The Bluebird appears on Darwin Sub Aqua Club's list of Cyclone Tracy wrecks alongside the Bellbird, Booya, Darwin Princess, Diemen and Mandorah Queen, but it is the least documented of them. The club's page for the Bluebird currently carries the same text as its Bellbird page - an 82 ft, 197-ton prawn trawler owned by Gollin Kyokuyo Fishing Co, broken from her moorings at Fort Hill Wharf, capsized and lying upside down in 15 m where the old iron-ore wharf used to be - so the published details cannot be relied on as specific to this vessel. The name fits the pattern of the Gollin Kyokuyo trawler fleet, several of which were lost or damaged in the harbour.

Cyclone Tracy crossed Darwin in the early hours of 25 December 1974 with gusts estimated at over 200 km/h, destroying most of the city and killing 66 people, many of them at sea. More than 20 vessels sank or were driven ashore in and around the harbour, and several of those wrecks now form a second, much more intact wreck trail beside the 1942 sites. What can be said with confidence is that the Bluebird is an inshore Cyclone Tracy fishing-boat wreck in roughly 15 m, in the same inner-harbour environment as the Bellbird: a steel hull on a silty bottom, colonised by sponges and gorgonians and holding cod, snapper and batfish.

It is a club site rather than a charter site, dived by locals who know the mark. Treat any dive here as an exploratory wreck dive, record what you see, and share observations with DSAC or the NT Heritage Branch, as good descriptions of this wreck are lacking. It suits divers who have already done the better-known Tracy wrecks and want something less visited.

Boat. Like the neighbouring Bellbird, this is an inner-harbour site close to the CBD waterfront, a few minutes' run from Cullen Bay Marina, the Cullen Bay public ramp or the Stokes Hill / Frances Bay ramp. There is no public position; it is dived with local knowledge, usually on a Darwin Sub Aqua Club neap-tide outing.

Mark with GPS, drop a shot and time the dive for the neap high-water slack.

Tide is everything in Darwin Harbour: the spring range is 7-8 m and tidal streams run hard through the harbour, so diving is generally only possible on neap tides (range under about 3-4 m), timed to the slack at high water when clearer ocean water sits over the site. Spring tides bring strong currents and silt-laden water with near-zero visibility. The dry season (May-October) gives the most consistent conditions; the south-east trade winds can chop up exposed water in the afternoon, so mornings are best.

In the wet season (November-April) run-off from the rivers and creeks drops visibility, afternoon storms build quickly, and the harbour is in cyclone season; box jellyfish are present October-May.

Descend the shot at neap slack, circle the hull at 15 m, check the debris around it, and return to the line. Keep the dive simple and stay close to structure in the low visibility.

No regular operator. Dived by Darwin Sub Aqua Club members with local knowledge; commercial operators may visit on request.