Millicent National Trust Museum: Admella

It looks a picture postcards now, but the south east coastline of South Australia has a fearsome reputation. This map at the Millicent National Trust Museum highlights just how treacherous this coast can be. Each label records the name of vessel which has made these waters its permanent home. And few tales of maritime misery can match the saga of the Admella, a cargo carrying passenger steamer operating between Adelaide, Melbourne and Launceston last century. Laden with copper bars from Kapunda, a team of racehorses and one hundred and one crew and passengers, the Admella had left Port Adelaide bound for Port Melbourne when she came to grief near Carpenter's Rocks on the morning of August 6th, 1859. "The story goes that the captain, in a bid to settle the horses changed course and in doing so hit a reef a couple of kilometres off shore, thereby beginning one of the most harrowing tales in Australian maritime history. As the vessel broke up into three pieces, the seventy people who survived the initial collision, spent the next seven days trying to get off the storm tossed reef. Seventy people clung to the wreck for a week. The seas were so high for the week, that none of the rescue craft could reach them. It wasn't until one of the bigger craft from Portland was able to come around sail and sail around to Carpenter Rock that they were able to rescue the people who'd been clinging to the wreck for seven days. And one by one they'd dropped off and after seven days there were twenty four left out of seventy people, twenty four were rescued. They could be seen quite clearly from the shoreline, they could be heard, their cries of help could be heard, people on the shore were telling them that they were trying to rescue them but there was nothing they could do to get to them because the seas were so fierce." The Millicent National Trust Museum also contains remnants from the wreck of the Geltwood which went down off Canunda beach in 1876. All 28 people on board perished. The saga of the Geltwood caused quite a scandal in the Southeast after locals made off with part of its cargo. A reward of one hundred pounds and a free pardon were offered to those who could shed light on the whereabouts of many of the pieces which have now found their way into the Millicent Museum. And it's a museum for land lovers as well with a comprehensive display of the machinery used to establish the various industries of the South East. "So there from local farms owned by local pioneers and local people. We're very lucky to have had a couple of benefactors who donated much of their early family history, their machinery and they donated all of it to the museum. So it really did give us a good basis for our displays." The Millicent National Trust Museum is in Mount Gambier Road and the entrance is through the Tourist Information Centre next door to Centennial Park. It's open daily from 9.30am to 4pm. For more information you can email: info@postcards-sa.com.au