South West Life

Article written by Patrick O'Leary

The Western Australian coast is littered with wrecks. The West Australian Maritime Museum lists 78 known wrecks along the South West coast alone. Few of them are remembered for anything other than loss and tragedy. One stands out.

On 1 December 1876, the combination steam and sail schooner S.S. Georgette, with a cargo of jarrah and sundries, sprung a leak 32 kms out to sea. An initial attempt to get a boat off ended in disaster when it was stove in. Two women and five children were drowned. Willie and James Dempster and two crewman, Dewar and Nunan, put off in the ship's gig and rescued the survivors. They made for the shore and reached Injidup twelve hours later.

Meanwhile the Georgette, her pumps inoperable, was being bailed by the passengers and crew. After a desperate run to the coast under sail she grounded in Calgardup Bay, south of Prevelly and began to break up. This pitiful scene was witness by an aboriginal stockman, Sam Isaacs, who immediately rode to the Bussell homestead and delivered the news.

Another boat had been launched but was swamped in the rough conditions of the surf. By the time Sam Isaacs and the other hero of the hour, Grace Bussell, arrived they were met with a scene of utter misery, women and children thrown from the boat in the boiling surf. Sixteen-year-old Grace had no hesitation, from the accounts left to us, in plunging into the surf on her horse. Over the course of four hours she and Sam Isaacs fought the waves and the wind and snatched a number of women and children from certain death.

According to a plaque at the site "all on board reached the shore in safety and were taken to Wallcliffe House, the home of Grace Bussell, where they were welcomed and given shelter." For her efforts she was awarded the medal of the Royal Humane Society. Another source mentions that having read the account of her exploits in Perth Frederick Drake-Brockman rode 300 kilometres from Perth to meet her. They were later married.

It is clear that the young Grace Bussell was made of stern stuff. She had to be, given the unforgiving nature of the newly settled area around what was to become Bussel Town and then Busselton. It is easy to forget, given our comfortable lives today, that only a few generations ago sturdy pioneers were laying the foundations for what was to become one of the South West's most popular destinations.