SS YONGALA

The SS YONGALA is a passenger ship build in England in 1903 and took up the busy passenger road from the gold mines of eastern Australia to the port of Adelaid , Melborne and Sydney.
The Ship sank in a Cyclone in  23 march 1923 and all 199 passenger on board died in what is known the worst marine tragedy in the history of Australia.

IT took 50 years for this Wreck to be found , In 1943 a minesweeper identified an object of around 90 meters (300 feet)  and was probably the wreck of a fair sized steamer vessel  but no further investigation has been done.
In 1958 two divers located the wreck and came up with a steel safe form one of its cabin, no identification from the safe other than the serial number, in 1961 the response from the safe manufacturer in London is received and confirmed that this safe is manufactured for the SS Yongala.

The SS Yongala lies on the bottom of a sandy seabed which makes of it an artificial reef and house of a large array of marine life , from gray nurse shark to rays to the huge number of reef fish , groupers and much more. Not to forget the famous grouper found on the bow of the ship nicknamed VW because of its enormous size.

The best time to dive the Yongala is from June to August where the water temperature are (21 to 25 C ) but the visibility is between (15 to 20 meters) or from September to December where the water temperature are higher (25 to 30 ) but the visibility is lower between (10 to 15 meters).
With a maximum depth of 30 meters, and the great historical and marine life , the SS Yongala is one of the best wreck dives in the world and has on average 10000 + divers each year.