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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
BROWSE BY STATE & NAME
Explore the wreck directory
560 wreck-related recordsRecorded information, not live availability
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.
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
Lydia
Timbers of an 1825 barque that her master ran onto East Beach in 1847 to save her cargo – one of three shore-accessible wrecks…
WreckPerth
Lygnern & Samuel Plimsoll Wrecks
Two historic ships on one site at the harbour mouth: the Swedish steamer Lygnern (1928) with the cut-up clipper Samuel Plimsoll…
WreckSydney Northern Beaches
M24 Japanese midget submarine (protected zone – no diving)
The midget submarine that torpedoed HMAS Kuttabul in 1942, found by recreational divers in 2006 off Bungan Head at 55 m – a…
WreckAlbany & Great Southern
Mandalay Wreck (Mandalay Beach, Walpole)
An occasionally exposed 1911 Norwegian barque wreck on a wild Walpole beach – a heritage walk, not a dive.
Details need confirmationWreckDarwin Harbour
Mandorah Queen
A Cyclone Tracy ferry lost with three crew, now almost buried in sand but still a magnet for big fish.
WreckBroome & Kimberley
Manfred Wreck (Lacepede Islands)
An 1879 guano-era barque visible at low tide.
Details need confirmationWreckDarwin Offshore & Artificial Reefs
Marchart 3
The 32 m ex-research vessel and prawn trawler that founded the Fenton Patches reef field in 1988 – upright, intact and heavily…
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Marie Gabrielle
Chain mound, iron knees and mast hoops of an 1869 tea clipper in a metre or two of water, with her anchors standing on Wreck…
WreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Marietta Dal Wreck
Tractors and machinery from a 1950 wreck scattered around a 50 m propeller shaft in only 13 m.
WreckJervis Bay
Marina Star
A modern trawler wreck at 60 m off Point Perpendicular with instruments still visible inside.
Details need confirmationWreckHervey Bay & K'gari
Marloo Wreck (K'gari)
Buried remains of a steamer beached in 1914 after striking Sandy Cape Shoal – a K'gari maritime-history site, seldom visible.
Details need confirmationWreckGeographe Bay & Busselton
Mary Wreck (Lockeville Jetty)
The mostly buried remains of an 1879 schooner beside the old Lockeville Jetty piles.
Details need confirmationWreckTasmania North-East
Mayfield (Swan Island wreck)
The largest sailing ship wrecked in Tasmania - a 2285-ton steel four-master off Swan Island.
Details need confirmationWreckGeraldton & Abrolhos Islands
Mayhill Wreck (Geraldton)
A 100 m spread of iron wreckage from an 1895 loss, 400 m off the Geraldton port entrance.
Details need confirmationWreckDarwin Harbour
Medkhanun 3
A modern confiscated fishing boat lying intact on its side, with holds and wheelhouse visible - the shallowest of the complex.
WreckDarwin Offshore & Artificial Reefs
Merindah Pearl
A 25 m ex-pearling vessel prepared by DSAC volunteers and scuttled in 2013 at the northern end of the Fenton wreck cluster.
Shore/Rock PlatformSydney Harbour
Middle Head (Cobblers Beach and Obelisk Beach)
Unvisited boulder reef, sponge gardens and a small wreck around a national-park headland between the two harbours, reached from…
ReefLord Howe Island
Middleton Reef
Remote southernmost coral reef with Galapagos sharks and black cod, and the hulk of the Runic on the reef flat.
WreckRottnest Island
Mira Flores Wreck
Intact stern of an 1886 German barque in a sand hole on Horseshoe Reef, with hull sections scattered through kelp.
WreckRottnest Island
Miwok II Barge
A seldom-visited 1983 crane barge used for SAS demolition training, in clear 11 m water off Bickley Point.
Aircraft WreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Mohawk and King Air Aircraft (Cochrane Artificial Reef)
Two ex-military Mohawk aircraft and a King Air on sand at 16-18 m – compact, photogenic plane wrecks just off Bargara.
Details need confirmationGo 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 ↗