From the 1629 Batavia on the Abrolhos to the clipper ships and coastal steamers of the 1800s, these are the oldest wrecks divers can visit. All are protected under the Underwater Cultural Heritage Act: look, photograph, touch nothing.
Updated daily from the directory. 10 sites listed.
1. Far Northern Reef & Torres Strait · QLD
HMS Pandora wreck
Sunk 1791 · The 1791 wreck of the Bounty-hunting frigate HMS Pandora – a permit-only historic shipwreck at 30–33 m.
Our takeThe frigate sent to hunt the Bounty mutineers, wrecked on the outer Barrier Reef in 1791 with 14 of her prisoners still aboard. The most excavated shipwreck in Australia; the site at 30 to 33 m is a protected zone that needs a permit, and the finds fill a museum in Townsville.
2. Townsville & Magnetic Island · QLD
SS Gothenburg Wreck (Old Reef)
Sunk 1875 · Boilers, oscillating engines and iron frames of the Gothenburg, lost in 1875 with about 102 lives – one of Australia's worst maritime disasters – now a coral-covered heritage site at 9–16 m.
3. Mackay · QLD
Singapore Wreck (Keswick Island)
Sunk 1877 · Large, coral-covered remains of an 1877 steamer at Singapore Rock in a green zone off Keswick Island.
4. Heron Island & Capricorn Group · QLD
Tambaroora Wreck (Polmaise Reef)
Sunk 1879 · Scattered remains of an 1879 steamer in 8 m on a remote reef, home to wobbegongs and nurse sharks.
5. Hervey Bay & K'gari · QLD
Chang Chow Wreck (K'gari)
Sunk 1884 · The buried remains of an 82 m steamer lost in 1884 with Chinese passengers – a K'gari history site rather than a regular dive.
6. Gold Coast · QLD
Scottish Prince Wreck
Sunk 1887 · An 1887 Glasgow barque whose whisky cargo was looted by locals, now wrapped in enormous schools of yellowtail scad in only 11 m.
7. Far Northern Reef & Torres Strait · QLD
RMS Quetta wreck
Sunk 1890 · A coral-encrusted 1890 royal mail steamer teeming with fish, often compared with the Yongala – dived only at slack water.
8. Brisbane & Moreton Bay · QLD
Aarhus Wreck
Sunk 1894 · Scattered remains of an 1875 Hamburg-built barque that hit Smith Rock three times and sank in 12 minutes, with the bow section still standing proud.
9. Mission Beach & Cassowary Coast · QLD
Lady Bowen wreck
Sunk 1894 · An 1894 iron sailing ship, once a paddle steamer, sitting upright in 34 m and home to big groupers – the Cassowary Coast's classic deep wreck.
10. Brisbane & Moreton Bay · QLD
Grace Darling Wreck
Sunk 1894 · An 1876 wooden schooner lost in 1894 with a cargo of coal and dynamite – ballast mound, galley oven and timbers in 10 m.
The guide
Four centuries of wrecks
Australia's oldest wrecks are Dutch. The East India Company route from the Cape to Batavia ran east across the Indian Ocean before turning north, and ships that misjudged their longitude ran into the Western Australian coast: the Tryall in 1622 (English, but on the same route), the Batavia in 1629, the Vergulde Draeck in 1656, the Zuytdorp in 1712 and the Zeewijk in 1727. Then the British: HMS Sirius in 1790, HMS Pandora in 1791, the Sydney Cove in 1797, the Porpoise and Cato in 1803. From there the list runs into the colonial trade: sealers, coastal traders and the clipper Rapid, wrecked at Ningaloo in 1811 with a cargo of Spanish silver.
Every wreck here is protected under the Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018. Nothing may be disturbed or removed, and several sites (the Pandora, the Vergulde Draeck, the Batavia and others) are protected zones where entry itself needs a permit from the state museum or heritage office.
What is actually there to see
Manage expectations. Four hundred years on a reef leaves iron, stone and brass: cannons, anchors, ballast mounds and the ceramic and coin scatters that archaeologists have mapped. Timbers survive only where they were buried in sand and have mostly been raised (the Batavia's stern is in Fremantle's Shipwreck Museum). What these sites offer is the place: standing on the reef where the Batavia struck, or hovering over the Sirius's carronades in the bay where the First Fleet's flagship broke up.
The Abrolhos and Norfolk Island are the practical destinations. Geraldton operators run Abrolhos trips that include the Batavia and Zeewijk reefs in the calm from March to May; Norfolk Island's dive shop visits the Sirius site in Slaughter Bay when the swell allows. The Pandora and the Coral Sea sites are expedition dives.
Editorial last reviewed September 2026. The list itself is regenerated from the directory daily.
Frequently asked questions
Can I take anything from an old shipwreck?
No. Every wreck older than 75 years is automatically protected under Commonwealth law, and many sites have protected zones requiring permits even to enter.
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