Report on the 2011 Jane Bay wreck site investigations August– September 2011

Author/s J.N. Green

Year of publication 2011

Report Number: 279

Introduction
In September 2011 a WA Museum team visited Point Cloates to further investigate the Jane Bay One (JB1) site that was originally located in 2009 (see Green, 2011). It was intended to visit the area, with the Museum’s work boat Seaspray and a large team, during the August–September Spring Tides and to attempt to uncover the remains of the vessel. Unfortunately due to staff commitments, it was not possible to mount a full-scale expedition so, rather than miss the Spring Tides, a small expedition was undertaken. The objective was to try and uncover the Jane Bay One (JB1) Site during low tide and in addition, to investigate a new wreck report of wreckage south of the JB1 Site.The expedition team consisted of this author, Patrick Baker, Geoff Glazier from OmniStar, and Susan Green. Equipment included the Department of Maritime Archaeology Marine Magnetics overhauser magnetometer (to provide the option to carry out a magnetic survey); an ELSEC underwater metal detector; a MineLab SD2200 land metal detector; an OmniStar differential global positioning system (DGPS); a 6-m aluminium dinghy and outboard motor (to provide access to the beach, since there were no quad bikes available and the site was only accessible via the beach or by sea); a Leica total station; and, digging equipment. The team travelled up to Point Cloates on 27 August and camped at the Ningaloo Station beach shack, worked for five days and returned to Perth on 2 September.