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
106 wreck-related recordsRecorded information, not live availability
Aircraft WreckBroome & Kimberley
Roebuck Bay Flying Boat Wrecks (deep-water Catalinas)
WWII Catalina flying boats sunk in the 1942 Broome raid, with engines and turret still recognisable.
WreckRottnest Island
Rottnest Ships' Graveyard
Dozens of deliberately scuttled vessels, mostly unseen, in 46-200 m - Perth's frontier for technical wreck exploration.
WreckRottnest Island
Rottnest Wreck Trail
Thirteen historic wrecks linked by plaques and plinths, with two easy snorkel wrecks and a land trail from the museum to Bathurst…
WreckNingaloo – Coral Bay
SS Fin
A whale chaser's boiler and engine above water beside a collapsed lighthouse.
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…
WreckNingaloo – Exmouth
SS Mildura Wreck
A 1907 cattle steamer with boilers still breaking the surface off the tip of North West Cape.
WreckMargaret 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.
WreckRottnest Island
Salmon Bay Unidentified Wreck
A lone boiler, shaft and propeller of unknown origin in clear 26 m water off Salmon Bay.
WreckPilbara & Dampier
Samson Wrecks
Trawler and barge wrecks turned into fish-rich artificial reefs.
Details need confirmationWreckEsperance & Recherche Archipelago
Sanko Harvest Wreck
Australia's largest wreck dive – a 174 m bulk carrier broken into giant sections in 13-44 m, protected by a 500 m no-take zone.
WreckPerth
Saxon Ranger Wreck
An intact 38 m trawler scuttled as a dive wreck in 18–20 m, with public moorings and cut access holes, only minutes from the…
WreckPerth
Sepia Wreck
An 1898 iron barque whose stern hold still holds hundreds of neatly stacked bottles and barrels.
WreckRottnest Island
Shark Hopper Barge (Henrietta Rocks)
A 1939 hopper barge sitting partly out of the water a few strokes from the beach - an easy and photogenic wreck snorkel.
WreckGeraldton & Abrolhos Islands
South Tomi Wreck
A toothfish poacher caught after a 6,000 km naval chase, now an upright 57 m wreck with engine-room access in 25 m.
WreckNingaloo – Coral Bay
Stefano
An 1875 wreck with one of WA's most remarkable survival stories.
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.
WreckRottnest 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.
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.
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.
Aircraft WreckBroome & Kimberley
Town Beach Flying Boat Wrecks (low-tide walk)
Walk among WWII flying-boat wrecks on the mudflats at extreme low tide.
WreckPilbara & Dampier
Tryall Wreck (Tryal Rocks)
Australia's oldest known shipwreck (1622), with cannons and anchors in 6 m.
WreckPerth
Two Fold Bay Wreck
A modern trawler wreck lying against a reef ledge with its wheelhouse and outriggers scattered nearby.
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 ↗