The Japanese air raids on Darwin left the harbour's war graves; Sydney Harbour has the remains of the 1942 midget submarine attack; flying boats lie in Roebuck Bay; and merchant ships torpedoed along the east coast rest in deep water. This list covers every wreck in the directory recorded as lost between 1939 and 1945.
Updated daily from the directory. 16 sites listed.
1. Darwin Harbour · NT
British Motorist
Lost 1942 · Engine-room remains of the tanker that was refuelling USS Peary when the 1942 raid began.
Our takeThe tanker that was refuelling USS Peary when the first Japanese raid on Darwin began on 19 February 1942. Salvaged after the war; the engine room remains in 20 m and is dived on neap tides.
2. Tiwi Islands · NT
Don Isidro
Lost 1942 · A 97.8 m Krupp-built Philippine blockade runner bombed and beached burning off the Tiwi Islands on 19 February 1942.
3. Tiwi Islands · NT
Florence D
Lost 1942 · A 1942 blockade-runner sunk in the first Darwin raid, found in 2008 – intact stern on its side in 16 m and a shattered ammunition-laden bow, in a closed protected zone.
Our takeSunk by aircraft from the Darwin raid force on 19 February 1942 and found only in 2008 off the Tiwi Islands, with an intact stern on its side and a shattered, ammunition-laden bow. Expedition access.
4. Darwin Harbour · NT
Kelat
Lost 1942 · A relaxed 12 m dive on the remains of an 1881 iron sailing ship turned naval coal hulk, sunk after the 1942 raid.
5. Darwin Harbour · NT
MV Neptuna remnants
Lost 1942 · Fragments of the munitions ship whose explosion at Stokes Hill Wharf killed 45 people on 19 February 1942.
6. Darwin Harbour · NT
SS Mauna Loa
Lost 1942 · An American freighter sunk in the same raid, upright in 20 m with cargo still in the holds.
Our takeA US freighter whose holds are still stacked with the war cargo she was carrying in February 1942: trucks, Bren carriers, a Harley-Davidson and ammunition. Twenty metres, dived on the neap-tide slack.
7. Darwin Harbour · NT
SS Zealandia
Lost 1942 · The former Huddart Parker liner and troopship, now the most coral-covered of the 1942 raid wrecks.
8. Darwin Harbour · NT
US Navy Catalina 6 (heritage zone)
Lost 1942 · The most intact US Navy Catalina in Darwin Harbour - protected in a no-entry heritage zone.
9. Darwin Harbour · NT
US Navy Catalina No.4/8 (Catalina 5)
Lost 1942 · A US Navy PBY burned and sunk in the 1942 raids; wings collapsed by the fuel fire.
10. Darwin Harbour · NT
US Navy Catalina No.41 (Catalina 4)
Lost 1942 · Remains of a US Navy Patrol Wing 10 flying boat burned and sunk in the Japanese attacks on Darwin.
11. Darwin Harbour · NT
USAT Meigs
Lost 1942 · A 130 m US Army transport sunk in the 1942 air raid, the largest and most-dived wreck in Darwin Harbour.
Our takeThe largest ship sunk in the Darwin raid, a US Army transport of 12,500 tons, lying in 18 m with a Bren carrier in her bow and holds of trucks, railway iron and ammunition. The signature Darwin Harbour wreck.
12. Darwin Harbour · NT
USS Peary
Lost 1942 · The US destroyer sunk with 88 of her crew in the first raid on Darwin; the harbour's deepest and most solemn WWII dive.
Our takeThe destroyer sunk with 88 of her crew in the first raid on Darwin, in 30 m. A war grave, dived with respect and by permit; the harbour's deepest and most sombre wreck.
13. Darwin Harbour · NT
Beaufort A9-497
Lost 1944 · An intact RAAF Beaufort bomber with guns and cockpit instruments in place, found by sonar and kept undisturbed.
14. Darwin Harbour · NT
Catalina A24-1 (Catalina 1)
Lost 1945 · The RAAF's first Catalina, crashed on take-off in 1945 and left on a mangrove mud bank where its engines show at low tide.
15. Darwin Harbour · NT
Catalina A24-206 (Catalina 3)
Lost 1945 · An RAAF Catalina sunk by an accidental depth-charge explosion in 1945 that killed two airmen; nose section intact.
16. Darwin Harbour · NT
Catalina A24-69 (Catalina 2)
Lost 1945 · The most intact RAAF Catalina in the harbour, with its bow and cockpit section still recognisable in 10-12 m.
The guide
Australia's war at sea, underwater
The Second World War reached Australian waters in three ways: German raiders and mines off the south-east coast in 1940 and 1941, the Japanese air raids on Darwin from February 1942, and Japanese submarines along the east coast in 1942 and 1943. Each left wrecks. The mines took the City of Rayville and the Cambridge off Victoria; the Darwin raids sank eight ships in the harbour in a morning; the submarines torpedoed freighters from Cairns to Gabo Island and put a midget submarine into Sydney Harbour.
This list is ordered by the year the wreck was lost among wrecks from 1939 to 1945, which is why the pre-war-loss Belbowrie at Maroubra opens it; from there it runs through the 1940 minings, the 1942 raids and the late-war reef strandings.
Darwin Harbour is the centre
Nowhere else in Australia has a cluster of Second World War wrecks that a recreational diver can visit in a weekend. The Meigs, Mauna Loa, Zealandia, British Motorist and Peary all lie in 18 to 30 m within the harbour, dived on the neap-tide slack when the current stops and the visibility rises to 5 to 10 m. Darwin's operators run them from April to October; the Peary is a US war grave and is dived under permit conditions. The wrecks are protected under the Underwater Cultural Heritage Act, as is everything else on this list older than 75 years.
The ones you cannot dive
Some of the most important wartime wrecks are closed. The M24 midget submarine off Sydney's northern beaches and the Japanese submarine I-124 off Darwin are protected war graves inside no-entry zones. HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran lie in 2,500 m off Shark Bay. AHS Centaur is in 2,000 m off Moreton Island. They appear in the directory for their history, marked as no-dive sites, and the I-124 has a virtual-reality tour produced by the Northern Territory government.
Editorial last reviewed September 2026. The list itself is regenerated from the directory daily.
Frequently asked questions
Can I dive the Darwin Harbour war wrecks?
Yes, with a charter on neap tides in the dry season. The Meigs, Mauna Loa, British Motorist, Zealandia and Kelat are war graves: no entry where remains may be present, no touching.
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