Parts of the ill-fated Shiralee were exhumed from the deep earlier this month, after a trawler’s nets became ensnared in the twisted wreckage. 

Leo Pease, the brother of two of the three men lost at sea in the 1978 shipwreck, Stephen and Michael, visited the waste depot last week to formally identify the gallows and life buoy belonging to the trawler.

“I worked for both of my brothers and recognised it as coming from the gallows of the Shiralee,” Mr Pease said. 

Mr Pease was uncertain the wreckage would stand up to restoration techniques when asked if he thought the Killer Whale Museum would be the most appropriate site to display the historical remnants.

“The family and I would prefer to see it go back to where it came from,” Mr Pease said. 

“By the time they sandblasted it and painted it there wouldn’t be much left.

“My nephew is going out to look at it, but I don’t know if he is going to take it," he said.

Bega Valley Shire Council's waste services manager, Toby Browne, said he had been in contact with the relevant government bodies regarding the future preservation of the wreck. 

“The Shiralee wreckage is being collected from the Eden tip site by the Pease family tomorrow,” Mr Browne said on Monday.

“We understand they intend to store it until a decision can be made about its future.

“We have made enquiries of the maritime section of the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), who advise that the material is the property of the ship’s owner until the wreck becomes historic at more than 75 years old.

"The OEH has requested that details of the wreck site be recorded in a state register and we have pa