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
WreckMackay
SS Llewellyn Wreck
An intact, soft-coral-covered 1884 government steamer lost with all 13 aboard in 1919 and found only in 1997 – untouched,…
WreckEden & Green Cape
SS Ly-ee-Moon
Wreckage of one of NSW's worst shipwrecks, lying below the Green Cape lighthouse it struck in 1886.
WreckRottnest Island
SS Macedon Wreck
The most intact iron wreck at Rottnest: a 63 m 1883 steamer upright on the reef with ribs, gunwales and boiler in 3-7 m, beside…
WreckYorke Peninsula
SS MacIntyre Wreck
A converted river barge turned coastal steamer, lost in 1927 a short swim from the SS Australian – an easy two-wreck dive.
WreckPort Stephens
SS Macleay wreck
A 1911 collier wreck at 42 m with an unusually well-preserved engine and boiler, and a strong resident mulloway and morwong…
WreckHobart & Derwent
SS Macquarie (Betsey Island)
Intact 1908 Hell's Gates dredge, anemone-covered, the easiest-to-navigate wreck in the Betsey Island graveyard.
Details need confirmationWreckPort Phillip Heads
SS Malaita
A 1893 island trader with a chequered life, lying at 65 m – one of the deep Graveyard set dived only by trimix and rebreather…
WreckYorke Peninsula
SS Marion Wreck
An 1854 Glasgow-built steamer wrecked in 1862 that gave Marion Bay its name, lying in two broken sections below the Innes cliffs.
WreckDarwin Harbour
SS Mauna Loa
Holds still full of 1942 war cargo - trucks, Bren carriers, a Harley-Davidson and ammunition.
WreckNingaloo – Exmouth
SS Mildura Wreck
A 1907 cattle steamer with boilers still breaking the surface off the tip of North West Cape.
WreckPort Phillip Heads
SS Milora
The largest wreck in the Graveyard – a 101 m collier standing 10–12 m off the sand with intact bow, standing cabin structure and…
WreckSydney South & Botany Bay
SS Minmi wreck (Cape Banks)
The stern of a 75 m collier that broke her back on Cape Banks in fog in 1937, with wreckage scattered through Cruwee Cove.
WreckTownsville & Magnetic Island
SS Moltke Wreck (Geoffrey Bay)
Coral-encrusted 1870 iron barque scuttled as a breakwater, alive with sweetlips, batfish and fusiliers, 100 m from an easy ramp…
WreckHobart & Derwent
SS Musgrave (Betsey Island)
The graveyard's deepest wreck – an anemone-encrusted 1883 stern with its steering quadrant at 34 m.
Details need confirmationWreckSydney Northern Beaches
SS Myola wreck
A 1919 collier with two big boilers, an upright stern and a shattered propeller, in the clearest water of any Sydney wreck.
WreckEden & Green Cape
SS New Guinea
Shallow wreck with keel, hull sections, cargo propeller blades and lead ingots below the Green Cape cliffs.
WreckTasman Peninsula
SS Nord
Intact 88 m steamer upright at 42 m, cloaked in colour and fish; rated among Australia's best wreck dives.
WreckUlladulla
SS Northern Firth
Swim through a giant intact boiler from a 1932 steamer wrecked on Brush Island.
WreckPort Stephens
SS Oakland wreck
A 1903 collier wreck at 27 m valued for the large baitfish schools and reef fish it now shelters.
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
SS Orungal
A 119 m interstate liner wrecked on Formby Reef in 1940 and picked over by Whelan the Wrecker – two Scotch boilers awash at low…
WreckNewcastle & Lake Macquarie
SS Osprey wreck
An intact 1885 steamer sitting upright in 42 m, where Port Jackson sharks gather to breed each winter.
WreckYorke Peninsula
SS Pareora Wreck
Boiler, engine, anchor and windlass of a 1919 zinc-laden steamer that took 11 lives, lying in a reef gully on remote Althorpe…
WreckCentral Coast
SS Paterson wreck (Cabbage Tree Bay area)
An easily accessible 1951 wooden-steamer wreck close to the Norah Head boat ramp, in a shallow 8-10 m.
Details need confirmationWreckMargaret River & Augusta
SS Pericles Wreck
Three boilers and 10 m-high engines of a 152 m Edwardian liner in 35 m off Cape Leeuwin - all 413 aboard survived.
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 ↗