Shipwreck Hunters Australia

Oh, it was nice in there.

Yeah, the cave was awesome. Nice sunlight rays.

Some epic little swim-throughs.

I'm looking forward to our Ningaloo trip.

Your part of the world, Nush and Andre.

Yeah, as amazing as it is,

you get these currents that can push you in towards the reef,

and, yeah, a lot of ships have come unstuck there.

I think out of all of the shipwrecks in that area,

the Stefano is by far the most interesting.

Yeah, the young Croatian crew had a horrible time.

They got wrecked on the shore. They were perishing.

I reckon it's gotta be

one of the most significant shipwreck survivor stories in Australia.

-Time to get to Ningaloo! - Can't wait.

Stefano was a 52-metre Croatian barque.

On a stormy night in 1875,

the ship and its 17 crew struck the vast Ningaloo Reef

and sank off the remote Western Australian coast.

The shipwreck hunters are heading to the far reaches

of the largest fringing reef on the planet

in search of lost pieces of a shipwreck puzzle…

The six-metre swells running through,

it's gonna just smash everything straight through the reef.

…braving extreme ocean currents…

Hold on!

Picked right up.

…and reliving a harrowing castaway ordeal.

They're slowly losing their mind from malnutrition.

Before travelling north to dive the wreck site,

the team's meeting Dr Ross Anderson and Dr Deb Shefi

from the Western Australian Museum,

where precious artefacts thought to be from Stefano are held.

We're looking at a bell, a deck light and a starboard light

off of what we believe is the Stefano wreck.

Now, Stefano struck the Ningaloo Reef in 1875, and on board, it had 17 crew.

Now, the oldest was the captain, at age 25,

and the youngest was a cabin boy of 12.

Now, can you imagine sailing across the world at that age?

- It's crazy. -Young boys.

-Hmm. -Young boys.

And, unfortunately, there were only two survivors.

Awesome artefacts.

-So that's a pretty big light. - Yeah, that's the starboard light.

Unfortunately, none of these objects have anything

that identifies them as coming from Stefano .

Something that we haven't looked at is, we know where the wreck site is,

but there's also, what we think there should be, a wreck plume.

So there's a possibility that some smaller artefacts could've been rolled

and tumbled and washed a bit further inshore.

So anything we can find,

whether it's ceramics or glass or part of the cargo,

that we could analyse would be really good

to help us support the identification of this really significant wreck.

We know Stefano was carrying 1,300 tons of coal bound for Hong Kong.

Okay, cool. So we should keep our eyes out for glass, ceramic and maybe coal?

Yeah, anything you see that's not a piece of coral reef would be good.

In 1875, Hong Kong was a booming steam shipping hub,

hungry for coal,

and Welsh coal was the most sought-after in the world.

After loading 1,300 tons from Cardiff,

Stefano and the young Croatian crew set sail from Wales

on a marathon 27,000-kilometre journey to Hong Kong.

Off the Western Australian coast,

the vessel was drawn off course by a strong current

and slammed into the Ningaloo Reef.

In terms of the Stefano story, we have, um, an account of that.

So this is what's known as the Skurla Manuscript.

And when the two boys got back to, um, Croatia,

they met with Father Stefano Skurla and told him their story,

and he documented that.

It's amazing that there's so much detail on what actually happened.

This is pretty much a bible for Stefano , really.

Oh, it really is. I mean, to have the account from these two survivors recorded

in this manuscript, which really did help locate the site.

Sixteen-year-old Miho Baccich and 20-year-old Ivan Jurich were

the only crew from Stefano to survive,

living for months with the local Indigenous people.

In the manuscript,

it's talking about the Aboriginal people in the Northwest Cape,

and, in Skurla's manuscript,

"provides the only description we have of the daily lives of Aboriginal people

who once lived on the Cape Range Peninsula."

There is no other accounts, um, of these people at that time,

and so it's extremely rare and extremely important, this manuscript.

And it's such a nice account.

Now, you have these local people who have seen

that there are people suffering and need help.

They say, "You need assistance, and we're here to give it to you."

Super keen to find out more about the survivor story

because it sounds crazy.

-Yeah. -Okay, for this mission,

for safety and reasons, it's so remote, we're gonna need two vessels.

And one of them needs to be towed all the way from Fremantle.

This is the museum vessel, Dirk Hartog .

You and, uh, Johnny have got truck licences, Ryan,

so if you can drive it up to Coral Bay for us, and Deb and I will drive it back.

-Cool. Road trip. -Awesome. Yeah.

-Shotgun. -Okay.

While Johnny and Ryan are making

the 1,100-kilometre journey by road,

Nush and Andre will be flying home to Exmouth

and then driving south to Coral Bay.

The Stefano wreck site is 35 kilometres to the northwest.

Stefano and many other shipwrecks have found their final resting place

at Ningaloo, a World Heritage-listed natural wonder,

teeming with more than a thousand marine species.

It's also Nush and Andre's backyard.

We both have the passion for the ocean.

We're both really obsessed with the ocean and diving

and underwater photography and videography.

So that combined passion, I think, was sort of, yeah,

where our relationship really sparked.

Yeah, it's really, um, connected us, and it hasn't really stopped since.

Dre and I have been together for three years.

I nervously invited her out to, uh, Rottnest Island

for New Year's Eve, and she came out.

Yeah, and we've been together ever since then.

Nush and Andre are due to meet up with Ryan, Johnny,

and the team from the museum in Coral Bay this afternoon.

Dog Trippy has already saved his seat.

Watch out, buddy. Watch out. It's gonna squash you.

Come on. Good boy. Thanks, mate.

Mad dog.

-And that's about it, hey? - Yeah.

Let's get on the road.

- Yew, let's do it! - Let's go.

Their drive to Coral Bay will take an hour and a half…

All right, Nushie.

Let's do it!

…while Johnny and Ryan headed off

on their marathon 1,100-kilometre road trip north three days ago.

Yeah!

Better call the boys and see where they're at.

-Hello! -Hi, what's up?

Hey! Johnny's at the wheel.

Yew!

How are you guys?

Um, we've had a really interesting trip up.

We've blown a few tyres. It's been quite the mission.

What's your ETA in Coral Bay?

Uh, I reckon 12:00-ish, one o'clock.

-Yeah. -All right, sweet.

We might be pretty close to being a similar time, Ry.

Okay. Sounds good.

We'll see you guys soon!

-Yeah, see ya. -See ya, guys. Bye-bye.

Safe driving!

-Bye! Safe drive! -Yew!

- Coral Bay! - Yew!

We've just arrived at Coral Bay.

This is the Murdoch University Research station.

We're gonna set up home, and that'll be us for a week.

We're here, Trip.

- Come on, buddy. - Come on. Good boy.

Go!

Oh, they're here.

- The boys! -

Trippy, come here. Come here, mate.

Yeah, you'll be all right.

How's it going?

-Hey, what's up, man? How are you? -Not bad.

-Hey. -Hey.

-What's up? -Good to see you.

- Trippy! - Trippy.

Hey, boy. Hello, boy.

- Aw, he's so happy to see you guys. -

Deb and Ross from the museum have flown in from Perth

and arrived right on schedule…

- Here they are. -Hey, guys.

Oh, hello. Rock stars.

-Hey, guys. -How you doing?

-Hello, Ross. Always nice to see you. -Good to see you again.

-Yeah, good day. - Good day, mate.

…but there's a key member of the team who can't make it.

We've suffered a bit of a loss for this expedition.

Captain Ash, unfortunately, is not gonna be here.

Um, he has had to go to hospital for an operation.

It couldn't be avoided.

Post-op. He's just saying,

"The operation went well. Wish I could be there. Good luck."

Just him in the hospital bed.

So that means Andre's gonna step up.

He's gonna become the master of the vessel, which is great,

and the team, collectively, will pull together and smash this out.

The next morning, Andre's called a safety briefing.

All right, guys. This is our first trip out to Stefano .

Just want to take it pretty cautiously.

Once we get there,

it'd be awesome to just watch it and just assess the situation.

There's been a few boats lost here, even, like, recently.

There's been a few recce boats washed over the reef.

Like, pretty sad, a couple of people died, even a dog.

The last thing we want is some sort of emergency, 'cause we're pretty far away.

- Yeah. -No matter what, we're gonna get wet.

-Whoo! -Yeah.

I'm excited. I've never been here before. I can't wait.

- Let's go. - Cool.

First boat down.

Yeah!