Wrecksites in Victoria: Asian-built vessels

During the first hundred years of European settlement in Australia, communications, trade and transport between the colonies was often only possible by ship. This was true for both the minor ports and settlements, and the major cities. This isolation created a demand for suitable, small trading vessels which could cross the bars and shallows of the rivers and their associated ports in the eastern part of Australia. In New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land this led to the establishment of thriving shipbuilding industries in the first half of the 19th century. When new colonies were founded at the Swan River, Port Phillip, Adelaide and Brisbane during the 1820s and 1830s, a similar shortage of small trading vessels was experienced. The well-established shipbuilding industries in the older colonies were sources of many small vessels and the new settlements were quick to start their own shipbuilding industries.