Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast

"Every man a mourner": The shipwreck of the SS Gothenburg, 150 years on

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February 17, 2025 5:30am

19m

150 years ago, the SS Gothenburg - a sturdy coastal steamship - left the Port of Darwin in the Northern Territory on its final tragic voyage. When the ship hit Old Reef off Townsville in cyclonic conditions, over 100 people died. Just 22 survived. The disaster devastated the fledgling community of Darwin (then called Palmerston). Judges, doctors, bureaucrats, prisoners, women and children were all lost. It was said that every house in the northern colony lost a loved one. 

  • Guest: Toni Massey, Senior Curator of Maritime Archaeology, Queensland Museum
  • Producer: Jack Schmidt