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
16 wreck-related recordsRecorded information, not live availability
ReefAshmore Reef
Ashmore Reef
A remote Commonwealth reef reserve with extraordinary biodiversity and traditional perahu wrecks.
Details need confirmationAircraft WreckCocos (Keeling) Islands
Catalina JX435 Wreck
Engines, propellers and a 600 m debris trail from a RAF Catalina that crashed landing in June 1945 – a shallow dive and a war…
ReefNorfolk Island
Claytons Wreck (Nepean Island)
Rugged, coral-covered reef at the exposed southern tip of Nepean Island – good for photography.
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…
WreckChristmas Island
Eidsvold Wreck
WWII history in 5–18 m: the broken-up Norwegian freighter Eidsvold, torpedoed in Flying Fish Cove in 1942, now overgrown with…
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.
ReefCoral Sea
Lihou Reef
The Coral Sea's largest atoll – a vast, rarely visited lagoon with historic wrecks and untouched reef.
Details need confirmationWreckCoral Sea
MV Antonio Tarabocchia wreck
Engine block, propeller and scattered hull of a 1961 Italian freighter on coral terraces in very clear water, with a resident…
Aircraft WreckNorfolk Island
Pel-Air Westwind wreck
Largely intact Westwind medevac jet at 48 m from the 2009 night ditching in which all six aboard survived.
WreckCocos (Keeling) Islands
Phaeton Wreck
An 1868 composite barque burnt and run aground in 1889, its iron-framed bow and midships still upright in 4 m – snorkel through…
WreckCocos (Keeling) Islands
SMS Emden wreck site
Propellers, shafts, engine parts and shells of the WWI raider SMS Emden, beached after the 1914 Battle of Cocos – one of the most…
WreckCoral Sea
SS Francis Preston Blair wreck (Saumarez Reef)
The collapsed remains of a Second World War Liberty ship on a remote Coral Sea reef edge.
ReefCoral Sea
Saumarez Reef
A remote crescent reef with vast coral meadows, turtles and a Second World War Liberty ship wreck.
WreckCocos (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.
WreckCoral Sea
Wreck Reef (HMS Porpoise and Cato wreck sites)
The 1803 wreck sites of Matthew Flinders' HMS Porpoise and the Cato, on a remote reef with outstanding visibility.
WreckCoral Sea
Wreck of the Atlas (Bougainville Reef)
A shallow, coral-covered 1945 freighter wreck spread across Bougainville's reef top and slope.
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 ↗