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
WreckDarwin 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 confirmationWreckYorke Peninsula
Monarch Wreck
Scattered timbers of an 1871 wooden schooner in 2 m on Wardang Island's southern shore – a snorkel between deeper wreck dives.
WreckKangaroo Island
Montebello Wreck
The flattened remains of a 1906 French steel barque on KI's wild south coast.
Details need confirmationWreckYorke Peninsula
Moorara Wreck
The most complete Murray River barge wreck in South Australia – wooden hull, two engines and deckhouse in 3-4 m, full of fish.
WreckYorke Peninsula
Mylor Star Wreck
The youngest wreck on the Investigator Strait trail, a 1982 steel fishing boat half-buried under Althorpe Island's exposed…
WreckDarwin Harbour
NR Diemen
Upright, intact Cyclone Tracy trawler in 12 m with some of the harbour's best fish life - Darwin's best beginner wreck.
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Napier
The scattered frames of the steamer that sank while salvaging the Loch Ard, on the sheltered Port Campbell Bay shore dive – a…
WreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Nautilus Wreck (Bustard Head)
An 1880 iron hopper barge, intact and penetrable in 27 m, with fish life local divers compare to the Yongala.
ReefPort Phillip Heads
Nepean Bay
Sheltered, clear 1–12 m bay inside Point Nepean with scattered reef, kelp, recovering fish life and the debris of two centuries…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Nepean Reef (Time and Campbell wrecks)
The tip-of-Nepean reef with the two great boilers of the steamer Time (1949) and the remains of the whaler Campbell (1914), in…
WreckKing Island
Netherby
The shallow remains of an 1866 emigrant ship from which all 450-plus aboard survived.
WreckPortland & the West
New Zealander & Lighthouse Reef, Nuns Beach
The perfect outline of an 1853 immigrant ship burnt at Whalers Bluff, in 3 m at the end of Nuns Beach – Portland's most…
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Newfield
Frames, plating and anchors of an 1892 barque in shallow surge gutters a kilometre east of Peterborough – the third of the town's…
WreckPilbara & Dampier
No. 20 McDermott Barge
A giant cyclone-wrecked derrick barge in shallow water.
WreckAdelaide Metro
Norma Wreck
The dynamited remains of an 1893 Glasgow-built four-masted barque sunk in a collision in 1907, now a fish-rich heritage trail…
Shore/Rock PlatformLord Howe Island
North Bay
Secluded lagoon bay with coral, turtles and a 1965 tuna-boat wreck, reached only on foot or by boat.
WreckPerth
North Mole & North Mole Barge
An upright, partly penetrable hopper barge in 8 m, reached by a pole trail from the North Mole, and the main sheltered shore…
Cave/CavernCoffs Harbour & Solitary Islands
North Solitary Island – Elbow Cave
An easy, current-free swim-through cave surrounded by extraordinarily dense anemone beds and a 1980s trawler wreck, allowing…
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 ↗