The Fiji was a three-masted iron barque of 1,471 tons, built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast in 1875. She left Hamburg for Melbourne in May 1891 under Captain William Vickers with a crew of 25 and a general cargo that included dynamite, spirits, pianos, toys and hardware. After 106 days at sea, in thick weather on the night of 5–6 September 1891, she ran onto the reef under Moonlight Head at 3 am. The crew clung to the rigging until daylight and then tried to reach the shore through the surf; eleven drowned, along with Arthur Wilkinson, a local man who swam out with a line to help. A malfunctioning rocket apparatus and a slow response from the Port Campbell lifesaving crew added to the scandal, and the beach where the dead were buried was named Wreck Beach. The Fiji shares the reef with the French barque Marie Gabrielle, lost here in 1869, and the two anchors bedded in the sand at low tide are one of the best-known images of the Great Ocean Walk.

The wreck lies in 6–7 m in a sandy gully of sandstone boulders about 60 m offshore and runs for roughly 71 m. The bow is the most complete section, with flooring, bilge frames, hull and rudder plating, and a large mound of anchor chain with two anchors, winches, hawsepipes and rigging. Cargo lies among the plating – pig iron, coils of wire, bricks – and the small artefacts that made the site famous among divers in the 1970s, broken gin bottles, ceramic toys and porcelain doll parts, are still occasionally seen concreted into the reef. It is a protected historic shipwreck and nothing may be taken. Marine life is limited by the surge to kelp, abalone, crayfish and hardy reef fish. As a dive it is rarely possible and physically demanding, with a 350-step carry each way and an entry through a boulder gap in the surf zone; as a piece of history in one of the most dramatic settings on the Victorian coast it is unmatched, and most people should see it from the beach at low tide.

From the Great Ocean Road between Lavers Hill and Princetown turn south onto Moonlight Head Road (unsealed, about 5 km) and follow the signs to the Wreck Beach car park. From the car park a track and roughly 350 steps drop steeply to Wreck Beach; allow 15 minutes down and 30 minutes back up carrying gear, and check the tide first because the beach is only passable at low tide. Walk west along the sand to the anchors of the Marie Gabrielle and, a little further, the Fiji anchor; the wreck lies about 60 m offshore in the gully in front of them.

Boat access from Port Campbell (35 km by sea) or Apollo Bay is a long, exposed run and rarely done.

Wreck Beach is a fully exposed surf beach at the foot of Moonlight Head, facing south-west into the Southern Ocean, and the Fiji lies in the surf zone. The Scuba Doctor describes the site as being in a very dangerous and exposed position with heavy swells and surge; it is only diveable when a moderate northerly has flattened the sea and the swell is effectively zero, which happens a handful of times a year, usually February to April. Any south-west swell over half a metre breaks across the gully.

The beach walk is possible only around low tide, so plan the descent for the last of the ebb and be off the beach before the flood. Visibility is poor because of sand in suspension even on calm days.

From the beach in front of the Fiji anchor, wade and swim out through the gap in the boulders at dead low tide, descend in 3–4 m and follow the gully seaward to the bow and the chain mound in 6–7 m. Work back along the plating and cargo toward the beach, keeping close to the bottom in surge, and exit through the same gap with plenty of gas in reserve. Abort at the first sign of a building set.

No operator – visited on foot by walkers on the Great Ocean Walk at low tide; dived only occasionally by experienced Warrnambool and Melbourne club divers in exceptional calm.