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
WreckDarwin Harbour
British Motorist
Engine-room remains of the tanker that was refuelling USS Peary when the 1942 raid began.
WreckEyre Peninsula
Bronzewing Tug Wreck
A 1930 ex-Navy tug scuttled in 1990 in shallow, sheltered Boston Bay – an easy close-to-town wreck.
Details need confirmationIslandBroome & Kimberley
Browse Island
WA's most remote island, ringed by reef and guano-era shipwrecks.
Details need confirmationWreckPort Phillip Heads
Brunette
An 1859 Thames-built iron barque and coal hulk – the first vessel scuttled in the Graveyard (1913) – found by Southern Ocean…
Shore/Rock PlatformPort Phillip Heads
Buckleys Cave
The shore entry to the outer Lonsdale Reef beneath William Buckley's cave – Shark Gutter, Mushroom Rock and five…
Shore/Rock PlatformGeelong & Bellarine
Buckleys Cave, Point Lonsdale
Rock-platform entry to the edge of the Rip beneath the Point Lonsdale lighthouse, with Mushroom Rock, the shark gutter and five…
WreckDarwin Harbour
Buffalo LVT amphibious vehicle
A virtually intact WWII-type Buffalo amphibious tractor sitting upright on a rocky outcrop.
Details need confirmationWreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Bulwer Wrecks
Three 1880s-1900-built steamers scuttled in 1933-35 as a breakwater, now an easy shallow snorkel off Bulwer beach.
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Bunyip
An 1879 Renfrew-built Harbour Trust bucket dredge – one of the oldest hulls in the ground, scuttled in 1955 after breaking adrift…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Burke
Sister of the Wills, an 1884 Adelaide-built Harbour Trust hopper barge scuttled in 1935, lying in about 50 m 500 m from the Euro;…
Details need confirmationArtificial ReefDarwin Offshore & Artificial Reefs
Bus Stop Reef
An improvised early-1990s reef of steel pontoons, truck tyres, concrete bus shelters and a 10 m boat, known for very large cod.
Aircraft WreckDarwin Harbour
C-47 Dakota A65-115
An almost intact RAAF Dakota transport that ditched off Mindil Beach in 1946, reached by a heritage mooring and guide line.
WreckBroome & Kimberley
Calliance Wreck (Camden Harbour)
A relic of the failed 1864 Camden Harbour settlement.
Details need confirmationWreckFlinders Island & Furneaux Group
Cambridgeshire (Night Island)
The Furneaux Group's best wreck: an 1875 iron ship with swim-throughs and a fish-filled intact stern.
Details need confirmationWreckPerth
Camilla Hulk (Naval Base)
Iron framing of an 1834 schooner hulk in snorkelling depth off Challenger Beach, one of the oldest vessels in Perth waters.
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Campana
An 1875 iron barque and coal hulk sunk in 1927 – intact bow with easy swim-throughs and some of the richest sponge growth in the…
WreckSydney Northern Beaches
Canoe Barge (Long Reef)
A canoe-ended barge, fully intact with its winches, whose hold fills with schools of jewfish – the furthest out of the Long Reef…
Details need confirmationReefLimestone Coast
Cape Jaffa – Margaret Brock Reef
A vast shallow reef around the old Cape Jaffa lighthouse platform – seadragons, sanctuary lobster and five historic wreck sites.
WreckFleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor
Cape Jervis Barge (Hopper Barge No. 3)
A shallow iron barge lost in 1880 during the salvage of the steamer Sorata, rediscovered by spearfishers in 1968.
WreckPerth
Carlisle Castle Wreck
The scattered cargo and iron plates of an 1899 barque lost with all hands, on an exposed reef that can be dived only on the…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Casablanca
An 1868 iron barque scuttled in 1950 with all three masts still aboard – crow's nest across the hull and a sailing-ship wheel on…
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Casino
Apollo Bay's own ship: a 1932 coastal steamer with boiler, engine and bow still standing on sand in 9 m, a surface swim from the…
Aircraft WreckDarwin Harbour
Catalina A24-1 (Catalina 1)
The RAAF's first Catalina, crashed on take-off in 1945 and left on a mangrove mud bank where its engines show at low tide.
Aircraft WreckDarwin Harbour
Catalina A24-206 (Catalina 3)
An RAAF Catalina sunk by an accidental depth-charge explosion in 1945 that killed two airmen; nose section intact.
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 ↗