The SHIPWRECK COAST
IN 1798 George Bass and Matthew Flinders discovered the wide strait between what is known today as Tasmania and the Australian mainland and instantly created a shortcut of several days for the majority of ships coming from Europe and heading for New South Wales.
With the establishment of the new settlement and soon colony of Victoria, from the mid-1830s, the amount of shipping passing along the coast greatly increased, and when gold was discovered in 1851 the flow of ships became a virtual barrage, all heading for one of the most rugged and storm tossed coastlines of
