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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
BROWSE BY STATE & NAME
Explore the wreck directory
560 wreck-related recordsRecorded information, not live availability
WreckPort Phillip Heads
HMAS Bayonet
An Attack-class patrol boat scuttled in 1999 and found in 2001 – upright and clean in 82 m off Cape Schanck with waterline marks…
WreckSydney Northern Beaches
HMAS Doomba / Meggol wreck
A WWI Royal Navy minesweeper that became a Brisbane ferry, an RAN warship and a Sydney oil barge, lying beside the Dee Why ferry…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
HMAS Goorangai
Scattered remains of the auxiliary minesweeper cut in two by MV Duntroon in November 1940 with the loss of all 24 crew – the…
WreckAlbany & Great Southern
HMAS Perth Wreck
A 133 m Vietnam-veteran destroyer sitting upright in 35 m with its bridge, gun mount and engine room intact, plus an interpretive…
WreckPilbara & Dampier
HMAS Plym (Montebello Islands)
Site of Britain's first atomic test, 1952.
Details need confirmationWreckGeographe 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…
WreckFar Northern Reef & Torres Strait
HMAS Warrnambool wreck
Intact 1947 WWII corvette on its port side in 25 m – the only RAN ship lost to a mine.
WreckHeron Island & Capricorn Group
HMCS Protector Wreck (Heron Island)
An 1884 colonial gunboat with Boxer Rebellion and WWI service, now a harbour breakwater and fish haven snorkelled at high tide.
WreckFar Northern Reef & Torres Strait
HMS Pandora wreck
The 1791 wreck of the Bounty-hunting frigate HMS Pandora – a permit-only historic shipwreck at 30–33 m.
WreckNorfolk Island
HMS Sirius wreck site
The remains of the First Fleet flagship, lost off Slaughter Bay in 1790 – Australia's most significant colonial shipwreck.
WreckMelbourne & Port Phillip Bay
HMVS Cerberus
The world's first breastwork monitor and only survivor of the type, scuttled as a breakwater in 1926 – now collapsed, protected…
WreckRottnest Island
HNLMS K XI Submarine Wreck
A 1924 Dutch colonial submarine, lost for almost 80 years and found in 2025, lying in 38 m with torpedo tubes still visible.
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Holyhead
A 90 m four-masted iron barque lost on her maiden voyage in 1890 – rudder and steering gear, windlass, mast stumps and…
WreckSydney Northern Beaches
Hopper Barge 656 (Long Reef)
An intact 50 m MSB hopper barge on the Long Reef reef ground with an accessible bow void, in the clear water 3 nautical miles out.
Details need confirmationAircraft WreckFar Northern Reef & Torres Strait
Horn Island WWII sites
Scattered B-17 bomber debris in the tidal shallows off a WWII airfield – history rather than scenery.
Details need confirmationWreckTownsville & Magnetic Island
Horseshoe Bay Wrecks (Magnetic Island)
Two shallow modern wrecks – a 40 m burnt-out floating-restaurant ketch and a prawn trawler – in the island's most sheltered bay…
Details need confirmationReefSwain Reefs
Horseshoe Reef (Swain Reefs)
The Swains' most varied reef: a big sheltered lagoon, deep walls to 35 m and a wreck site.
Details need confirmationWreckYorke Peninsula
Hougomont Wreck
A dismasted 1897 four-masted barque of the Erikson grain fleet, scuttled as a breakwater with bow and stern still upright in 9 m…
WreckMelbourne & Port Phillip Bay
Hurricane
An 1853 iron clipper lying in 8–12 m of sheltered bay water – stern rising 3 m with a heritage cairn, a capstan at the bow and…
WreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Hustler 3 Wreck
A small, coral-covered trawler wreck at 22 m that draws schools of sweetlips and snapper.
Details need confirmationReefSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Ingoldsby Reef
Lush shallow kelp-and-limestone reef inside Point Addis Marine National Park where crays walk in the open, scattered with iron…
Details need confirmationWallPort Phillip Heads
Inner Corsair Wall
Ledge-and-cave wall from a kelp-topped 10 m reef down to 60 m between Nepean Wall and Corsair Rock, with RMS Australia wreckage…
WreckPortland & the West
Isabella, Cape Nelson
The 1837 wreck of the barque whose captain mistook Cape Nelson for Julia Percy Island – one of the oldest located wrecks in…
Details need confirmationWreckSydney Harbour
Itata wreck (Salt Pan Creek)
The burnt-out iron hull of an 1883 barque abandoned in a mangrove-lined Middle Harbour creek – Sydney's zero-visibility training…
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 ↗