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
WreckPort Phillip Heads
RMS Australia
The boilers, shafts and plating of a 142 m P&O mail steamer that struck Corsair Rock in 1904, strewn over 300 m of reef in 3–8 m…
WreckPerth
RMS Orizaba Wreck
The boilers, engine and steering gear of a 140 m Orient liner wrecked in 1905, swarming with fish on shallow Five Fathom Bank.
WreckFar Northern Reef & Torres Strait
RMS Quetta wreck
A coral-encrusted 1890 royal mail steamer teeming with fish, often compared with the Yongala – dived only at slack water.
WreckNingaloo – Coral Bay
Rapid
One of WA's oldest wrecks, once carpeted with Spanish silver coins.
WreckRottnest Island
Raven Wreck
A hunt through kelp for the ballast stones and sheathing of an 1891 barque lost under a drunken skipper.
Artificial ReefDarwin Offshore & Artificial Reefs
Rick Mills Artificial Reef
Plant equipment, 1,500 tonnes of concrete culverts and five shipping containers in 15 m, with the Van Bruggen yacht wreck nearby.
Artificial ReefPerth
Rockingham Wreck Trail
Perth's most-dived shore site: two light aircraft, small scuttled boats and steel structures joined by rope lines in 10–17 m,…
Aircraft WreckBroome & Kimberley
Roebuck Bay Flying Boat Wrecks (deep-water Catalinas)
WWII Catalina flying boats sunk in the 1942 Broome raid, with engines and turret still recognisable.
WreckRottnest Island
Rottnest Ships' Graveyard
Dozens of deliberately scuttled vessels, mostly unseen, in 46-200 m - Perth's frontier for technical wreck exploration.
WreckRottnest Island
Rottnest Wreck Trail
Thirteen historic wrecks linked by plaques and plinths, with two easy snorkel wrecks and a land trail from the museum to Bathurst…
Artificial ReefHervey Bay & K'gari
Roy Rufus Artificial Reef
Hervey Bay's signature dive: historic hulls, barges and car bodies scattered over about 3 km² off Big Woody Island, three ships…
WreckNorth Stradbroke Island
Rufus King Wreck
The broken stern of a 1942 Liberty ship that grounded carrying bombers and aviation fuel for the Pacific war.
Details need confirmationWreckLord Howe Island
Runic wreck (Middleton Reef)
The fire-blackened hulk of a 13,500-ton ship, landmark of Middleton Reef since 1961.
Details need confirmationWreckCocos (Keeling) Islands
SMS Emden wreck site
Propellers, shafts, engine parts and shells of the WWI raider SMS Emden, beached after the 1914 Battle of Cocos – one of the most…
WreckNewcastle & Lake Macquarie
SS Advance wreck (Catherine Hill Bay)
An upright, relatively intact 1908 tug with boiler, galley stove and side plating in place, alone on sand off Catherine Hill Bay.
WreckPort Phillip Heads
SS Alert
An upright, largely intact 1877 iron steamer in 75 m, lost with 15 lives in 1893 and found by Southern Ocean Exploration in 2007;…
WreckSydney South & Botany Bay
SS Annie M. Miller wreck
Complete 1928 collier on her side at 43–46 m with engine, boiler, funnel and masts close to the Heads, sheltered from the strong…
WreckYorke Peninsula
SS Australian Wreck
A flattened but extensive 1879 Dundee-built steam coaster with a detached boiler and prolific fish, lying next to the MacIntyre.
WreckPortland & the West
SS Barwon & Horseshoe Reef, Cape Bridgewater
Boiler and plating of an 1871 coastal steamer lost in fog, beside a kelp-covered snorkel reef in the calmest water on Cape…
WreckSydney Northern Beaches
SS Birchgrove Park wreck
The most intact wreck off Sydney – a 1930 collier lost in a 1956 southerly buster, with enterable bridge and forecastle in 51 m.
WreckWollongong & Kiama
SS Bombo
Upturned 46 m collier broken open by storms, with an exposed triple-expansion engine, boiler and a separated upright stern…
WreckNewcastle & Lake Macquarie
SS Bonnie Dundee wreck
A compact two-part 1879 steamer wreck off Swansea with an exposed boiler, engine, rudder and propeller - and dense fish schools.
WreckDarwin Offshore & Artificial Reefs
SS Brisbane
The NT's largest surviving colonial wreck: an 85 m 1881 steamer whose boilers break the surface at low springs while the intact…
WreckKent Group
SS Bulli (Kent Group)
A reasonably intact 1877 iron steamer, 5 m proud of the sand in Bass Strait's clear water.
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 ↗