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
69 wreck-related recordsRecorded information, not live availability
WreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Aarhus Wreck
Scattered remains of an 1875 Hamburg-built barque that hit Smith Rock three times and sank in 12 minutes, with the bow section…
WreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Althea 2 Wreck
An intact 1991 trawler alone on sand in 41 m, swarming with pelagics – remote and rarely visited.
Details need confirmationShore/Rock PlatformNorth Stradbroke Island
Amity Point
Island's sheltered shore drift: a low wall with car bodies, tyres and the scuttled launch Bandicoot, plus wobbegongs and dolphins.
WreckGold Coast
Aquarian Wreck
A small, intact 1986 trawler wreck in 14 m, known for resting blind sharks, wobbegongs and shovelnose rays.
WreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Barcoola Wreck
A 1994 trawler in 44 m buried in baitfish, with big cod, gropers and bronze whalers – locals rate the fish life above the Yongala.
WreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Barjon Wreck
A small 1986 fishing-boat wreck that concentrates fish on a bare silt bottom.
Details need confirmationAircraft WreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Beaufort Bomber A9-322 Wreck
A Second World War RAAF Beaufort crash site lost on Christmas Eve 1943 – scattered remains for aviation-history enthusiasts.
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.
WreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Cementco Wreck
An inverted ex-Army support ship and coral barge north-east of Flinders Reef, with crayfish-lined interiors and big groupers.
WreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Ceratodus II (Cochrane Artificial Reef)
The biggest and oldest structure on Cochrane Artificial Reef – a 50 m hull covered in growth and wrapped in schooling fish.
Details need confirmationWreckBundaberg & Agnes Water
Cetacea Wreck
A tiny 13 m trawler in 30 m carrying at least 40 estuary cod plus gropers, cobia and big rays.
WreckHervey Bay & K'gari
Chang Chow Wreck (K'gari)
The buried remains of an 82 m steamer lost in 1884 with Chinese passengers – a K'gari history site rather than a regular dive.
Details need confirmationReefCairns
Clipper & Super Cat (Norman Reef)
Swim-throughs, a beginner-friendly canyon and a small glass-bottom boat wreck on one Norman mooring.
Artificial ReefBundaberg & Agnes Water
Cochrane Artificial Reef
Bundaberg's best boat dive: sunken barges, a dredge, light ships and three aircraft (two Mohawks and a King Air) in 15-18 m, home…
Artificial 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 confirmationWreckGold Coast
Dragin II Wreck
An intact 1983 steel trawler listing to port in 24 m, with baitfish clouds and numbfish on the sand.
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…
WreckCapricorn Coast & Keppel Islands
FV Linda Jane Wreck
A little-known 35 m trawler wreck whose unpublished position has kept its big groper, red emperor and jewfish intact.
Details need confirmationWreckCapricorn Coast & Keppel Islands
FV Miss Shoalhaven Wreck
A decaying 1988 timber trawler at 33 m that has become a barracuda and ray magnet.
Details need confirmationShore/Rock PlatformTownsville & Magnetic Island
Florence Bay (Magnetic Island)
One of Magnetic Island's deeper bays, with lettuce-coral patches, caverns at the southern end and the 1917 ferry Magnet in the…
WreckHervey Bay & K'gari
Goori Wreck (Roy Rufus Artificial Reef)
A single, well-encrusted hull at 16 m – a quieter alternative to the 3 Ships cluster.
Details need confirmationWreckBrisbane & Moreton Bay
Grace Darling Wreck
An 1876 wooden schooner lost in 1894 with a cargo of coal and dynamite – ballast mound, galley oven and timbers in 10 m.
Details need confirmationWreckFar 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.
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 ↗