During the latter weeks of November and in early December, Winwell Foundation leapt into field action.
Together with MAAWA volunteers Patrick Morrison (current President), Ian Warne (former President), Ian McCann, Jess Green and Greg Flowers, the team with Trevor Winton undertook a preliminary site survey of the Bull Creek wreck site on the Canning River. The purpose of this survey was two-fold: 1) to relocate and map the exact location of the wreck previously surveyed by MAAWA member Col Cochrane in 1989; and 2) to determine the water depth above the river bed, and any timbers still protruding into the water column, for the future SBP survey. A fun and successful morning was had by all, and perhaps by now the smell and stain of the sticky mud has been washed off wetsuits and kayaks! A quick return to the site the following week during a super low tide confirmed where some of the timber frames protruded above the mud line.
A short time later the Winwell team, in collaboration with WA Museum’s Maritime Heritage Department (Drs Ross Anderson, Deb Shefi) and supported by MAAWA (Patrick Morrison and Dave Jackson), undertook underwater site preparation activities at the James Matthews wreck site and the adjacent ‘sleeper’ site on the north side of Woodman Point. Then, following installation of SBP and satellite position fixing equipment on Winwell’s vessel, Dr Doug Bergersen (Acoustic Imaging) and David and Trevor Winton spent two days implementing the SBP surveys. The first day was frustrating as we had to battle unseasonably strong winds which constantly blew us off track — fortunately calm post-dawn conditions prevailed the next day allowing us to collect in excess of 200 acoustic survey lines across the target sites, each approximately parallel and 25 cm apart, before the wind blew us home.
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