Star of Greece

Painting of the Star of Greece, breaking up close to the shore at Port Willunga. The artist has included figures on the beach in the foreground, and others being washed in to shore along with fragments of the ship. Escarpment and jetty are illustrated in the distance to the left.

In 1868, the Star of Greece, laden with wheat, was wrecked in a violent storm off Port Willunga on the 13th July 1888. Some discrepancy exists in the actual number of lives lost, due to doubts about the number of people aboard the vessel when it left Port Adelaide, but most historians conclude that at least 18 perished. The most striking part of the tragedy was that the ship was only 200 metres from shore when it broke in two amidships at 2.00am. The alarm was raised at 7.20am by a young boy taking his morning walk but because the Willunga telegraph station didn't open until 9.00am, the harbourmaster was unable to contact authorities in Adelaide until then.

The ship was a three masted ship, iron, 1257 tons. Because the site of the wreck lies close to suburban Adelaide, the Star of Greece wreck is now one of the best known in South Australia.