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. 13 sites listed.
1. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Troubridge Island and Marion Reef Wrecks
Sunk 1851 · The graveyard of six of South Australia's earliest wrecked sailing ships on the shoal beneath the 1856 Troubridge Island lighthouse.
2. Limestone Coast · SA
Cape Jaffa – Margaret Brock Reef
Sunk 1852 · A vast shallow reef around the old Cape Jaffa lighthouse platform – seadragons, sanctuary lobster and five historic wreck sites.
3. Kangaroo Island · SA
Osmanli Wreck (D'Estrees Bay)
Sunk 1853 · Large iron sections of an 1853 steamer on a shallow reef – an early steamship wreck whose 83 people all survived.
4. Limestone Coast · SA
Admella Wreck (Carpenter Reef)
Sunk 1859 · The scattered remains of South Australia's worst shipwreck (89 lives, 1859) on an exposed Southern Ocean reef.
5. Kangaroo Island · SA
Fides Wreck
Sunk 1860 · Brass fittings, bottles and cargo from an 1860 barque scattered in a gully beneath the north-west cliffs.
6. Yorke Peninsula · SA
SS Marion Wreck
Sunk 1862 · An 1854 Glasgow-built steamer wrecked in 1862 that gave Marion Bay its name, lying in two broken sections below the Innes cliffs.
7. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Tipara Reef and San Miguel Wreck
Sunk 1865 · A barely submerged reef 14 km off Moonta with the 1865 San Miguel wreck – a time capsule of copper-mining cargo and fittings in 2-5 m.
8. Yorke Peninsula · SA
Zanoni Wreck
Sunk 1867 · One of Australia's best-preserved 19th-century composite sailing ships, lying intact on her side in 18 m with masts, rudder and bowsprit still recognisable.
9. Limestone Coast · SA
Geltwood Wreck
Sunk 1876 · A recognisable iron barque with masts, yards and concreted cargo – lost with all hands on her 1876 maiden voyage.
10. Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor · SA
Cape Jervis Barge (Hopper Barge No. 3)
Sunk 1880 · A shallow iron barge lost in 1880 during the salvage of the steamer Sorata, rediscovered by spearfishers in 1968.
11. Whyalla & Upper Spencer Gulf · SA
Lady Kinnaird Wreck
Sunk 1880 · An 1880 iron barque with plating, chain, masts, winches and an anchor in 6 m, reached by a coastal walk from Port Neill.
12. Kangaroo Island · SA
Kingscote – Fanny M Wreck and Nepean Bay Reef
Sunk 1884 · Anchors and timbers of the 1884 barque Fanny M hidden in a sheltered weedy reef off Kingscote.
13. Fleurieu Peninsula & Victor Harbor · SA
Star of Greece Wreck
Sunk 1888 · An 1868 Belfast-built iron ship wrecked in 1888 with the loss of 17 lives, lying in snorkelling depth 200 m off Port Willunga with a mast showing at low tide.
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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