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
Freshwater Lake/RiverPerth
The Coombe Deep Wrecks (Swan River)
A deep, very dark river dive to two unidentified wrecks in 19–22 m, a genuine test of low-visibility skills.
Freshwater Lake/RiverPerth
The Coombe Shallow Wrecks (Swan River)
A cluster of small timber boat wrecks within easy reach of a grassy kit-up area on the Swan River.
ReefBruny Island & D'Entrecasteaux Channel
The Pineapples (Cape Bruny)
Remote maze of coastal rock formations near Cape Bruny – and possibly the 1835 wreck of the Enchantress.
Details need confirmationWreckTasmania North & North-West
The Seal (Don Heads wreck)
A deep, rarely visited wreck off Don Heads, home to resident cod.
Details need confirmationWreckPort Macquarie & Camden Haven
The Titan (Camden Haven wreck)
An unusual upside-down crane vessel wreck at 35-40 m, gradually being colonised by sponges and corals — a genuine insider's dive.
WreckSydney Northern Beaches
The Trio wreck
A 50 m ferro-cement barge upright in 51 m off Mona Vale, discovered in 1988 and still rarely visited.
WreckSydney Northern Beaches
The Valiant wreck
An intact 22 m tug upright on white sand in 27 m under the Barrenjoey lighthouse – the best small wreck dive north of Sydney…
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Thistle, Port Fairy
Timbers of the Henty family's Indian-built brigantine, which carried the first settlers to Portland Bay in 1834, in the wading…
WreckRottnest Island
Thornliebank Wreck (Graveyard Site 44)
Standing masts on an 1886 Glasgow-built barque hulk, discovered in 2024 - the shallowest known wreck in the Rottnest graveyard.
WreckHervey Bay & K'gari
Three Ships (Roy Rufus Artificial Reef)
Three historic hulls (Otter, Pelican, Lass O'Gowrie) linked by picket lines at 14-17 m – see all three in one dive.
ReefYorke Peninsula
Tipara Reef and San Miguel Wreck
A barely submerged reef 14 km off Moonta with the 1865 San Miguel wreck – a time capsule of copper-mining cargo and fittings in…
Details need confirmationAircraft WreckBroome & Kimberley
Town Beach Flying Boat Wrecks (low-tide walk)
Walk among WWII flying-boat wrecks on the mudflats at extreme low tide.
ReefYorke Peninsula
Troubridge Island and Marion Reef Wrecks
The graveyard of six of South Australia's earliest wrecked sailing ships on the shoal beneath the 1856 Troubridge Island…
Details need confirmationArtificial ReefTasmania East Coast
Troy D
Tasmania's east-coast scuttled wreck: a 1000-tonne coastal trader sunk in 2007, with accessible bridge and engine room.
Artificial ReefDarwin Offshore & Artificial Reefs
Truck Tipper Artificial Reef
Twenty mining road-train side tippers and two steel vessels in 15 m – with the Kay Lee wreck and its giant groper close by.
WreckPilbara & Dampier
Tryall Wreck (Tryal Rocks)
Australia's oldest known shipwreck (1622), with cannons and anchors in 6 m.
WreckHobart & Derwent
Tug Boyer (Betsey Island)
Intact hull of the Derwent's last working steam tug, beside the Macquarie.
Details need confirmationWreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Tug Melbourne (Curtin Artificial Reef)
The central tug of Curtin reef and the natural hub for a wreck-to-wreck dive.
Details need confirmationWreckCocos (Keeling) Islands
Two Caves Wreck
Broken-up remains of a Sri Lankan asylum-seeker boat – engines with a hull section beneath – on a reef with two caves.
WreckPerth
Two Fold Bay Wreck
A modern trawler wreck lying against a reef ledge with its wheelhouse and outriggers scattered nearby.
Aircraft WreckDarwin Harbour
US Navy Catalina 6 (heritage zone)
The most intact US Navy Catalina in Darwin Harbour - protected in a no-entry heritage zone.
Aircraft WreckDarwin Harbour
US Navy Catalina No.4/8 (Catalina 5)
A US Navy PBY burned and sunk in the 1942 raids; wings collapsed by the fuel fire.
Details need confirmationAircraft WreckDarwin Harbour
US Navy Catalina No.41 (Catalina 4)
Remains of a US Navy Patrol Wing 10 flying boat burned and sunk in the Japanese attacks on Darwin.
Details need confirmationWreckDarwin Harbour
USAT Meigs
The largest ship sunk in the 1942 raid, with a Bren gun carrier in the bow, trucks, railway iron and ammunition dumps still on…
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 ↗