The Alkimos Ship
Alkimos Beach is named after a merchant ship that ran aground off the white sandy shores of Perth’s northwest corridor in 1964
The ship was built during the Second World War, and was initially used for troop and cargo transport in the Mediterranean, under United States and Norwegian shipping programs. The ship was regularly attacked by German aircrafts and U-boats in the region.
Following the war, the ship was sold to a Greek shipping company and renamed Alkimos (meaning “strong”) after a Greek God.
For two decades, Alkimos sailed the world’s oceans as a cargo ship, before running aground in Bunbury, Western Australia in 1963. After several attempts to salvage the troubled ship and return it to service, Alkimos ran aground again in 1964 at Eglinton Rocks, north of Perth, where it lays to this day.
Sitting a few hundred metres off the pristine shores of Alkimos Beach, the wreck remains a popular diving and surfing spot with locals, despite many rumours and stories that it is haunted.
A sculpture acknowledging the area’s link to the ship sits at the heart of Alkimos Beach, at the intersection of Marmion and Romeo roads.