The Star (1880) shipwreck

3D Model

The colonial schooner Star (1876-1880) was built in Fremantle using jarrah timber. On 20 October 1880 it sank after striking the Murray Reef (near Port Kennedy, Western Australia), with no lives lost.

The wreck was discovered in 1972 by Graham Anderton, Bill Evans, Ross Morgan and D. Grove. The WA Museum excavated the site in 1983. Overlapping black and white stereo-photographs were taken to create a 2-dimensional photomosaic.

In 2022-23 Curtin University HIVE Summer internship student Jarod Harris used the ‘legacy’ photography from 1983 to create this digital 3D model of the Star wreck.

Star is significant as a Western Australian-built vessel, with the wreck providing evidence of colonial ship-building methods and materials.

3D model by Jarod Harris, Curtin University HIVE.
Supervisors: Petra Helmholz, Daniel Adams, Andrew Woods (Curtin University), Ross Anderson (WAM).
Photography: Patrick Baker (WAM).
Funded under the Commonwealth Government’s Underwater Cultural Heritage Program.