Mahogany Walk a great summer adventure

Wild weather and high seas of the last few months have again sparked the imaginations of shipwreck hunters, who journey along the Mahogany Ship Walking Track in search of a mysterious wreck hidden in the sand dunes near Port Fairy.

The 22 kilometre coastal walk is a popular daytrip for Port Fairy holiday-makers over the summer months. The mystery of a fabled shipwreck makes it a fun family adventure, especially after recent storms and high seas have washed over the dunes between the two townships. It takes about 6 hours to make the signposted walk along beaches and through the dunes joining Port Fairy and Warrnambool.

A Mahogany Walking Track Guide is available from the Visitor Information Centre on Bank Street shows walkers where to spot different shipwrecks along the coastline, however there are no maps pinpointing the mysterious Mahogany Ship believed to lie in the sand dunes around Armstrong Bay.

The famous Mahogany Ship was first sighted in 1836 when two seamen came across the wreck of an unusual vessel in the dunes below Tower Hill. Upon their return to Port Fairy they reported their find to Captain John Mills who visited the wreck himself sometime later and described the wood as "in hardness and colour not unlike mahogany". By the late 1800s the ship had disappeared into the dunes.

There are many opinions about the origin of the wreck, though the most popular is that it was a Portuguese caravel that was wrecked in the early 1500s.

More information:

• The Mahogany Ship
• The Port Fairy Warrnambool Rail Trail