The Ethel is the most photographed shipwreck in South Australia, and it is included in this database for completeness rather than as a dive. She was a three-masted iron barque built in 1876 at Sunderland, England. On 2 January 1904, sailing in a gale with poor visibility, her master misjudged his position near the entrance to Spencer Gulf, and she struck a reef and was driven ashore on what is now called Ethel Beach.

One crew member drowned. The hull was left to the sea, and over a century the timber and much of the plating have gone, leaving the iron ribs, keel and some frames standing in the surf zone. The Department for Environment and Water notes that shifting sands periodically cover the wreck: in some years only a few rusted stumps show, and in others, after winter storms, the whole outline of the ship is exposed, arching out of the sand with the cliffs of Innes behind.

Because it lies in the intertidal zone of a south-west-facing surf beach, the Ethel is visited on foot at low tide. The water here is rough and rip-prone, and there is little to see underwater that is not visible from the beach. The adjacent boiler of the SS Ferret (wrecked 1920) lies a short walk away, and the two together form a stop on the Investigator Strait Shipwreck Trail with interpretive signage at the clifftop lookout.

For divers visiting Innes, the Ethel is a worthwhile non-diving excursion on a blown-out day – the walk down the stairs and the wild beach are spectacular – but it should not be treated as a dive or snorkel site.

From Adelaide drive about 300 km (3.5 hours) via Port Wakefield, Minlaton and Warooka to Marion Bay; Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park begins just west of the township (vehicle entry fee, pay online or at the Stenhouse Bay visitor centre). From the Stenhouse Bay visitor centre follow the main park road west about 11 km and turn off to the signposted Ethel Wreck car park and lookout. A steep set of stairs (about 150 steps) leads down the cliff to Ethel Beach; the wreck lies on the sand towards the southern end.

The SS Ferret's boiler is a short walk along the same beach. Allow 15 minutes each way for the stairs.

Ethel Beach faces south-west straight into the Southern Ocean swell and is a dangerous surf beach with rips. Waves break over the wreck at most tides, so it is visited on foot at low tide rather than dived or snorkelled. Winter storms can strip the sand and expose more of the hull, while summer conditions tend to bury it; after big south-westerly storms the ribs can stand well clear of the sand.

Never enter the water in a running swell.

Not a dive. Visit on foot at low tide, walk around the exposed ribs and keel, then continue along the beach to the Ferret's boiler. Snorkelling only on rare flat days, staying close to shore.

Not a dive site – no operator. A heritage walk-in site visited daily by park visitors on foot.