There would be few long-term locals who don’t have a pink-toned picture of the Cherry Venture among their old photos.
On July 8, 1973, the cargo ship Cherry Venture fell victim to vicious weather and was beached at Teewah, about 3km south of Double Island Point.
Cyclonic winds and a 12m swell had prevented her making headway into the open sea after rounding the point. The anchor cables snapped and on top of the tide at 1pm, she was driven on to the beach.
The Cherry Venture’s career was virtually washed up before she even hit the sand, as she had been destined for the scrap heap in Taiwan. Instead, she became a new tourist attraction and lived on in the memory – and photo albums – of millions of visitors who made their way along Teewah beach over the next three decades just to see her.
It was big news on the Sunshine Coast, even after the high drama as she struggled to stay in open waters during the morning of July 8, as she made a spectacular sight – a huge, 1600-ton ship beached in the shallows and later, standing high and dry on the beach.
A trip to see the Cherry Venture and have a photo taken under her towering bow, became a must-do, and Rainbow Beach and Teewah were put on the map as visitors turned up in droves to see a real shipwreck over the next 34 years.
Owned by a Singapore company, she was on her way to Brisbane from New Zealand when she floundered in heavy seas and was beached, with 24 officers and crew on board. Despite the heavy conditions that swept away lifeboats, the men were miraculously winched to safety by a brave RAAF helicopter crew.
Early attempts to refloat her looked hopeful and although some appeared to be on the verge of success, she never quite escaped back to the safety of the sea.
In April 1977, a fire on board caused considerable damage and in 1980, it was finally acknowledged that salvage efforts had failed.
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The Cherry Venture was left to the elements which, over the years, reduced her to a rusting scrap heap. Safety became a problem and demolition crews were sent in to finish her off.
By the end of February 2007, 34 years after the disaster, the Sunshine Coast’s most recent shipwreck was gone.
It was a similar hard luck story almost a century earlier for the Coast’s other famous shipwreck, the 226-ton steamship Dicky.
She was on her way from Brisbane to Rockhampton when, on February 4, 1893, she was blown on to the beach during cyclonic weather as the captain tried desperately to avoid the rocks at Moffat Beach.
He put her bow to the wind, so she became trapped by the stern. The crew managed to get safely to shore but the captain stayed with his ship.
Two days later, three bullock teams managed to get her afloat she dragged her anchor and was back on the beach again by the next morning. Another two attempts were made but the little coastal trader was beached, her bow to the shore.
And there she was to stay, on the beach to which she gave her name. Dicky Beach is said to be the only recreational beach in the world named after a shipwreck.
Her heavy iron frame put up a good fight against the elements but after more than a century she was ruled unsafe and in July 2015, the exposed rusting ribs were removed and the last of the bottom of the hull buried in the sand.
The SS Dicky wasn’t quite finished though. Four months later, the rusting remains resurfaced and made a brief appearance at low tide.
This flashback is brought to you by veteran Sunshine Coast journalist and history writer Dot Whittington, also the editor of Your Time Magazine.
