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
69 wreck-related recordsRecorded information, not live availability
WreckHeron Island & Capricorn Group
HMCS Protector Wreck (Heron Island)
An 1884 colonial gunboat with Boxer Rebellion and WWI service, now a harbour breakwater and fish haven snorkelled at high tide.
WreckFar Northern Reef & Torres Strait
HMS Pandora wreck
The 1791 wreck of the Bounty-hunting frigate HMS Pandora – a permit-only historic shipwreck at 30–33 m.
Artificial ReefBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Harry Atkinson Artificial Reef
One of Australia's oldest artificial reefs (1975), with the 24 m Tiwi Pearl scuttled in 2010 – but diving is currently prohibited.
Aircraft WreckFar Northern Reef & Torres Strait
Horn Island WWII sites
Scattered B-17 bomber debris in the tidal shallows off a WWII airfield – history rather than scenery.
Details need confirmationWreckTownsville & Magnetic Island
Horseshoe Bay Wrecks (Magnetic Island)
Two shallow modern wrecks – a 40 m burnt-out floating-restaurant ketch and a prawn trawler – in the island's most sheltered bay…
Details need confirmationReefSwain Reefs
Horseshoe Reef (Swain Reefs)
The Swains' most varied reef: a big sheltered lagoon, deep walls to 35 m and a wreck site.
Details need confirmationWreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Hustler 3 Wreck
A small, coral-covered trawler wreck at 22 m that draws schools of sweetlips and snapper.
Details need confirmationAircraft WreckFar Northern Reef & Torres Strait
Japanese Zero wreck (Hammond Island)
A 1942 Japanese Zero fighter in 4 m off Hammond Island – rare WWII aviation history in the shallows.
Details need confirmationWreckHervey Bay & K'gari
K'gari Wreck (Roy Rufus Artificial Reef)
The broken, heavily encrusted hull of the 1897 K'gari at 16 m on Hervey Bay's historic artificial reef.
Details need confirmationWreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Karma Wreck
An intact, upright 42 m barge in 27 m with an open hold, crane and two-level bridge, guarded by giant estuary cod and schools of…
WreckMission Beach & Cassowary Coast
Lady Bowen wreck
An 1894 iron sailing ship, once a paddle steamer, sitting upright in 34 m and home to big groupers – the Cassowary Coast's…
WreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Lady Norman (Curtin Artificial Reef)
Curtin's largest wreck, a 40 m coastal trader sitting apart on the western edge of the reef.
Details need confirmationWreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Light Ships (Cochrane Artificial Reef)
Two compact, round-hulled light ships in 18 m – easy to circle and full of fish.
Details need confirmationWreckMackay
MV Cremer Wreck (St Bees Island)
Two 8 m engines and a propeller shaft from a 1943 wartime grounding, in shallow water off Grimston Point.
WreckTownsville & Magnetic Island
MV Reef Princess Wreck (Wheeler Reef)
Scant remains of the Reef Princess, a timber dive boat lost at Wheeler Reef in a 1981 storm – a footnote to Townsville dive…
Details need confirmationWreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Marietta Dal Wreck
Tractors and machinery from a 1950 wreck scattered around a 50 m propeller shaft in only 13 m.
WreckHervey Bay & K'gari
Marloo Wreck (K'gari)
Buried remains of a steamer beached in 1914 after striking Sandy Cape Shoal – a K'gari maritime-history site, seldom visible.
Details need confirmationAircraft WreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Mohawk and King Air Aircraft (Cochrane Artificial Reef)
Two ex-military Mohawk aircraft and a King Air on sand at 16-18 m – compact, photogenic plane wrecks just off Bargara.
Details need confirmationWreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Nautilus Wreck (Bustard Head)
An 1880 iron hopper barge, intact and penetrable in 27 m, with fish life local divers compare to the Yongala.
ReefBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Peel Island – Horseshoe Bay
Shallow fringing reefs and the beached 1883 bucket dredge Platypus at a historic island anchorage.
WreckTownsville & Magnetic Island
Platypus Dredge Wreck (Arthur Bay)
Coral-encrusted steam boilers of an early Townsville harbour dredge in a quiet rocky cove, swarmed by angelfish and sergeant…
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.
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 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 ↗