Historian Alan McLean launches new book, Mystery at Moonlight Head

It had been 106 challenging days at sea since the British-built vessel had set sail from Hamburg on May 22, 1891, its cargo a disparate collection of goods including 260 cases of dynamite, crates of schnapps, whisky and gin, 400 German pianos, toys, iron and steel goods and candles. 

For captain William Vickers and his international crew, putting down anchor in Melbourne couldn’t come quick enough. 

Tragically, nearly half of them never lived to see Melbourne. 

Within 24 hours, on September 6, 1891, a kilometre east of Moonlight Head on the aptly named Wreck Beach, the Fiji came to grief.

Eleven crew, as well as valiant young farmer Arthur Wilkinson who had come to their rescue, lost their lives as the Fiji became the latest casualty in the litany of ships to fall foul of the treacherous shipwreck coastline.

Within two days the bodies of six crew recovered from the sea were buried atop the cliffs of Moonlight Head, their coffins built from timbers of the wrecked ship.

Just six months later, generous locals had pitched in to erect a marble monument at the little cemetery to all of the victims of a tragedy which had so touched the community.

When amateur historian Alan McLean discovered the largely forgotten, now overgrown monument more than a century later, he vowed to ensure that the stories behind the names inscribed on its façade would be preserved.

Those stories are now the topic of Mr McLean’s latest and fourth book Mystery at Moonlight Head.

“There are a great number of shipwrecks on the Shipwreck Coast of which many people know little about,” Mr McLean said before Friday morning’s launch at Warrnambool’s Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum.

“If history is not recorded, history is lost. The Fiji went down in 1891. We don’t want to see it get lost any further. I thought, this is a story that needs to be told.”

With tales of bravery, community kindness, botched rescue attempts, reports of drunken looting and smuggling, the events surrounding the shipwreck made for “a cracking story”, according to Mr McLean.

It was 1999 when he unearthed the monument, but it wasn’t until his retirement several years ago that he found time to devote to the story of the Fiji.

During his professional career, he has headed community organisations including the Australian Red Cross, the Transplant Promotion Council, Crime Stoppers Victoria and overseas aid agency RedR Australia, but his passion for local history never waned.

With a long-standing interest in the Shipwreck Coast, Mr McLean is also using his latest book as a platform to call on Parks Victoria to help make the Moonlight Head monument and cemetery more accessible to the public.

He is advocating a track be built to the site.

“Within days of the shipwreck, the local community held music concerts to raise money for the families of the victims and they also funded the monument that was built just six months later,” he said.

“In my view, if it’s worthy enough to see the Loch Ard cemetery, I believe there should be a walking track to see the Fiji monument and cemetery.”

Following a public appeal to descendants of locals involved in the rescue of the Fiji’s survivors, Mr McLean said a dozen south-west families had contributed information and photos to the book.

For Leanne Robe, the publication is overdue recognition for the act of bravery by her grandfather Bill Robe, and the many others involved in the rescue. 

Mr Robe was 26 when he waded into treacherous surf in the gathering darkness to save the last man ashore, the ship’s captain William Vickers.  For his efforts, the grateful captain bestowed on Mr Robe his silver fob watch.

Ms Robe said her grandfather gave the watch to his brother-in-law Gilbert Huland years later as payment for a debt. The family later donated it to Flagstaff Hill where it is still on display.

“I’m just so proud that he risked his life to save others,” she said.

Princetown landholders and operators of the nearby Rivernook guesthouse, John and Emily Evans cared for the survivors of the Fiji in the days after the tragedy, providing not only food and shelter, but clothing after many arrived near-naked after their ordeal.

Their great grandson, Matthew Tippins of Colac, said he was pleased that Mr McLean’s account provided an accurate record of history.

Mr Evans also figured in the rescue operation, ferrying the rocket and rope across the Gellibrand River that was fired out to the stricken ship.

Mr Tippins said he grew up hearing colourful stories of the Fiji, including those of caches of whisky from the cargo hidden in sand dunes and white pigs daubed with black paint to evade customs officers.

Gwendoline Pitt’s grandmother Ada Bowker was a striking 18-year-old local farmer’s daughter helping out at Rivernook when she caught the eye of shipwreck survivor and hero, German sailor Julius Gebauhr.

Although the romance ended when Julius went back to Germany a few months later, Ms Pitt said he tracked her grandmother down in the pages of The Standard about 60 years later.

Referring to her as “the girl who first set his heart aflutter”, Julius had survived four shipwrecks and rose to become New York harbour master. They corresponded for several years before their deaths.