in 1906, becoming the property of the Police Department. In 1909 the schooner was used (unsuccessfully because it was too big) as a pilot boat at Albany. It was later sold to the owners of a shell grit mill on the Kalgan River, and used to carry their product to Albany. On the closure of the mill the Waratah was abandoned in the Kalgan River for years.

The Waratah was subsequently sold by the Jermyn brothers to Frederick Everett and Jim Bone. The new owners replaced the old 2-cylinder steam engine with a 4-cylinder petrol engine, and had it re-rigged as a schooner by Captain Farley and Lionel Austin. The engine was said to be from a truck, and very unreliable. It was rumoured (a rumour not denied) that the two were ‘going off in search of adventure’ (Albany Advertiser, 29 March 1934: 7c). The schooner was being sailed to Fremantle by Everett and Captain Downie, as Bone was still employed at the Yearlering Co-operative. At Fremantle it was intended to slip the boat and carry out an extensive overhaul together with some modifications.

The Waratah does not appear to have been registered. It departed Albany on 25 March but Captain Downie found that there was insufficient ballast and returned to port, where two tons or more of extra ballast was added.

THE LOSS
After adding the extra ballast Waratah left Albany for Fremantle in early April. On 6 April in order to avoid some bad weather the schooner put into Nornalup Inlet. ‘She anchored, but the rope parted and her rudder broke, and her career ended on a reef’ (Albany Advertiser, 9 April 1934: 1e). Both Everett and Downie got ashore safely.

INITIAL SALVAGE
The newspaper report of the incident stated that the crew had saved some of their property, but the Waratah was a total wreck.

Some of the spars of the schooner were evidently salvaged by a local man named Swarbrick, one of which he subsequently sold to the owner of a yacht which had snapped a mast.