Just prior to its wrecking in 1876, the 99 metre passenger steamship Queensland was described by The Age as one of the finest steamers to visit Melbourne, indicating colonial Victorian society's view of the ship's high aesthetic and technical value. At that time the use of steel in ship building was gaining popularity and beginning to replace iron.
As an intact and undisturbed shipwreck, the SS Queensland presents high potential for valuable archaeological information. With the already available archival material on its wrecking, documentation of the wreck
using video and photography offers opportunities for the general public to engage in the interpretation of the this mid-nineteenth century shipwreck site.