K'gari & the SS Maheno

Built by William Denny and Brothers in Dumbarton, Scotland, and launched on 19 June 1905 — one of the world's first turbine-driven passenger steamships, a 5,000-ton, 400-foot vessel powered by three Parsons turbines that gave her 17.5 knots and capacity for 420 passengers (240 first-class). Owned by the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, she operated a luxury trans-Tasman service between Sydney and Auckland, setting a speed record on the route in 1907 that stood for 25 years. During WWI she served as His Majesty's New Zealand Hospital Ship No. 1, transporting wounded Allied troops from Gallipoli and the Western Front, and also serving in the Mediterranean and Red Sea. Sold to Japanese ship breakers in 1935, she was being towed to Osaka by the former Tasmanian ferry Oonah when a cyclone snapped the tow line. After three days adrift with eight crew aboard, she washed up on K'gari's 75 Mile Beach near The Pinnacles. All crew survived. In her early years as a wreck the Maheno hosted weddings and concerts on her decks before being stripped of fittings and abandoned. Today the rusting hull is one of the most photographed shipwrecks on the Queensland coast. Queensland Parks and Wildlife signs require visitors to stay 3 metres back from the wreck — corrosion has accelerated and sections can collapse without warning. The name 'Maheno' is Māori for 'island' — a fitting final resting place.

A 1,600-ton freighter beached during a cyclone in 1973 at Rainbow Beach, just south of K'gari. The Cherry Venture became a popular tourist attraction for over 30 years before being broken up by storms and finally removed in 2007. Photographs and remnants are preserved at the Rainbow Beach Historical Centre.

Between 1856 and 1935, an extraordinary 23 of Australia's 8,000 documented shipwrecks occurred just off K'gari. The Sandy Cape Lighthouse was commissioned in 1870 to reduce the disasters, but the island's treacherous offshore reefs, shifting sandbars, and cyclonic weather continued to claim vessels. Notable wrecks include the Stirling Castle (1836), Marloo (1914), and the various trading schooners lost in the late 19th century. The SS Maheno was the last major wreck on K'gari — no commercial vessel has wrecked here in over 90 years.