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
560 wreck-related recordsRecorded information, not live availability
WreckNingaloo – Coral Bay
Stefano
An 1875 wreck with one of WA's most remarkable survival stories.
Jetty/PierYorke Peninsula
Stenhouse Bay Jetty
Clear-water jetty with basket stars and gorgonians rarely seen elsewhere on the peninsula, an upturned Ford Telstar and the…
IslandHuon & Far South
Sterile Island (Wallace wreck)
Barren reef rock with the cannon and ironwork of the 1835 ship Wallace.
Details need confirmationWreckNewcastle & Lake Macquarie
Stockton Breakwall wrecks
Several historic wrecks piled along the Stockton breakwall, including the 1866 Cawarra disaster, in water under 8 m.
Artificial ReefDarwin Harbour
Stokes Hill Wharf Artificial Reef
A shallow fish-attracting reef under Darwin's busiest fishing platform, next to the remnants of the 1942 Neptuna.
WreckPerth
Stragglers Dredge
The stripped hull, rudder post and steering quadrant of a dredge that helped build Fremantle Harbour, next to reef with caves and…
WreckPerth
Stragglers Unidentified Dredge
An upright, sponge-covered bucket dredge on clean sand in 19 m, often with good visibility.
WreckNewcastle & Lake Macquarie
Swansea Coal Loader / SS Wallarah remains
A scattered but historically rich mix of 1889 coal-loader ruins and the 1914-wrecked SS Wallarah, accessible from the beach.
WreckFlinders Island & Furneaux Group
Sydney Cove (Preservation Island)
One of Australia's oldest shipwrecks (1797), whose survivors' ordeal opened Bass Strait to sealing.
WreckSydney South & Botany Bay
TSS Belbowrie wreck (South Maroubra)
Scattered iron and brass from a 1911 timber steamer wrecked in a southerly gale in 1939, on the same point as the Tekapo.
WreckPhillip Island & Western Port
TSS Coramba
A Western District coastal steamer lost with all 17 hands in a 1934 storm, found by Southern Ocean Exploration in 2011 lying…
WreckSydney Harbour
TSS Currajong wreck
An intact 1910 collier upright in the shipping channel under the ferry lanes, dived by a handful of people a year at slack water…
WreckCentral Coast
TSS Hall Caine wreck
A small, atmospheric deep wreck of a 'coffin ship' lost off Bouddi in 1937, with a gorgonian-covered boiler and conger eels in…
WreckBatemans Bay
TSS John Penn
Historic 1879 steamer loss near Burrewarra Head, a search dive for wreck enthusiasts.
Details need confirmationWreckWilsons Promontory
TSS Kanowna
A 126 m WWI hospital ship and coastal liner lost in fog in 1929, found in 2005 and lying largely recognisable in 80–82 m of clear…
WreckShoalhaven Coast
TSS Merimbula
Two triple-expansion engines, twin boilers, shafts, winch and anchor of a 1928 coastal passenger steamer in 4–14 m.
WreckCentral Coast
TSS Nerong wreck
A rarely dived deep technical wreck 5 km east of Norah Head, lost in a 1917 gale.
WreckJervis Bay
TSS Wandra
Boiler, twin engines, shafts and propellers of a 1915 timber steamer beside the Drum and Drumsticks seal colony.
WreckHeron Island & Capricorn Group
Tambaroora Wreck (Polmaise Reef)
Scattered remains of an 1879 steamer in 8 m on a remote reef, home to wobbegongs and nurse sharks.
WreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Tangalooma Wrecks
Fifteen rusting dredges and barges scuttled 1963-84, many breaking the surface, with 100+ fish species in 1-12 m – Queensland's…
WreckEden & Green Cape
Tasman Hauler
An intact, upright tug with engine room, corridors and bridge to explore, covered in an extraordinary display of jewel anemones.
ReefCentral Coast
Terrigal Reef / SS Lord Ashley
Scattered remains of the 1877 steamer Lord Ashley on the shallow reef off Terrigal - a history-hunter's search dive.
Details need confirmationWreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
The Barge (Cochrane Artificial Reef)
The shallowest wreck on Cochrane Artificial Reef, at about 15 m, covered in sponges and coral – ideal for new divers.
Details need confirmationWreckRottnest Island
The Clipper (Maranda, Graveyard Site 06)
A deep, intact iron sailing-ship hull in 65 m, the best known of the Rottnest graveyard wrecks among Perth tech divers.
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 ↗