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
WreckSydney Northern Beaches
SS Duckenfield wreck
Engine, boilers, anchors and copper ingots of an 1889 collier salvaged with explosives, spread across the reef edge at 21–23 m.
WreckMerimbula
SS Empire Gladstone
The largest remaining wreck in NSW, a 137 m wartime freighter spread across 100 m of shallow reef, with engine, boilers, flywheel…
WreckTasmania North & North-West
SS Esk (Hebe Reef)
Boiler, engine and propeller of an 1886 iron steamer in 5 m, beside a second wreck.
Details need confirmationWreckWilsons Promontory
SS Federal
A collier lost with all hands in a 1901 gale and found by CSIRO sonar in 2019, lying broken in 115 m off Cape Conran – a…
WreckYorke Peninsula
SS Ferret Wreck
The boiler of a once-stolen 'pirate' steamer lying beside the Ethel on a wild Innes beach.
WreckNingaloo – Coral Bay
SS Fin
A whale chaser's boiler and engine above water beside a collapsed lighthouse.
WreckCoral Sea
SS Francis Preston Blair wreck (Saumarez Reef)
The collapsed remains of a Second World War Liberty ship on a remote Coral Sea reef edge.
WreckCentral Coast
SS Galava wreck
A deep sixty-miler collier with an intact bow and some of the best fish life of any Central Coast wreck.
WreckSydney South & Botany Bay
SS Goolgwai wreck (Long Bay)
Last resting place of a Canadian-built WWI minesweeper that served as HMAS Goolgwai in WWII; a search dive through scattered iron…
WreckTownsville & Magnetic Island
SS Gothenburg Wreck (Old Reef)
Boilers, oscillating engines and iron frames of the Gothenburg, lost in 1875 with about 102 lives – one of Australia's worst…
WreckWilsons Promontory
SS Gulf of Carpentaria
An unsalvaged 1881 cargo liner lying collapsed at the foot of the uncharted pinnacle that sank her in 1885, in 48–50 m of…
WreckSydney South & Botany Bay
SS Hilda wreck (Cape Baily)
Engine, propeller, winch and anchors of an 1879 collier in 21–27 m just off Cape Baily Lighthouse – an easy, no-deco historic…
WreckYorke Peninsula
SS Investigator Wreck
Anchor and propeller of an 1882 steamer lying in just 3-4 m – ideal for snorkellers and new divers on the Wardang trail.
WreckNewcastle & Lake Macquarie
SS Irresistible wreck
An upright 1883 steam tug with a big boiler, scuttled in 1931 in Stockton Bight - the shallowest of Newcastle's scuttled tugs.
WreckMelbourne & Port Phillip Bay
SS Kakariki
Salvaged remains of a 1926 steamer lost in the port of Melbourne's worst collision (1937, five dead), dumped off Williamstown in…
WreckKent Group
SS Karitane (Squally Cove)
A 1921 copper-carrying steamer beached on Deal Island, salvaged by the legendary 'Johnno' Johnson.
Details need confirmationWreckTasmania West Coast
SS Kawatiri (Hells Gates)
A tragic 1907 wreck on the shoal that bears its name, periodically uncovered by shifting sand.
Details need confirmationWreckSydney South & Botany Bay
SS Kelloe wreck
Upright 1866 collier at 50 m with a tall boiler, two huge anchors and a history of sunfish, whale and dolphin encounters.
WreckCentral Coast
SS Kiama wreck
A 1951 sixty-miler collier with a prominent boiler and engine lying to port, in 45-47 m off The Entrance.
WreckNarooma & Montague Island
SS Lady Darling
An intact stern with upright engine and boiler, covered in jewel anemones – one of the best wreck dives in NSW.
WreckHobart & Derwent
SS Lake Illawarra
Tasmania's largest shipwreck lying beneath the Tasman Bridge span it brought down in 1975 – a dark, historically weighty expert…
WreckBruny Island & D'Entrecasteaux Channel
SS Laura Hulk (Little Peppermint Bay)
Rusting hulk of an old Channel river steamer, bow above water, in Little Peppermint Bay.
Details need confirmationWreckHobart & Derwent
SS Leura (Betsey Island)
The graveyard's oldest steamer (1878), broken up around two boilers, with the best fish life of the site.
Details need confirmationWreckHobart & Derwent
SS Lintrose
Twin propellers and engine of a Scottish-built river steamer lying in 2-5 m beside the Iron Pot.
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 ↗