The three-masted wooden barque of 992 tonnes was built in Quebec Canada in 1880 for the English Shipowner J Roberts and was named Braidwood. In 1890 Matthias Hansen of Norway bought the vessel and renamed it Gudrun.

The first reference to the Ship on this coast appears in the following news item.

“On Saturday morning the Norwegian barque Gudrun which was bound from Bunbury to Falmouth England, put into Fremantle in a leading condition”. West Australian (newspaper) 12 August 1901.

For reasons unknown, the disgruntled ship’s carpenter had bored holes in the hull soon after the ship departed Bunbury with a cargo of jarrah timber. With the ship leaking badly, Captain Griff was forced to put into Fremantle for repairs while the carpenter faced charges in court.

As the carpenter was not an Australian Citizen, the Magistrate could not proceed with the case so the Captain had no choice but to allow the offender to rejoin his crew.

After repairing the damage, the ship set sail from Fremantle, but within weeks it was taking water again. It is possible that the carpenter may have again attempted to sabotage the barque. With his ship now 160 kilometres out to sea and unable to return to Fremantle due to the prevailing winds, the Captain headed for the nearest safe haven at Shark Bay. There he beached the sinking ship on Cape Peron Flats 60 km North of Denham. Two anchors were laid out to keep the ship steady so that it could be refloated at a later date. Hopes of saving the Gudrun were lost when on 14 November, the vessel was damaged beyond repair during a gale. A number of local vessels are believed to have been built from timber salvaged from the wreck.

Gudrun Anchor

This anchor was recovered from the Gudrun wreck site by WA Museum divers with the assistance of Shark Bay residents and the Shire of Shark Bay.

It was one of two anchors Captain Griff had ordered to be laid out to keep the barque from drifting, after it was beached on the Cape Peron Flats. It is a common type of Admiralty anchor from the mid to late 19th Century. The iron stock could be detached by removal of a ball at one end, (now missing), so the anchor could be stowed in the ship.

The second anchor, and another anchor similar in style, but with a wooden stock, can be seen on the wreck site. The wooden stock has disintegrated but the iron shank and flukes are intact. These anchors have been left in place for divers to visit.

The Wrecksite Today

The illustration of the plaque shows how the ship may have broken up and disappeared beneath the waves, becoming a haven for an abundance of marine life. Its location was forgotten until the wreck was found in June 1989 by Canadian Zoologist Professor Paul Anderson, who was studying dugong behaviour in Shark Bay. The Gudrun has been declared an Historic Shipwreck under the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 and a Marine Flora and Fauna Sanctuary under the Conservation and Land Management Act 1984. It is managed for your use by the Department of Conservation and Land Management, the Department of Fisheries and the WA Maritime Museum. The area around the wreck is closed to fishing. Divers are welcome to look but may not remove artefacts or marine life from the protected zone. If you visit the Gudrun, enjoy the wreck and its inhabitants, but please take only photographs.

The figure head from the Gudrun is particularly beautiful. The graceful carving in the shape of a woman in flowing robes, was purchased soon after the barque was wrecked by Mr Foss, the first Resident Magistrate of Carnarvon. He placed it in the garden of Residency, where it remained for many years.

It was later acquired by the Berry family of Carnarvon and in 1967 Mr Eric Berry donated the relic to the WA Museum.

The Gudrun is one of many significant wrecks in Shark Bay. For more information about wrecks in this area, see the WA Maritime Museum publication “Shipwrecks of Shark Bay”.