The 15 Best Wreck Dives in Australia
Ranked on wreck quality, marine life, and how reliably it can be dived by a visiting recreational diver.
Australia has around 8,000 known shipwrecks and a growing fleet of deliberately scuttled warships, and choosing fifteen means leaving out dozens of good dives. This list weighs three things: the quality of the wreck itself, the marine life it now supports, and how reliably a visiting diver can actually get onto it. A wreck that is dived daily from a town with three dive shops ranks above a better wreck that sees a boat twice a year.
Every one of these is in the database with depth, access, conditions and the operators that run it. The deep and technical wrecks (the J-class submarines, the Kanowna, the Ships' Graveyard) have their own list.
1. Townsville & Magnetic Island · QLD
SS Yongala
The consensus number one. A 109 m passenger steamer lost with all 122 aboard in a 1911 cyclone, lying alone on a sand plain off Townsville where it has become the densest artificial reef in the country: giant Queensland gropers, bull rays, sea snakes, eagle rays, barracuda and trevally in walls. Advanced divers only; often blown out.
2. Sunshine Coast · QLD
Ex-HMAS Brisbane
A 133 m guided-missile destroyer scuttled off Mooloolaba in 2005. The Navy cut access holes into every deck, so recreational divers can pass through the bridge, the engine room and the mess decks in a natural-light penetration. Coral and schooling fish have taken it over.
3. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
ex-HMAS Canberra
Victoria's answer, a 138 m frigate off Ocean Grove in 28–32 m, prepared with cut-outs and dived daily in season from Queenscliff and Portsea. Cold water keeps the fish life temperate: bullseyes, morwong, seals passing through.
4. Central Coast · NSW
ex-HMAS Adelaide
The east coast's most-dived warship, scuttled off Avoca in 2011 in 32 m. A full frigate with helicopter deck, bridge and mess decks open to divers, 90 minutes from Sydney with daily charters from Terrigal.
5. Geographe Bay & Busselton · WA
HMAS Swan Wreck
A 113 m destroyer escort scuttled in Geographe Bay in 1997, upright in 31 m with easy swim-throughs and a resident population of samsonfish, bullseyes and blue devils. Calm water, short boat ride from Dunsborough.
6. Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor · SA
Ex-HMAS Hobart
A 133 m Adams-class destroyer scuttled off Yankalilla in 2002, with wide penetration routes prepared for divers and clear gulf water. South Australia's biggest wreck dive.
7. Albany & Great Southern · WA
HMAS Perth Wreck
Albany's 133 m destroyer, scuttled in King George Sound in 2001 in 35 m. Cold, clear water and a wreck that has grown a garden of temperate life.
8. Hervey Bay & K'gari · QLD
ex-HMAS Tobruk
A 127 m heavy landing ship scuttled off Bundaberg in 2018 that unexpectedly landed on its side, which makes it one of the more disorienting and interesting swims of the scuttled fleet. Growing fast.
9. Darwin Harbour · NT
USAT Meigs
A 130 m US Army transport sunk in the 1942 Japanese air raid on Darwin Harbour, now a protected war grave dived on neap-tide slack water. Low visibility, high history.
10. Forster & Seal Rocks · NSW
SS Satara wreck
A 1910 British-India steamer that struck Edith Breaker off Forster in 1910 and lies broken in 44 m. Deep, fishy, with grey nurse sharks around it in season; an advanced dive with the Forster charters.
11. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
SS Coogee
A 1887 Bass Strait steamer scuttled in the Ships' Graveyard outside Port Phillip Heads in 35 m, remarkably intact and covered in life. Slack-water charter from Queenscliff.
12. Port Phillip Heads · VIC
Eliza Ramsden
An 1875 clipper that hit Corsair Rock at Port Phillip Heads, lying in 22 m inside the Rip and dived on the slack. Iron ribs, big fish and a strong current story.
13. Townsville & Magnetic Island · QLD
SS Moltke Wreck (Geoffrey Bay)
A shallow, shore-accessible 1911 wreck in Geoffrey Bay on Magnetic Island, swum from the beach in 8 m with coral, batfish and the Museum of Underwater Art sculptures nearby.
14. Brisbane & Moreton Bay · QLD
Tangalooma Wrecks
Fifteen vessels scuttled off Moreton Island between 1963 and 1984 to form a boat harbour, now a snorkel and shallow dive from the beach with wobbegongs, trevally and turtles.
15. Perth · WA
Omeo Wreck & Coogee Maritime Trail
The 1905 Omeo wreck a few metres off Coogee Beach in Perth, with an underwater trail of sculptures and reef modules around it. The best shore-dive wreck in the west.