Orungal was an 8,000-ton, 119 m (390 ft) passenger and cargo steamer built by Alexander Stephen and Sons at Linthouse, Glasgow, in 1923 as the Fezara for Egyptian owners' Mediterranean service. In 1927 she was chartered, renamed Orungal and put on the Australian interstate passenger run by the Australasian United Steam Navigation Company (later the Adelaide Steamship Company), with 240 single-class berths, sailing between Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle for thirteen years. On the night of 20 November 1940, inbound from Sydney with 16 passengers and 1,200 tons of cargo, she ran onto Formby Reef off Barwon Heads in a gale at about 10.30 pm; everyone was landed safely.

Salvage attempts were ended on 13 December 1940 when fire, probably from spontaneous combustion in the cargo, swept the ship and the magazine exploded. Whelan the Wrecker bought the rights and over the following years methodically dismantled everything worth taking. What remains is a wide, shallow scatter that is the most accessible large wreck on the Bellarine coast.

Two big Scotch boilers stand upright and break the surface at low tide, giving the mark; around them, in 3–10 m across the reef, lie large sections of steel hull plating and framing, masts and booms, deck winches, the propeller shaft and a flywheel, all encrusted and full of life. Sweep, wrasse, zebrafish, magpie perch and leatherjackets school over the plates, crayfish live under them, and seals from the Barwon Bluff area drop in. It is a flat-day dive: the reef is open to Bass Strait and surge is severe in any swell, but on a glassy summer morning it is an easy 10 m dive or an outstanding snorkel with real scale to it.

It suits Open Water divers and snorkellers who pick their day, and it is a good shallow second dive for Queenscliff and Barwon Heads boats after the Canberra or the subs. Whelan's salvage and eighty years of storms mean nothing is intact, but the boilers alone are worth the trip.

Drive Melbourne–Barwon Heads via the Geelong Ring Road and Barwon Heads Road (about 1 h 30 min). For a boat dive launch at the Barwon Heads river ramp on Ewing Blyth Drive (parking, toilets) and cross the river bar – only in low swell – then run 1–2 km south-west to the reef; Queenscliff ramp is 20 km by sea. For the shore option park at the Barwon Bluff car park at the end of Flinders Parade, walk down to the rock platform on the northern side of Point Flinders and swim about 700 m out to the reef – the Scuba Doctor notes that for most divers the Orungal is better done as a boat dive.

The two boilers show at low tide and give the mark.

Formby Reef is a shallow reef on an open Bass Strait coast and the wreck is subject to waves and surge; the Scuba Doctor says dive it only on flat calm days with little wind, flat seas and no swell, and recommends it for experienced divers and snorkellers only. South-westerly swell over about 0.5–1 m breaks over the boilers; northerly winds and a settled high give the necessary glassy conditions, typically a few days a month in summer and autumn. The Barwon River bar is only crossable in low swell, which conveniently coincides with diveable conditions on the wreck.

Visibility of 5–12 m collapses for weeks after the Barwon floods. Low tide exposes the boilers and makes the reef easy to find.

Anchor on sand beside the reef on a flat day, descend and locate the two upright Scotch boilers, then work outwards through the scatter of hull plating, framing, masts, booms, deck winches, the propeller shaft and the flywheel across the reef in 3–10 m, using the boilers as the reference point. Snorkellers can cover the boiler area from the surface. 45 minutes.

No regular charter; Dive Victoria Group, Red Boats and Geelong Dive Centre run the Orungal occasionally as a shallow second dive or snorkel on flat days, and Barwon Heads/Ocean Grove locals dive it from small boats and kayaks. Frequently snorkelled in summer when flat.