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
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Schomberg
Railway girders, iron tanks and cemented fittings of Bully Forbes's 'perfect clipper', lost on her maiden voyage in 1855 – one of…
WreckGold Coast
Scottish Prince Wreck
An 1887 Glasgow barque whose whisky cargo was looted by locals, now wrapped in enormous schools of yellowtail scad in only 11 m.
WreckPerth
Sepia Wreck
An 1898 iron barque whose stern hold still holds hundreds of neatly stacked bottles and barrels.
WreckLady Elliot Island
Severance Wreck (Lady Elliot Island)
A coral-encrusted 16 m yacht on sand at 21 m, home to sweetlips and grouper, with mantas passing overhead.
WreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Shannon II Wreck
An 18.6 m fibreglass trawler lost in 2004 near the Barcoola – rarely dived and poorly documented.
Details need confirmationWreckRottnest Island
Shark Hopper Barge (Henrietta Rocks)
A 1939 hopper barge sitting partly out of the water a few strokes from the beach - an easy and photogenic wreck snorkel.
Pinnacle/BommieCairns
Shark Mountain (Norman Reef)
A coral mountain range with resident grey reef sharks and a small fishing-boat wreck at 14 m.
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Sierra Nevada
A 71 m iron sailing ship driven onto the Portsea back beach reef in 1900 with the loss of 23 of her 28 crew – plate, framing,…
WreckMackay
Singapore Wreck (Keswick Island)
Large, coral-covered remains of an 1877 steamer at Singapore Rock in a green zone off Keswick Island.
Pinnacle/BommieEast Arnhem Land & Gove
Sir Roderick Rocks
Spectacular granite rocks with caves and swim-throughs and a deep, intact trawler wreck – Gove's most remote dive.
Details need confirmationWreckPort Phillip Heads
Sir William McPherson
A 1912 Dutch-built steam dredge with stern boilers you can swim between, standing engine exhausts, surviving timber decking and a…
Pinnacle/BommieBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Smiths Rock
Granite pinnacles with swim-throughs and caverns on the rock that sank the Aarhus, St Paul and Marietta Dal.
WreckCocos (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…
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Socrates
Timbers of an 1821 whaling barque driven onto East Beach in 1843 – the oldest of Port Fairy's three shore wrecks and one of the…
WreckDarwin Harbour
Song Saigon
An upright 40 m steel refugee boat with open holds, good coral and strong fish life, beside two other wrecks.
WreckYorke Peninsula
Songvaar Wreck
The Wardang trail's largest wreck: an 1884 iron ship sunk on her own anchor in 1912, with the anchor still piercing the hull and…
Shore/Rock PlatformSydney South & Botany Bay
South Maroubra
Belbowrie wreckage and old bottles among a boulder maze with more than fifty fish species, including Sydney's biggest dusky…
WreckCoffs Harbour & Solitary Islands
South Solitary Island – Steam Boiler
A heavily overgrown historic steam boiler, now effectively a small artificial reef near South Solitary Island.
Details need confirmationWreckGeraldton & Abrolhos Islands
South Tomi Wreck
A toothfish poacher caught after a 6,000 km naval chase, now an upright 57 m wreck with engine-room access in 25 m.
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Speculant
Iron ribs and plating of a 1911 barquentine in the surge gutters directly below the Great Ocean Road at Cape Patton – a heritage…
WreckPhillip Island & Western Port
Speke
The second-largest full-rigged ship ever built, wrecked in 1906 – her bow standing on the rocks at Watt Point and the eroded hull…
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…
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 ↗