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
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 confirmationWreckPort Phillip Heads
SS Buninyong
Second-largest wreck in the Graveyard – intact bridge with an exhaust stack across it and three boilers in 50–54 m; a trimix…
WreckNewcastle & Lake Macquarie
SS Byron wreck (Redhead)
An undived-since-1996 timber wreck in 40 m off Redhead - an exploration target for technical divers.
Details need confirmationWreckForster & Seal Rocks
SS Catterthun wreck
An 1895 gold-carrying steamer wrecked with 54 lives lost near Seal Rocks — now a deep technical wreck dive at 55-60 m, with an…
WreckSydney Harbour
SS Centennial wreck (Taylors Bay)
The mussel-covered mound of an 1889 collision victim in a sheltered Mosman bay, 20 minutes of ribs, plates and history at 13 m.
WreckPort Phillip Heads
SS Cheviot
Scattered iron of the coastal steamer whose 1887 wreck killed 34 people – the deadliest loss at the Heads – in 1–7 m of…
WreckWollongong & Kiama
SS Cities Service Boston
Boilers and engine remains of a 146 m US tanker wrecked in 1943, with a dramatic rescue story commemorated on the headland.
WreckMelbourne & Port Phillip Bay
SS City of Launceston
An 1863 Bass Strait steamer sunk in an 1865 collision and lying complete from keel to deck in 21 m of silt with the other ship's…
WreckEden & Green Cape
SS City of Sydney
Engine, prop shaft and upturned stern with broken propeller of an 1854 steamer, in a wild corner of the coast.
WreckYorke Peninsula
SS Clan Ranald Wreck
The only turret ship lost in Australian waters, lying upside down in 18-21 m inside an aquatic reserve – a haunting and fish-rich…
WreckCentral Coast
SS Commonwealth wreck (Foggy Reef)
A wooden steamer's boilers and engines near Foggy Reef - the wreck whose search led to the discovery of Foggy Cave.
WreckPort Phillip Heads
SS Coogee
Photogenic stern with steering quadrant under two decks, twin boilers you can swim between, and a bow on its side with railings…
WreckHeron Island & Capricorn Group
SS Cooma Wreck (North Reef)
A 1926 passenger steamer's boilers, shaft and triple-expansion engine in 5 m on North Reef.
WreckShoalhaven Coast
SS Corangamite
The last traces – ballast blocks and scattered remains – of a large 1886 passenger steamer wrecked in fog.
Details need confirmationWreckPort Phillip Heads
SS Courier
Planked foredeck 7 m proud of the sand and the most colourful sponge growth in the Graveyard; two boilers in line with crayfish…
WreckNewcastle & Lake Macquarie
SS Davenport wreck (Stockton)
A WWII munitions ship towed out of Newcastle Harbour while ablaze in 1943, with fire-fused machinery in only 12 m.
WreckSydney Northern Beaches
SS Dee Why (ferry) wreck
Sydney's largest scuttled ferry, upright in 48 m with four intact boilers and a swim-through boiler room; the flagship of the…
WreckTasmania West Coast
SS Devon (Hells Gates)
An 1894 steamer's stern and steering gear breaking the surface behind the Hells Gates breakwater.
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 ↗