Camilla
GPS: S 32° 11.646'
E 115° 44.527'
Location: Cockburn Sound
Site depth: 3 metres
Divable conditions: protected from swell, best dived in easterly winds
Visibilty: 1-10 metres
Vessel: Hulk (Former twin mast schooner)
Construction: Timber
Tons: Unknown at time of sinking 180-260 tons
Vessel length: 24 metres
Wreck event: Scuttled 1903
The Camilla site is quite easy to access and locate.
The wreck sits just 80 metres off Challenger Beach around 200 metres north of the Alcoa Jetty. Parking is easiest at the second most southern carpark on Sutton Road which comes off Cockburn Road. The carpark has a beach access path, which if standing where the path opens onto the beach, the dark shape of the wreck should be visible from shore on a transit line from this point and looking towards the second dolphin on the Alcoa Jetty as shown on the map. Beware of jetskis and watercraft in this area as it is just south of a popular boat ramp. Always dive with a flag on site.
The Camilla first went to sea in 1834 as a 190 ton twin masted schooner in the northern seas of Europe. The Camilla had a long and eventful career spanning eight decades which brought it to Australia, first working out of Tasmania, then in 1892 it was listed as a hulk, stripped of it's masts as a barge and working out of Albany. By 1897 the hulk had been employed in Fremantle and in 1903 the hull was condemned and was ordered to be beached beyond Woodmans Point where it seems to have been burnt to the waterline and left to sink beneath the waves where it is still visible today.
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The site is a very easy dive in less than 3 metres of water, it is very flat and surrounded by sand. Seeing that the vessel was burnt when it was scuttled, very little timber remains on the site but the area is scattered with iron framing and deck supports. Visibility can vary greatly on the site, it would be assumed that when ships are berthing and departing the Alcoa jetty, water clarity would be greatly disturbed. Other imagery online of the wreck shows that at certain periods of the year weed growth can cover the site extensively. Being an easy dive in shallow water, the site would also be most suitable for a snorkel dive if the diver is looking only for aa casual inspection or visit to the site.
