Back then this was an industrial area, and a bit of a backwater not on the main channel of the Parramatta River, so it was a nice quiet place which no one called home to strip the vessels,” says Mr Smith.“There were slipways they could bring vessels up to, strip them of their parts and then take them away to be scrapped or melted down.“Some ships were reduced to absolutely nothing, some to just the keel in and many are resting underwater.”HMAS Karangi was the Australian-built boom-defence vessel and helped defend Darwin Harbour in the Second World War.That would have been the fate for the Ayrfield and the other wrecks, including the SS Heroic, HMAS Karangi and a collection of barges.
A DECADE after the Pasha Bulker ran aground, even more bizarre rusting hulks lie forgotten in a hidden corner of Sydney Harbour.The wreck of the SS Ayrfield in Homebush Bay. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month.Atlas Obscura and our trusted partners use technology such as cookies on our website to personalise ads, support social media features, and analyse our traffic.
The SS Ayrfield is an above-water shipwreck in the heart of suburban Sydney.
“I wouldn’t call that one an afro, maybe a buzz cut because it’s a bit shorter,” he says.“It has an amazing history. Shipwreck No.
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The SS Ayrfield is one of many decommissioned ships in the Homebush Bay, just west of Sydney, but what separates it from the other stranded vessels is the incredible foliage that adorns the rusted hull. It was purchased by the Commonwealth Government and used to transport supplies to American troops stationed in the Pacific region during WWII. Something man-made and something natural coexisting together,” Maritime Archaeologist Stirling Smith from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage tells news.com.au.“The wrecks are a visually spectacular hidden treasure. A huge Ikea is just across the water.This bay has become a graveyard of once illustrious vessels which, like the Marie Celeste, are now abandoned at sea.“It’s something forged in heat and sparks that nature has taken back over. “There are some angles that make it look like there’s nothing around,” Mr Stramyk says.“We posted a sunset image of the Ayrfield online and people thought it must be in some remote part of tropical Queensland, yet it’s just in the back end of Sydney by some apartments.”At certain times of day the soundless wrecks take on an altogether different atmosphere, like a flotilla of ghost ships approaching the shore.“It can be really eerie, especially at night if you have the fog floating over the mangroves,” she tells news.com.au.The Ayrfield’s journey began in 1911 in a dockyard in Grangemouth, Scotland. The SS Ayerfield Jason Baker on Wikipedia (Creative Commons) From cargo freighter to floating forest, the SS Ayrfield is a beautifully broken-down wreck, forever locked in Australia’s Homebush Bay. The Homebush Bay's SS Ayrfield is one of those ships west of Sydney.
Picture: Joshua HulmDrone image of shipwreck SS Ayrfield.