{"id":477858,"date":"2026-02-13T18:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/477858\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T18:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:24:14","slug":"mystery-barge-washed-up-in-torres-strait-seen-struggling-off-bali-by-retired-australian-skipper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/477858\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery barge washed up in Torres Strait seen ‘struggling’ off Bali by retired Australian skipper"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the last known people to have seen a foreign-owned barge at sea before it washed up on a remote Australian island says it was being towed by a boat not suited to the job.<\/p>\n

The 100-metre barge Nelly 112 ground to a halt on Athikho Poji<\/a>, a rocky islet in the Torres Strait, on January 26.<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/p>\n

The Nelly 112 could have drifted up to 2,000 kilometres from Indonesian waters. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

A retired commercial skipper with almost four decades of maritime industry experience said he saw the barge off the Balinese coast nine days before it washed up near Badu Island.<\/p>\n

Australian Noel Gaunt said he came within 100 metres of Nelly 112 on January 17 while on a fishing boat offshore from Amed, in northern Bali.<\/p>\n

He said the barge was being towed by a boat he did not believe was suitable for the job.<\/p>\n

“It was not a tug \u2026 it was a [towing vessel] around 50 to 60-feet trying to pull this massive barge [which would be] well in excess of a hundred [tonnes],” Mr Gaunt said.<\/p>\n

“It’s like towing a five-trailer road train in the Pilbara with a Hilux.”<\/p>\n

Mr Gaunt, originally from Nelson Bay in regional New South Wales, relocated to Bali last November after being diagnosed with a terminal illness.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Noel Gaunt now lives in Bali after working for 38 years in the Australian maritime industry. (Supplied: Noel Gaunt)<\/p>\n

He said it appeared those towing the barge were trying to keep it in a channel of the Banda Sea to avoid it entering the Timor Sea.<\/p>\n

“It would’ve caused havoc to go through there because [the towing vessel] wasn’t in command of the barge,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was struggling every metre that it took.”<\/p>\n

Mr Gaunt said he did not know what happened to the barge as it proceeded east.<\/p>\n

However, that region of Indonesia was hit with severe weather in the days that followed.<\/p>\n

“My guess is they cut it loose to protect the towing vessel and [in that] situation a skipper would,” Mr Gaunt said.<\/p>\n

“It’s the safety of life at sea. You’ve got to look after yourself [and] he would’ve had crew.”<\/p>\n

Mr Gaunt said it was plausible currents had caused the barge to drift 2,000 kilometres over nine days toward the Torres Strait.<\/p>\n

Finders can’t call ‘keepers’<\/p>\n

A salvage team has been contracted to return the barge to Indonesia “as soon as practicable”, according to Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ).<\/p>\n

\"large<\/p>\n

Maritime Safety Queensland says it won’t disclose the name of the barge owner due to privacy reasons. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Badu Island traditional owner Edmund Tamwoy had hoped he could claim the barge given it washed up on his country.<\/p>\n

But Dr Rosemary Gibson from the University of Queensland’s marine and shipping law unit said the concept of “finders keepers” did not exist under maritime law.<\/p>\n

“Where you do have an owner and the vessel is registered somewhere we can trace it,” she said.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing to stop them from purchasing the vessel but they wouldn’t just be able to tie a rope around it and declare it theirs.”\"Woman<\/p>\n

Dr Rosemary Gibson says the mystery barge can’t simply be claimed. (Supplied: University of Queensland)<\/p>\n

Mr Tamwoy has since told the ABC he was trying to contact the barge owner to make an offer to buy it.<\/p>\n

Dr Gibson cautioned against making a bid without properly costing the salvage, repairs and on-going maintenance.<\/p>\n

“There are administrative hurdles that you then have to go through,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You’d be wanting to factor all those things in as to whether it’s actually worthwhile.”<\/p>\n

\"rear<\/p>\n

No timeline has been given as to when authorised inspectors would travel to Badu Island. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

MSQ said it had arranged to inspect the barge.<\/p>\n

However, a spokesman gave no timeline as to when its inspectors would travel to Badu Island.<\/p>\n

MSQ said it was unable to disclose the name of the barge owner for privacy reasons.<\/p>\n

The ABC has contacted an Indonesian shipping company which launched Nelly 112 for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the last known people to have seen a foreign-owned barge at sea before it washed up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[243100,64,63,239490,239489,239488,44,20411],"class_list":{"0":"post-477858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-athikho-poji","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-badu-island","12":"tag-barge","13":"tag-nelly-112","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-torres-strait"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}