Cherry Venture was a 1600 ton cargo ship

Cargo ship

A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

 of Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n origin. It ran aground on Teewah Beach in South East Queensland

South East Queensland

South East Queensland is a region of the state of Queensland in Australia, which contains approximately two-thirds of the state population...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 on the 6 July 1973 and remained on the beach for 34 years until its removal in early 2007.

Cause of the wreck

Cherry Venture was wrecked due to a combination of severe storms and a lack of cargo. Buoys in the area recorded wave heights of up to 40 feet (12.2 m). The unladen ship sat high in the water, which when combined with the high tides and strong swell propelled it to a point far enough up the sand that it could not be successfully re-floated, despite attempts that involved dredging the beach.

On the day of the storm the ship was traveling from Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

 to Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

.

Salvage attempts

The wreck was subsequently purchased by Peter Vagellas an Australian entrepreneur who had intended to re-float to vessel and convert it into a luxury liner and floating casino to service the Great Barrier Reef. In 1977 there was a failed attempt to refloat the ship. Eight salvage attempts over the next few years failed.

Public interest

The wreck was a popular stopping point for tourists en-route between Noosa

Noosa, Queensland

The Shire of Noosa was a Local Government Area located about north of Brisbane in the Sunshine Coast region of South East Queensland, Australia...

 and Fraser Island and has been photographed often. Despite safety warnings describing the unsound nature of the structure visitors would often climb over the wreck.

Removal

In late 2006 it was announced that the wreck would be demolished due to increasing dangers posed by the wreck, including exposed asbestos

Asbestos

Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...

in the engine room.

The removal process, which necessitated cordoning off a section of public highway which runs along the beach next to the wreck, began on 13 February 2007.

External links

• The Cherry Venture on Google Maps