Diver's amazing 'treasure' found at famous Aussie 'shipwreck graveyard'

Tristan Singer was diving at a depth of about five metres at the Rottnest Island site when a 'glint' in the sand caught his eye for a split-second.

Rottnest Island's famous shipwreck graveyard, off the coast of Perth, is a popular tourist destination for visitors to the city.
Rottnest Island's famous shipwreck graveyard, off the coast of Perth, is a popular tourist destination for visitors to the city. Source: supplied

Expecting to take a journey back in time free-diving at Rottnest Island's infamous "shipwreck graveyard", a young Aussie couple got a little more than they bargained for after stumbling across a lost camera on the ocean floor.

Tristan Singer, from Fremantle in Western Australia, was diving around the popular wreck site on Sunday with his partner Jess when they made the incredible find. The pair thought they were going to be treated to a history lesson dating back to the 1800s — when the oldest ships at the site sunk to their final resting place — but they actually uncovered something else entirely, memories of a different kind.

Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Singer said he was diving at a depth of about five metres, at the last site of the day, when a "glint" in the sand caught his eye for just a split-second. "I had just jumped back in the water and was swimming over the first part of the reef when I caught a glint of something on the ocean floor in the seaweed, in a hole in the reef," he said.

Left: Tristan Singer holds the camera he found at Rottnest Island's ship graveyard. Right: The camera and its casing are taken apart and are seen on a flat surface.
Fremantle man Tristan Singer hopes to reunite the lost camera with its owner this week. Source: Supplied

"I was very excited to find 'treasure' at a shipwreck site. So I dove down to check it out, and then as I pushed the seaweed off to the side, there was a full camera housing and and strobe light just tucked in the sand in this reef hole."

Singer said as soon as he got up to the surface, he "could tell it had been there for a while" — four months in fact. "It's got a fair bit of marine fouling on it and it's bit crusty-looking," he said.

But due to the camera being in underwater protective casing when it was lost, it's still remarkably intact.

After the West Aussie made his way back home, he washed off the camera in fresh water and waited for it to dry before trying to turn it on. Incredibly, it did so immediately, Singer said, and he and Jessica were able to scroll through the selection of photos in an attempt to reunite the device with its owner.

An aerial view of one of the more prominent shipwrecks at Rottnest Island.
There are at least 13 shipwrecks close by to Rottnest Island, the earliest dating back to 1842. Source: Rottnestisland.com

"I was able to get it [the casing] open and the camera was like, literally brand new," he recalled. "It still had a screen protector on the back, no water damage or anything.

"We were able to get the memory card out and there were photos on there and that's when my partner, Jess, and I started posting to some of the community groups with the picture of the lady... with a 'if you know where you lost it and what type of camera it was' type of message."

Singer said "within 30 minutes" the camera's owner was found. Somebody had recognised the woman and tagged her on Facebook. Quickly, she responded.

This image of a crayfish was taken on the lost camera and later recovered by Singer. Source: Supplied
This image of a crayfish was taken on the lost camera and later recovered by Singer. Source: Supplied
A woman poses holding up the 'peace' symbol with her fingers.
Singer posted this photo to social media, taken on the lost camera, to see if he could track down who owned it. Within 30 minutes, he had a response from Edith, who claimed it. Source: Facebook

"The couple had lost it three days after buying it, on its maiden dive when the lanyard must have broken, sending the camera free," Singer said.

"Based on where they lost the camera it looks like it travelled about two kilometres from Rowe Reef to Transit Reef. It is amazing that along its underwater journey it didn't get smashed on the reef, corrupting the camera inside." Singer said the group are now "looking forward to meeting up this week" when the camera will at long last be returned.

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