South Australian Shipwrecks 1802-1989: A Database (ISBN 0 9588006 2 6)

The creation of a list of all South Australian shipwrecks was a major aim of SUHR research activities. The list was created with reference to many sources including newspapers, government & private records and the work of other researchers such as A.R. Temme and authors such as Ron Parsons, Jack Loney and Gifford Chapman.

The list was initially compiled by Robert T. Sexton and published in 1975 as South Australian Shipwrecks 1800-1899.

Further work in the 1970s and 1980s culminated with the publication of South Australian Shipwrecks 1802 – 1989: A Data Base (ISBN 0 9588006 1 8) under the leadership of Peter Christopher in 1990.

The book is a series of indices that list shipwrecks in alphabetical order, date of wrecking, location, construction, size, loss of life and so on.

While the general approach of the Project was to scan and save existing hardcopy publications in PDF format, this was not considered appropriate for this publication as the result would be an electronic document with less functionality than the original paperback.

A facsimile of the SUHR’s flagship publication was constructed in 2005 as a fully-featured Adobe Acrobat PDF and was published as a new publication in early 2006.

The new work is identical to the original 1990 hardcopy edition apart from the correction of spelling errors and the substitution of several photographs where re-publication has been prevented by copyright or by the unavailability of the original image. No changes have been made to the original publication’s content despite the availability of new information about a number of shipwreck sites, the discovery of new shipwreck sites, the creation of new ‘artificial reef’ sites and changes in legislation to protect shipwreck sites.