Southern Commercial Divers

Southern Commercial Divers were called in by Marin Assess Insurance Company to salvage the 38ft Marineer vessel. The vessel was traveling from Melbourne to Brisbane and floundered after hitting a submerged reef. The vessel's resting place was in a remote location close to shore off Nadgee Nature Reserve about 20 minutes from Eden inaccessible by vehicle.

Their crew were able to 4wd to within about 1 kilometre of the wreck site and then had to carry all equipment including bulker bags, handsaws and chainsaws over large rocks to the location. The crew had to salvage all wreckage by cutting it into sizes that would fit into the bulker bags. The vessel's engines had been logged with sand for the 3 weeks before the crew were able to get to it.

Approximately 9 bulker bags were filled and airlifted by a Karman K-max heavy lift helicopter to a designated drop zone. The HeliAust crew inspected the engines that were submerged in sand and established  that it would be too dangerous to attempt a lift of the engines.

 All care was taken to ensure minimal disruption to the environment and that all debris that could be safely salvaged was recovered.