Fraser Life - Our most famous wreck

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Saturday, June 26, 2010

Our most famous wreck For 75 years Fraser Island has been the grave site of the Maheno foodwineinterviewgardeningbooksartmusicpeople www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au

The Chronicle, Saturday, June 26, 2010. — Page 19

course and destiny Nathan Smith with some of his Maheno memorabilia collection that will be on display next month.

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sands of time

her commissioned by the New Zealand government as a hospital ship where she served in all theatres including Gallipoli and The Somme.

After returning to civilian life, the post-war boom years saw bigger and faster liners out-class Maheno and by the time the Depression hit, she was laid up and obsolete.

The writing was on the wall for the grand old lady and in 1935 she was sold to Myachi Kiesen K.K., destined for the breakers torch in Japan.

Suffering the indignity of being towed from Sydney, Maheno followed north behind her charge, the ex-Union liner Oonah, on their 4000km journey to Kobe, Japan.

Seas grew rougher as they traced the NSW coast, reaching gale force as they entered Qld waters.

The Oonah was suffering the steering problems that had plagued her whole career, soon causing the tow line to part, casting the powerless Maheno adrift.

After a harrowing night at the mercy of the sea, land was sighted the following morning during a short break in the weather. The crew tried to drop anchor but they dragged across the sandy bottom until the hull bumped heavily on the sand, snapping both lines and casting the ship broadside on the beach.

Maheno’s life as a tourist attraction began the following day when, after the seas abated, a group of sightseers walked the 10km from Happy Valley to view the ship reported ashore near Eli Creek.

Waves crashing against the hull boomed like thunder and could be

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The rusting Maheno shipwreck has been intriguing Fraser Island tourists since 1935.

heard long before the ship could be seen through the heavy sea spray.

With the beach washed out and the storm tide still lapping the dunes, the ship was found about 100m out in the surf with a sharp list to starboard. After a few confused exchanges with the Japanese crew, a line was floated ashore with a life preserver and the soaked but relieved castaways used this as a guide-line to row a lifeboat to safety.

As those first tourists stared in wonder at the huge alien structure towering over the foam, I wonder if they could have imagined that people from all over the world would be doing the same thing for the next three quarters of a century.

Photo: JOCELYN WATTS

After a harrowing night at the mercy of the sea, land was sighted the following morning during a short break in the weather.

The Chronicle, Saturday, June 26, 2010. — Page 21

Cyclone changed her

Nathan Smith has been in love with the Maheno for 12 years and he’s got something special planned for this year’s anniversary, writes Jocelyn Watts

H

er encrusted bones lay in the sand, her youthful beauty long forgotten. Yet thousands of admirers are still captivated by her charms.

Nathan Smith is among them.

The chef from Gympie fell for her 12 years ago while researching a book that he planned to selfpublish. Twenty drafts later the book still isn’t published but he has collected a houseful of Maheno furniture, fittings, hundreds of photos and a filing cabinet full of documents.

“In an effort to sustain interest in the ever vanishing wreck, I held a display of my collection to mark the 70th anniversary in 2005 in the foyer of Hervey Bay Regional Art Gallery.

“I was blown away by the response with over 400 visitors throughout the day,” he said.

In the five years since, Nathan’s collection has doubled and he wants to share it with fellow Maheno fans to coincide with the 75th anniversary of her wrecking in July.

The display will include a huge collection of furniture and fittings, hundreds of period photos and postcards, archival documents, models, builder’s plans, menus and original artwork.

“I also have other contributors such as John and Glenda Wilkin, daughter and son-in-law of the late Charlie Mathison, the famous Fraser Island bargeman who salvaged much of the Maheno in the 1930s.”

Nathan invites anyone else with Maheno memorabilia to also contribute if he or she wishes.

Light refreshments and Maheno art prints will be available for sale at the Maheno 75th Anniversary Exhibition, Urangan Community Centre (off Elizabeth Street in the Botanic Gardens) on Sunday, July 11, between 9am and 4pm. Entry is free.

Nathan can be contacted on 5481 6228 or mahenoguy@yahoo.com.au.

■ Historical photos: Courtesy of Nathan Smith’s collection including donations by Charlie Mathison, Stuart Cameron, Frank Millson, Mrs P. Scales and Kath Winterflood.

Cover photo: Jocelyn Watts

Nathan Smith with his own painting of the Maheno shipwreck.

Page 20 — The Chronicle, Saturday, June 26, 2010.

Photo: JOCELYN WATTS 10m516b

Grand old lady a victim of the

By NATHAN SMITH

FEW VESSELS can boast the Maheno’s sustained celebrity status.

With most of her 105 years spent with her decks swarming with people she has absorbed a spirit that is undeniable to all who visit her on Fraser Island’s eastern beach.

Whether it be the long forgotten chatter of passengers in the sounds of the surf, or the howls of wounded soldiers in the wind, or even the shadows of past fishermen lining the rail, Maheno’s ghost still stirs tourists and historians alike.

Next month marks the 75th anniversary of the Fraser Coast’s most famous shipwreck which grounded in an unseasonal cyclone on July 9, 1935.

In a voyage that should have

spelled the end for a well-loved but exhausted vessel, it was in retrospect the beginning of a new career that would span twice as long as the one for which she was intended.

Built in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1905 for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, Maheno was built for speed and that she did, being the first vessel to cross the Tasman in under three days.

Setting and breaking TranTasman speed records that would stand for 27 years, she was instantly popular with the statusobsessed travelling public.

The downside of her sleek design was she had a tendency to roll heavily, which, despite her beautiful appointments, made her an uncomfortable ship in rough seas.

The outbreak of World War I saw

An aerial view of the Maheno as she is today. The photo was taken in April.

Photo: AMBER HOFFMAN

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