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
106 wreck-related recordsRecorded information, not live availability
WreckPerth
ALC40 & Gay Dragon Wrecks (Bicton)
A WWII landing craft and a sunken junk-style pleasure boat that together are the Swan River's most reliable seahorse site.
WreckMargaret River & Augusta
Agincourt Wreck
An 1863 wooden barque with its cargo of timber sleepers still stacked in the hull, 100 m off the beach in 5 m.
WreckAlbany & Great Southern
Ahwina Tug Wreck (Gull Rock)
A 1936 tug boiler breaking the surface 50 m off a sheltered beach – Albany's easiest wreck snorkel.
WreckPerth
Alkimos Wreck
The collapsed Liberty ship behind Perth's best-known shipwreck legends, with its engine still breaking the surface off Alkimos…
Freshwater Lake/RiverBroome & Kimberley
Argyle Downs Homestead (Lake Argyle)
A drowned 1880s outback station: windmill, sheds, tractors and petrol bowsers in a Kimberley lake.
WreckAlbany & Great Southern
Arpenteur Wreck (Hassell Beach, Cheyne Bay)
Frames and planking of an 1849 French whaling brigantine, one of the south coast's earliest wrecks.
Details need confirmationWreckAlbany & Great Southern
Athena Wreck (Ledge Point)
Surprisingly substantial timber remains of an 1869 barque and coal hulk, including stem, breast hook and windlass.
WreckGeraldton & Abrolhos Islands
Batavia Wreck Site (Morning Reef)
Cannons and anchors of the 1629 Batavia – Australia's most notorious shipwreck and mutiny – in 7 m on Morning Reef.
WreckEsperance & Recherche Archipelago
Belinda & Penguin Wrecks (Middle Island)
An 1824 sealing brig and a steamer's boiler at the Recherche's largest island, home of pink Lake Hillier and pirate Black Jack…
WreckGeraldton & Abrolhos Islands
Ben Ledi & Windsor Wrecks (Pelsaert Group)
Two shallow iron wrecks, one with its boiler above the surface, in the southern Abrolhos.
Details need confirmationWreckNingaloo – Coral Bay
Benan
A large, clean iron barque wreck with anchors and masts on the reef.
Freshwater Lake/RiverPerth
Blackwall Reach (Swan River)
The deepest shore dive in the lower Swan River, with sunken cars, a barge and breeding cardinalfish below the Blackwall Reach…
IslandBroome & Kimberley
Browse Island
WA's most remote island, ringed by reef and guano-era shipwrecks.
Details need confirmationWreckBroome & Kimberley
Calliance Wreck (Camden Harbour)
A relic of the failed 1864 Camden Harbour settlement.
Details need confirmationWreckPerth
Camilla Hulk (Naval Base)
Iron framing of an 1834 schooner hulk in snorkelling depth off Challenger Beach, one of the oldest vessels in Perth waters.
WreckPerth
Carlisle Castle Wreck
The scattered cargo and iron plates of an 1899 barque lost with all hands, on an exposed reef that can be dived only on the…
WreckPerth
Centaur Wreck (Marmion)
Galena cargo and scattered remains of an 1874 iron brig under a reef break, with good shallow swim-throughs nearby.
WreckTurquoise Coast
Cervantes Wreck (Thirsty Point)
The timbers of the 1844 American whaler that gave the town of Cervantes its name.
WreckPerth
Chalmers Wreck
The ballast mound and scattered fittings of an 1874 barque whose captain mistook a bushfire for the Rottnest light.
WreckMargaret River & Augusta
Chaudiere Wreck
An 1863 Sunderland-built barque with stacked sleepers and copper sheathing, the closest wreck to the Hamelin Bay ramp.
WreckAlbany & Great Southern
Cheynes III Wreck
Reputedly the first purpose-sunk dive wreck in the southern hemisphere – a 1943 whale chaser from Australia's last whaling…
WreckNingaloo – Coral Bay
Chofuku Maru
The largest wreck on Ningaloo: propeller, 40 m shaft, engine, boilers and bow on the reef.
WreckRottnest Island
City of York Wreck
Masts, yards, rigging, windlass, anchor, stern and rudder of an 1899 iron barque spread down a shallow reef slope.
WreckPerth
Conference Wreck
A collapsed but recognisable 1855 iron barque hulk on kelp-covered reef, 10 minutes from Mindarie.
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 ↗