Item MM 91257 Photograph - Cataraqui Shipwreck Memorial, King Island, 1887

Summary

This photograph of a memorial on King Island to the victims of the Cataraqui shipwreck, one of Australia's worst civil disasters. The ship Cataraqui, carrying migrants from England bound for Melbourne, went aground here with the loss of 399 lives in August 1845. You can see that by 1887 the memorial has been badly degraded by sea salt. This image is one of thirty-two black and white photographs in an album [two are loose] taken by A J Campbell during a Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria expedition to King Island in November 1887. The album also includes maps of King Island on the inside front cover and back page and numerous newspaper clippings relating to the expedition. One of the newspaper clippings, written by one of the members of the party, documents the mission of the expedition thus: 'It is our intention, before the introduction of numerous foreign plants and animals rendered it impossible to do so, to ascertain as precisely as we could in the short time at our disposal the fauna and flora indigenous to the island.'

Description of Content

Cast iron memorial tablet erected on King Island in memory of the 399 lives lost in the Cataraqui shipwreck, one of Australia's worst civil disasters. The ship Cataraqui, carrying migrants from England bound for Melbourne, went aground here in August 1845. Photograph taken by Archibald J. Campbell during a scientific expedition by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria to the island in November 1887.

Physical Description

Black and white photograph