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
112 wreck-related recordsRecorded information, not live availability
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Antares
Plating, anchors and stacks of French roofing tiles from the last ship lost on the Shipwreck Coast, in surf gutters under sheer…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Auriga
An 1869 iron barque and Harbour Trust hulk, sunk with three gelignite charges in 1930, lying in 57 m 178 m from her fellow barque…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Batman
A compact, easily navigated 1883 hopper barge and one-time Victorian Navy gunboat with a large upright boiler at the bow – the…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Beverwijk 19
An upturned Dutch steam dredge with huge dredging cog wheels, boiler and propeller exposed; the last vessel scuttled in the…
ReefEast Gippsland
Beware Reef
An isolated granite reef and marine sanctuary off Cape Conran with kelp forest, sponge gardens, seals, wobbegongs and the remains…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Brunette
An 1859 Thames-built iron barque and coal hulk – the first vessel scuttled in the Graveyard (1913) – found by Southern Ocean…
Shore/Rock PlatformPort Phillip Heads
Buckleys Cave
The shore entry to the outer Lonsdale Reef beneath William Buckley's cave – Shark Gutter, Mushroom Rock and five…
Shore/Rock PlatformGeelong & Bellarine
Buckleys Cave, Point Lonsdale
Rock-platform entry to the edge of the Rip beneath the Point Lonsdale lighthouse, with Mushroom Rock, the shark gutter and five…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Bunyip
An 1879 Renfrew-built Harbour Trust bucket dredge – one of the oldest hulls in the ground, scuttled in 1955 after breaking adrift…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Burke
Sister of the Wills, an 1884 Adelaide-built Harbour Trust hopper barge scuttled in 1935, lying in about 50 m 500 m from the Euro;…
Details need confirmationWreckPort Phillip Heads
Campana
An 1875 iron barque and coal hulk sunk in 1927 – intact bow with easy swim-throughs and some of the richest sponge growth in the…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Casablanca
An 1868 iron barque scuttled in 1950 with all three masts still aboard – crow's nest across the hull and a sailing-ship wheel on…
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Casino
Apollo Bay's own ship: a 1932 coastal steamer with boiler, engine and bow still standing on sand in 9 m, a surface swim from the…
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Children
House bricks and scattered iron from the 1839 Henty barque off Needle Rock at pretty Childers Cove – the first great loss of life…
WreckSurf Coast & Great Ocean Road
City of Rayville
The first American merchant ship lost in WWII, intact and upright in 82 m off Cape Otway – Victoria's premier deep technical…
Details need confirmationWreckMelbourne & Port Phillip Bay
Clarence
An 1841 Hunter River-built schooner wrecked in 1850 and lying almost complete on her port side in 5 m off St Leonards – the…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Conside
Victoria's earliest screw-steamer wreck (1852) and possibly the first steamship across the Pacific – remains of her rare geared…
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…
WreckPort 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 confirmationWreckPort 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…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Dunloe
An 1870 Clyde-built iron barque and coal hulk whose 1947 scuttling nearly ended in disaster – intact bow, blown-out stern, in…
WreckShipwreck Coast & Warrnambool
Edinburgh Castle
Concrete casts of 1888 cement barrels around a windlass and anchor in 4–5 m of Lady Bay sand – the barque that came to build the…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Edward Northcote
Sister of the H.C. Piggot and a WWI minesweeper, the last Harbour Trust barge scuttled (1952) – substantially intact hull with…
WreckPort Phillip Heads
Eliza Ramsden
Upright iron barque lost in 1875 after striking Corsair Rock: intact starboard plating and decking, bluestone ballast and a…
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 ↗