Wardang Island, also known as Wauraltee Island, is a small island of 20 km²/7.72 mi² in the Spencer Gulf, at 11 km/6 mi in the northwestern coast of Port Victoria on the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.
The island serves as a natural breakwater, protecting the former grain port of Port Victoria from ocean currents. The waters around Wardang are popular with recreational divers because of the opportunities for wreck diving as well as snorkeling.
The Wardang Island Maritime Heritage Trail offers eight amazing dive sites around Wardang. Among accessible wrecks, five are of schooners and coastal steamers – the Monarch, Australian, Investigator, MacIntyre and Moorara – that carried wheat and other local cargo, and four – the Aagot, Notre Dame, D’Arvor and Songvaar – are larger vessels that transported grain to Europe which are associated with the trading port of Port Victoria in the early 1900s.
Port Victoria was once an important trading port , and was one of the last Australian ports to see large square-rigged sailing vessels operate on a commercial basis. The Wardang Island Maritime Heritage Trail includes a waterproof booklet for underwater use, plaques adjacent to each of the eight shipwrecks and six land-based interpretive signs located at Port Victoria. Check out the Maritime Museum of Port Victoria for artifacts of some early dives and snorkeling around the island.
