The Annie M. Miller had one of the shortest careers of any Sydney collier. She was built in 1928 by the Clyde Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Port Glasgow for R.

W. Miller and Company and named after the owner's wife – 48 m long, 9 m wide, 707 tons, with a Clyde triple-expansion engine and single boiler. She sailed from Greenock in August 1928 with a Scottish crew and mostly carried blue metal from Shellharbour to Sydney, carrying coal only three times.

On 8 February 1929 she was loading coal at Bulli when she developed a port list that persisted despite ballast changes; her engineers warned that hatch covers were missing and she was overloaded by 30–37 tons. Captain Herbert Pilling sailed anyway, and at 7.35 pm, near Macquarie Lighthouse off South Head, she sank. Six crew died and eight were rescued from a lifeboat by the pilot steamer Captain Cook.

The Marine Court of Inquiry blamed the improper loading and the failure to secure the tarpaulins. Fishermen knew the site, and Rick Latimer and Peter Harper of the South Pacific Divers Club dived it in 1977. The wreck lies roughly north–south on her port side in 43–46 m.

The bow third has collapsed inwards and flattened; the middle third has broken in two, with the hull bottom upright and the sides deteriorated. Aft, the boiler lies collapsed on its port side next to the intact steam engine, also on its side; the funnel is on the sand with a winch nearby, the propeller is mostly buried with one blade showing, and the tiller is exposed. Long mast sections stretch across the sand, and golf balls from the nearby golf course litter the bottom.

Fish life is very good, sometimes approaching the better southern wrecks: wobbegongs and Port Jackson sharks, yellowtail, seapike, nannygai, silver sweep and many morays, with occasional tropical bannerfish in late summer. Visibility is usually less than on offshore wrecks because of the harbour mouth. It suits experienced deep divers and needs several dives to see it all.

Boat only. Launch at Rose Bay (public ramp) or leave from Watsons Bay/Rushcutters Bay, run out through the Heads and turn south along the South Head cliffs to off Macquarie Lighthouse at Vaucluse – about 15–25 minutes from Rose Bay. Botany Bay boats take 30+ minutes.

McFadyen's GPS (southern end between the boiler and propeller) is 33° 52.0051' S 151° 17.9353' E; the traditional approach is to run in on the western mark until the lighthouse (north-western mark) just disappears. Anchoring can be tricky in a southerly or northerly wind, so a shot line and experienced skipper help.

Exposed to the full ocean swell off the eastern cliffs. North-east, east and south-east seas over about 1.5 m make anchoring and ascending difficult, and summer afternoon north-easterlies build quickly. Unlike the deep wrecks further south, the Annie M.

Miller is usually spared the strong southerly-setting current, which makes it one of the more forgiving deep wrecks, but visibility is often lower because harbour water spills out of the Heads on the ebb – dive on the flood tide and after a few dry days. Jellyfish swarms occur in late spring and summer. Winter westerlies give the flattest seas.

Anchor or shot near the boiler at the southern end, descend and look at the collapsed boiler and the steam engine on its side, then aft to the buried propeller and exposed tiller. Swim north along the middle section (bollard for photos) to the collapsed bow third and the mast sections on the sand. Plan 12–15 min on air, ascending the line for staged stops.

Deep air possible to 46 m but EANx deco gas or trimix recommended; 12–15 min bottom time. Protected historic shipwreck.

Occasional deep-wreck trips by Abyss Scuba Diving and Dive Centre Bondi; mainly private boats and wreck clubs (South Pacific Divers Club, Sydney Wreck Divers).