AUSTRALIA BELOW THE SURFACE
Every wreck has a story.
Historic ships, former naval vessels and scattered remains. Explore Australia’s wreck-diving places—and learn how to read the story behind the steel.
AI illustration of a fictional wreck. Not a photograph, site plan or equipment demonstration.
HISTORY. HABITAT. EXPLORATION.
Find the wreck.
Understand the dive.
A wreck’s name and depth are only the beginning. Its history, condition, access rules and the route you intend to dive all matter. Use this section to discover places, compare records and ask better questions of local operators.
Our directory includes wreck remains and reef sites associated with wrecks. Inclusion does not mean a site is currently open, regularly visited or suitable for every diver.
10 CHAPTERS • ORIGINAL EXPLANATIONS
Start with the learning guide
Understand the wreck you are looking at
Distinguish a vessel’s history from the kind of dive it offers.
Read depth, access and location correctly
Turn a directory entry into questions that can be verified.
Choose a first wreck for the experience you have
Compare the proposed trip, not a list of famous names.
Know the boundary between outside and inside
Recognise when the environment changes the training question.
Account for conditions and a changing structure
Read current notices before relying on old descriptions.
Connect training and equipment to the intended dive
Ask what a course teaches before choosing equipment or a certification.
Treat wrecks as heritage, not souvenirs
Find the applicable site rules and leave the evidence in place.
Photograph the wreck without changing the dive
Build a visual story from the route you have already agreed.
Build a booking that can survive a change of plan
Resolve practical questions before committing travel time and money.
Turn the dive into a better understanding of the wreck
Record observations that can improve your next visit and the directory.
A FEW STARTING POINTS
Wrecks to research
Explore these records for history, maps and local context. Recorded depths and operator links need confirmation for your actual trip; this is not a ranking or a list of guaranteed departures.
WreckSunshine Coast
Ex-HMAS Brisbane
Queensland's great destroyer wreck – 133 m, upright, funnels 3 m below the surface and 1000+ species – now with a…
WreckFleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor
Ex-HMAS Hobart
A 133 m guided missile destroyer sitting upright in 30 m with the superstructure from 5 m, and the only prepared naval wreck in…
WreckGeographe Bay & Busselton
HMAS Swan Wreck
A 113 m warship upright in 31 m with the crow's nest at 8 m and cut-outs for safe penetration - Australia's first purpose-sunk…
WreckTownsville & Magnetic Island
SS Yongala
A 109 m passenger steamer lost with all 122 aboard in the 1911 cyclone, lying almost intact on its side and swarmed by giant…
Artificial ReefPort Phillip Heads
ex-HMAS Canberra
A 138 m guided-missile frigate scuttled in 2009 and sitting almost upright in 28–32 m with the bridge at 8 m – bridge, galley,…
WreckHervey Bay & K'gari
ex-HMAS Tobruk
Australia's largest military dive wreck – a 127 m landing ship lying on her side, with the shallowest point at 11 m for Open…
BROWSE BY STATE & NAME
Explore the wreck directory
560 wreck-related recordsRecorded information, not live availability
WreckRottnest Island
Kiryo Maru I Wreck
Scattered remains of a 1984 Japanese tuna longliner in the white water beside Cathedral Rocks.
WreckKangaroo Island
Kona Wreck (Antechamber Bay)
Forecastle and bows of a 1917 four-masted schooner in 2 m – a snorkelable piece of the shipwreck trail.
WreckNewcastle & Lake Macquarie
LVT-4A amphibious tank (Stockton Beach)
An upright WWII 'Water Buffalo' amphibious tank in 33 m off Stockton Beach, lost in a 1954 exercise.
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
La Bella
Warrnambool's best wreck: a 5 m high bow with anchors and bowsprit, donkey engine and winches on a kelp-covered barquentine in 13…
WreckMission Beach & Cassowary Coast
Lady Bowen wreck
An 1894 iron sailing ship, once a paddle steamer, sitting upright in 34 m and home to big groupers – the Cassowary Coast's…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Lady Cheryl
A 27 m steel trawler lost in 2012 on the reef inside Point Nepean – upright, intact, wheelhouse in place and a huge starboard…
WreckRottnest Island
Lady Elizabeth Wreck
Substantial remains of an 1878 composite barque on clean sand in calm, clear water behind Dyer Island, with caves nearby.
WreckWhyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf
Lady Kinnaird Wreck
An 1880 iron barque with plating, chain, masts, winches and an anchor in 6 m, reached by a coastal walk from Port Neill.
WreckAlbany & Great Southern
Lady Lyttleton Wreck (Emu Point Channel)
Buried hull, windlass and whaling trypots of an 1867 barque, 15 m off Emu Point.
WreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Lady Norman (Curtin Artificial Reef)
Curtin's largest wreck, a 40 m coastal trader sitting apart on the western edge of the reef.
Details need confirmationWreckEden & Green Cape
Lanercost
Scattered remains of an 1872 timber barque, identified by an 1864 US cent, in two gullies near Mowarry Point.
WreckEsperance & Recherche Archipelago
Lapwing Wreck (Long Island)
A small, completely intact fishing boat in 32 m, smothered in soft coral and sponges.
Details need confirmationWreckWhyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf
Leeton Tug Wreck
A small scuttled tug in 22 m in the Whyalla shipping channel – a slack-water, fish-rich challenge.
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Leeuwin
An 1876 Western District coastal steamer turned coal hulk, scuttled in 1934 and lying in 62 m near the Hygeia – one of the…
Details need confirmationWreckGeographe Bay & Busselton
Lena Wreck
A 55 m toothfish poacher captured by the Navy, now an upright artificial reef at an easy 8-18 m with open holds and engine room.
WreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Light Ships (Cochrane Artificial Reef)
Two compact, round-hulled light ships in 18 m – easy to circle and full of fish.
Details need confirmationWreckPort Phillip Heads
Light of the Age
An 1855 Boston-built gold-rush clipper wrecked by a drunken captain in 1868, her cargo sealed under a natural cement crust on the…
ReefCoral Sea
Lihou Reef
The Coral Sea's largest atoll – a vast, rarely visited lagoon with historic wrecks and untouched reef.
Details need confirmationWreckFlinders Island & Furneaux Group
Litherland (Clarke Island)
Trypots of a whaling ship lost at Clarke Island in 1853.
Details need confirmationWreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Loch Ard
Victoria's most famous shipwreck: bow, plating with deadeyes, railway iron and cargo under the cliffs of Mutton Bird Island,…
WreckTasmania North-East
Loch Finlas (Fosters Island Reef)
Rated 9/10: a relatively intact 1885 iron ship with a canted bow and counter stern at 19-24 m.
Details need confirmationWreckKing Island
Loch Leven
Extensive flattened ironwork of an 1871 wool clipper, reachable from shore near Cape Wickham.
WreckKangaroo Island
Loch Vennachar Wreck
The scattered iron of a Loch Line clipper that vanished with all hands in 1905, beneath the cliffs at West Bay.
WreckTurquoise Coast
Lubra Wreck (Jurien Bay)
The engine block and stern of an 1898 coastal steamer on a reef between Jurien Bay's islands.
Go deeper into the history
Use heritage records to investigate a vessel’s identity and story, then check site managers and operators separately for present-day access.
DCCEEW — Underwater cultural heritage
Australian underwater heritage framework and research resources.
Open primary source ↗WA Museum — Maritime Archaeology Databases
Researching ship identities, archaeological records and artefacts.
Open primary source ↗DCCEEW — Underwater heritage protected zones
Site-specific protected zones and activities requiring permission.
Open primary source ↗