SS Dicky Timeline

The Friends of the Caloundra Lighthouses would like to acknowledge the Everyone's Environment Grant from the State Government, which funded the Heritage Impact Report and Conservation Management Plan, both administered by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council. The grant has also funded this SS Dicky Timeline.

The CMP and HIR funded through this grant, and Cosmos Archaeology Pty Ltd Final Report on the removal of the upper sections of the wreck in 2015 can be downloaded at the bottom of this page

If you have any photographs and stories we are keen to hear from you.

The SS Dicky was washed ashore onto a beach which was later named Dicky Beach, after the ship had been caught in the tail of a cyclone, on 4th Feb 1893. The Captrain had mistaken Point Wickham and Moffat Beach, as being Caloundra in the rough cyclonic swell and when he attempted to steer the ship north west, the winds drove the vessel onto the beach. Photo and information courtesy Sunshine Coast Council

Backward Glance: The last voyage of the S.S. Dicky

1890s photos courtesy Dave Slawson, Illidge family - another photo in this series suggests pre 1900. It shows the Caloundra Lighthouse with Bulcock's watchtower, and Canberra Tce as a dirt track, indicating a date before the turn of the century. The lighthouse was built in 1896 and the a 1900 photo shows Canberra Tce as a more developed road - see the Lighthouses

Chronological Images 1920s & earlier

From the same series courtesy Dave Slawson

Early photo of the Dicky courtesy Doreen Hall & Nancy Andrews. This was a very faded photograph which I enhanced and reduced. Doreen is descended from Carl & Dorothea Edlundh. Carl was the first lighthouse keeper.

The Edlundh's retired to 37 Arthur St Caloundra and more of their story is told there.

You can download the original original scan here if you want better detail.

SS Dicky in 1914 courtesy State Library of Queensland

1938 The Dicky courtesy Prudence Deckert nee Rapkins.

Father Eric Harold Rapkins was Caloundra Lighthouse keeper from Sept 1930 until Oct 1934.

His six children - Jacqueline, Prudence, John, Jim Coral & Peter all attended school in Caloundra.

see Eric Rapkins Gallipoli Diary

1940 Dicky Beach, detail from Caloundra aerial photo courtesy DERM. Shows the World War Two military camp and network of tracks, the Tooway Creek Bridge built 1937, Sir Leslie & Lady Wilson's house with servants quarters, & two houses built by Elks & Sudlow in 1939, both on Wilson Ave, and "Semloh" on Beerburrum St facing north to the circled wreck.