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
WreckSydney Harbour
Colonist wreck (Sydney Harbour)
Relocated in 2013 in 20 m: the Muntz-metal outline and basalt cargo of an 1861 schooner sunk in an 1890 collision and later…
Details need confirmationWreckPerth
Conference Wreck
A collapsed but recognisable 1855 iron barque hulk on kelp-covered reef, 10 minutes from Mindarie.
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Conside
Victoria's earliest screw-steamer wreck (1852) and possibly the first steamship across the Pacific – remains of her rare geared…
WreckSydney Northern Beaches
Coolooli wreck
A towering bucket dredge on its side in 48 m with the bucket ladder still running to the bow; jewel anemones on every rope.
Pinnacle/BommiePort Phillip Heads
Corsair Rock
The pinnacle that wrecked RMS Australia, the Eliza Ramsden and a dozen others: a kelp-topped rock 3.5 m under the surface at the…
ReefPort Macquarie & Camden Haven
Crowdy Head reefs
A little-documented cluster of headland reefs off a small fishing village, dived mainly by private boat.
Details need confirmationWreckPilbara & Dampier
Crown of England
A cyclone-wrecked sailing ship with anchor, masts and bow above water.
WreckMargaret River & Augusta
Cumberland Wreck
Anchor, cannon and timbers of one of WA's earliest colonial-era wrecks, hidden in weed south of Cape Hamelin.
Details need confirmationArtificial ReefBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Curtin Artificial Reef
The world's first diver-built artificial reef – 30+ wrecks, a Brisbane tram and resident giant Queensland groupers.
Aircraft WreckTownsville & Magnetic Island
Curtiss Falcon Aircraft Wreck (Nelly Bay)
Engine and propeller of a USAAF CW-22B Falcon that ditched in 1943 – a rare wartime aircraft relic off Magnetic Island.
Details need confirmationWreckPort Phillip Heads
D McLennan
A 1912 Dutch-built bucket dredge bought from Batavia by the Harbour Trust and scuttled in 1949 – on sand in 58 m at the remote…
Details need confirmationWreckPerth
D9 Dredge Wreck
An intact, upright 51 m dredge in 12 m in the shelter of Cockburn Sound, with good fish life and a strong reputation as a night…
WreckDarwin Harbour
DK 06 Ham Luong
A small, upright refugee boat packed with fish, in reach of two other wrecks on the same dive.
WreckDarwin Harbour
DSAC Barge
The club's own upturned barge reef, surrounded by a yacht, work boat and concrete structures, with tame fish.
WreckDarwin Harbour
Darwin Princess
The upturned ferry that disappeared with her skipper during Cyclone Tracy and was found only in 2004.
WreckEyre Peninsula
Degei Wreck
An intact 1940 trawler on her side in 10-11 m, covered in gorgonians and soft corals and patrolled by boarfish – Port Lincoln's…
WreckRottnest Island
Denton Holme Wreck
The standing bow of an 1890 iron barque rising almost to the surface, a spread of cargo and plates, and a shallow cave system on…
Shore/Rock PlatformTasmania North & North-West
Devonport Breakwater
A shallow breakwater snorkel with a kelp forest and remains of two 1880s wrecks.
WreckCocos (Keeling) Islands
Direction Island Unidentified Wreck
A 40 m keel and keelson line from an unidentified 19th-century North American ship – possibly the Gudden Barstow (1839) – in…
Shore/Rock PlatformSydney Harbour
Dobroyd Head / Reef Beach
A 2 km boulder-and-sponge reef with a small wreck below a bushland headland in the North Harbour reserve – Sydney's best scooter…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Don Diego
The oldest hull in the Graveyard – an 1855 Greenock-built iron barque and coal hulk scuttled in 1916 – bow and stern rising 4 m…
WreckTiwi Islands
Don Isidro
A 97.8 m Krupp-built Philippine blockade runner bombed and beached burning off the Tiwi Islands on 19 February 1942.
Details need confirmationWreckGold Coast
Dragin II Wreck
An intact 1983 steel trawler listing to port in 24 m, with baitfish clouds and numbfish on the sand.
ReefHobart & Derwent
Droughty Point
Historic lower-Derwent point near an old whaling station and the 1907 Rotuma wreck site.
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 ↗