A monument Obelisk is erected in the [what was Methodist Cemetery, and now] Uniting Church Cemetery, to commemorate the lives lost with the wreck of the 'Star of Greece' on 13 July 1888. The inscription reads:
Erected
By The Residents Of Aldinga
And Neighbourhood
To The Memory Of
Captain H. R. Harrower, W.R. Waugh,
R. Muir, F.C. Blackman, C. Irvine,
W. Oermirch, H.J.R. Cork, C.Carder,
F.C. Carter, D. Blair and A. Orson
Who Lost Their Lives
Through The Wreck Of "The Star of Greece"
At Port Willunga, July 13th 1888
"Oh Hear Us When We Cry To Thee
For Those In Peril On the Sea"
The Monuments Australia website has the following excerpt:
"Built in Belfast 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.
"The alarm was raised by a young boy taking his morning walk but because the Willunga telegraph station didn`t open until 9.00am, former harbourmaster Thomas Martin was unable to contact authorities in Adelaide until then. The response to the call for help was disastrous. A combination of poor communications, bad roads, and an inability to find a good vehicle and horses to bring the necessary rocket gear for a rescue attempt meant that it was 4.00pm when useful help finally arrived. By then all the survivors were ashore and the others aboard had already drowned in the roaring surf. Local residents had gone to the nearby beach to assist those who did manage to make it to shore.
"They bore witness to the deaths of those who fell into the sea, exhausted after desperately clinging to the rigging, and those who drowned in the mountainous seas as they tried to swim ashore. Helpless, they waited until some mariners made it to the shallows and then took them to nearby lodgings to recuperate. Following the tragedy newspapers strongly criticised the Marine Board and its rescue operations and a later Coronial inquest was equally damning. Methodist Church has a mass grave for victims of the shipwreck."
'Star of Greece'
Address: 2 Old Coach Road, Aldinga Uniting Church Cemetery, Aldinga, SA, 5173, Australia
Visited: 1159, Monday, 28 May, 2018