THOSE who regularly go fishing or walk the sands of Stockton Beach would have watched the slow crumbling of the shipwreck some six kilometres down from the surf club.

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The wreck is that of the ‘Uralla’, a Northern Rivers coastal cargo ship built in Scotland in 1926 that was washed ashore on 13 June 1928 when the steering gear broke in a severe gale.

The seventeen members of the crew waded ashore. The stranded ship carrying timber was purchased for £1600 and was successfully refloated only to be again washed onto the beach where she has remained for nearly 100 years.

Although the remains of the wreck rarely surface above the sand, the ‘Uralla’ has become a reference point on the beach and is the name given to the excellent offshore reef system famous for snapper.

By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE