Best Wreck Dives in Australia

Australia's best wreck dives fall into two groups. The first are historic wrecks: a passenger steamer lost in a 1911 cyclone, an iron barque on the Southport bar, a benzine carrier in Tasmania, First World War submarines outside Port Phillip Heads and the ships sunk in the 1942 bombing of Darwin. The second are former Royal Australian Navy ships sunk on purpose as dive sites, a run that started with HMAS Swan off Dunsborough in 1997.

The rules differ between the two. The Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018, which replaced the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 on 1 July 2019, protects shipwrecks and sunken aircraft lost 75 or more years ago. You must not disturb, damage or remove anything, you need a permit to enter a protected zone where one has been declared, and any new find must be reported within 21 days. The purpose-sunk warships are managed by state agencies or local societies, most with their own permits, and two of them are closed as of October 2026. Check the current status before you book.

Each of these wrecks lies in the sea Country of First Nations peoples, among them the Larrakia in Darwin Harbour, the Menang Noongar in King George Sound and the Wadandi in Geographe Bay.

SS Yongala, Queensland

The Yongala was an Adelaide Steamship Company passenger steamer, launched in 1903. She left Mackay for Townsville on 23 March 1911, steamed north into a cyclone and was never seen again. The official count was 121 people aboard, but the national wreck database says at least 122 are generally accepted to have been on the ship, and none survived. The wreck is a grave site. A Navy minesweeper found an obstruction off Cape Bowling Green in 1943, a survey ship reported a large wreck there in 1947, and two Townsville divers identified it as the Yongala in 1958.

The 109-metre hull lies listing to starboard at 60 to 70 degrees, from about 16 metres at the top to 30 metres on the sand. Cyclone Yasi in 2011 stripped coral from the upper hull and dropped a 35-metre section of the bow more than five metres, and the growth has been coming back. At least 122 fish species have been recorded on the wreck. 50 Great Dives and Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive describe a big resident Queensland groper usually found at the bow, turtles, manta rays, sea snakes and schools of barracuda and trevally. Currents run here throughout the year.

The Yongala sits inside a protected zone of about 800 metres radius, and entering it needs a permit under the Underwater Cultural Heritage Act unless you dive with one of the authorised commercial charters. Penetrating the wreck and collecting artefacts are not allowed.

Ex-HMAS Brisbane, Sunshine Coast (closed until 31 January 2027)

The 133-metre guided missile destroyer served two tours of the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War before she was scuttled on 31 July 2005 about 9 kilometres off Mooloolaba. She settled upright in 28 metres. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) lists yellowtail kingfish, cuttlefish, schools of whiting and pelagics such as mackerel, tuna and jacks, with octopus, crayfish and nudibranchs in the structure and visibility generally 12 to 15 metres.

The Ex-HMAS Brisbane is a conservation park and restricted access area: no one may enter without a QPWS permit or written approval, and permits are issued through the two licensed Sunshine Coast dive tour operators. As a guide, QPWS suggests Open Water certification for the outside and upper decks, Advanced Open Water to reach the bottom, and wreck certification or suitable experience for going inside. Right now the park is shut. QPWS closed the public mooring after Cyclone Alfred, and its park alert says public access to the wreck is closed from 30 June 2026 to 31 January 2027.

Ex-HMAS Tobruk, Hervey Bay, Queensland

The 127-metre heavy landing ship was commissioned in 1981 and scuttled in June 2018 between Bundaberg and Hervey Bay. She came to rest on her starboard side, which makes for an unusual dive: with the stern doors open, Hervey Bay Dive Centre describes a swim-through almost the full length of the tank deck. Depths run from 12 to 30 metres, and QPWS lists corals, molluscs, turtles, rays and sharks among the life on the wreck.

The Ex-HMAS Tobruk sits in a Marine National Park zone of the Great Sandy Marine Park, and entry to its designated area needs a permit or written approval. Tours leave from Hervey Bay and Bundaberg. The public mooring is closed for mooring line repairs from 13 August to 31 October 2026.

HMAS Swan, Dunsborough, Western Australia

The 113-metre River-class destroyer escort was sunk on 14 December 1997, in front of an estimated 10,000 spectators, about 2.4 kilometres off Point Picquet near Meelup Beach. 50 Great Dives calls her the first of the former Navy ships sunk for recreational diving. She sits nearly upright in 30 metres, with the top of the communications tower at about nine metres. Unlike the other scuttled ex-Navy ships she was not completely gutted, so the galley, laundry and operations room are still recognisable. The engine room is sealed off.

Inside, look for bullseyes, pike, blue devilfish and banded sweep; outside, juvenile snapper, flathead, samson fish, kingfish, batfish and resident wobbegongs. The Swan is owned and managed by the Geographe Bay Artificial Reef Society, and diving it needs the society's permit (one permit covers up to four divers), sold through Swan Dive in Busselton or the Busselton Visitor Centre. Fishing and spearfishing are banned within 200 metres of the yellow marker buoy. The local tourism association rates mid-September to mid-May as the best conditions.

HMAS Perth, Albany, Western Australia

The Perth-class guided missile destroyer entered Navy service in 1965, served in the Vietnam War and was scuttled on 24 November 2001 about 500 metres south-west of Seal Island in King George Sound. The 133-metre ship sits upright on her keel in about 35 metres, with the dive running from 5 to 36 metres.

An interpretive trail with plaques runs around the Perth, and divers can still find shell damage from the Vietnam War and the captain's chair. The City of Albany describes extensive coral and sponge growth with yellowtail, carpet sharks and kingfish. 50 Great Dives gives water temperatures of 16 to 21°C and November to May as the best months, and the City recommends contacting Southcoast Diving Supplies in Albany before you dive.

J-class submarines, Port Phillip Heads, Victoria

The Admiralty gave Australia six J-class submarines after the First World War, and they were commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy in 1919. Two became breakwaters inside Port Phillip: J3 at Swan Island and J7 at Sandringham. J1, J2 and J5 were sunk about three miles off Barwon Heads in 1926, and J4, which had sunk at her moorings at Williamstown in 1924, was raised and sunk outside the Heads in 1927.

These are not shallow dives. Divernet puts the four boats between 26 and 40 metres in Bass Strait. J4 is the shallowest, upright on its keel in about 26 metres with its torpedo tubes exposed, and Borrett rates it an Advanced Open Water dive, though surge can pump through its hatches. Divernet gives 38 to 40 metres for J1, J2 and J5; Borrett rates J2 and J5 Advanced Open Water plus Deep and expects decompression stops on J2, which also lies close to the Port Phillip shipping route. Charters run from Portsea and Queenscliff. Start with the J4, then the J5, J1 and J2.

Darwin Harbour, Northern Territory

The first Japanese raid on Darwin on 19 February 1942 sank three warships and six merchant vessels in the harbour and damaged ten more. The Japanese Fujita Salvage Company cut the large harbour wrecks down to their lower hulls in 1959 and 1960, so what divers see today is ship floors, cargo and machinery rather than standing ships.

The USAT Meigs, a 12,568-ton cargo ship, lies upright in about 18.5 metres with army vehicles still in her holds. The Mauna Loa lies upright in 19 metres, cut down to her cargo floor. Three US Navy Catalina flying boats were sunk at their moorings: Catalina 4 lies in 14 metres, while Catalina 6 is under a harbourmaster's closed-waters order. The destroyer USS Peary, sunk with about 90 of her crew, lies mostly salvaged in about 28 metres; an NT Heritage Branch brochure says divers may visit but must not touch anything. All of these wrecks are protected heritage sites, and some still hold ammunition and other ordnance, so touch nothing.

Dive Darwin runs five-hour guided tours, with permits included, to two of the harbour's roughly 90 wreck sites from Dock 2, Stokes Hill Wharf, for PADI Advanced divers aged 15 and over. Conditions are hard. Port Darwin has a maximum tidal range of 7.8 metres and strong, complex currents, and the Heritage Branch says that even on a well-planned neap tide visibility rarely exceeds two metres on the Peary. Box jellyfish are most likely in NT waters from 1 October to 1 June, and the NT Parks and Wildlife Commission runs crocodile surveys and trapping in Darwin Harbour.

Scottish Prince, Gold Coast, Queensland

The Scottish Prince was an 850-ton iron barque built in Aberdeen in 1878. Sailing from Glasgow to Brisbane with passengers and general cargo, she ran aground on the Southport bar on 3 February 1887. Steamers failed to tow her off, she was abandoned two days later, and no one died. Divers found the wreck in 1955 and identified her by the name on the stern in 1956.

She lies in about 10 metres, roughly 500 metres offshore and 2 kilometres south of the tip of the Southport Spit, bow pointing inshore. The hull is broken into three sections: the bow and stern are reasonably intact, the sides and decks have collapsed, and shifting sand decides how much is showing. Gold Coast Dive Adventures, which calls it its favourite site, lists sponges, corals, reef and pelagic fish, rays, octopus and wobbegongs. Surge can cut visibility, and the wreck has been repeatedly looted, so leave what is left where it is.

SS Nord, Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania

On 7 November 1915 the steamer Nord, carrying 12,000 cases of benzine from Melbourne to Hobart, struck Needle Rock, an uncharted reef about four metres below the surface between Cape Hauy and the Hippolytes. Her captain tried to reach Port Arthur, but the ship was filling fast; she was taken back into Munro Bight, below Cape Pillar, and sank there at about 2 am the next morning. All 42 crew survived.

The 82-metre wreck lies about 100 metres off the Munro Bight cliffs on a sand bottom in 40 metres. The stern is the highest part, at around 31 to 33 metres, and is still substantially intact; forward of the engine the holds have collapsed, and the bow sits at about 43 metres. Yellow zoanthids cover the hull, sea whips and sponges surround it, and Michael McFadyen recommends a good torch because so little light reaches the site. The Nord is a deep dive rather than a technical-only one: 50 Great Dives lists it for Deep Divers, and McFadyen's 20-minute bottom time needed decompression stops. It is about a 30-minute boat run from Pirates Bay, exposed to southerly and south-westerly winds, with water of 12 to 18°C.

Ex-HMAS Adelaide, Central Coast, New South Wales (closed)

The 138-metre frigate was scuttled on 13 April 2011 about 1.8 kilometres off Avoca Beach, near Terrigal, in about 32 metres. Storm damage and corrosion have since made it unsafe to dive. NSW Crown Lands closed the Adelaide in July 2024 and removed the mooring buoys; a November 2024 structural report found the aluminium superstructure had detached from the hull and collapsed. Crown Lands lists entrapment, cut and crush hazards from shifting debris, and says the public should not attempt to dive the site, which remains closed.

Planning a wreck trip

Most of these wrecks are boat dives, and for the Yongala, the Brisbane and Darwin Harbour the simplest legal route is a licensed or authorised operator whose trips cover the permits. Match the dive to your training: the Brisbane's upper decks and the 10-metre Scottish Prince are within Open Water limits, operators and guides rate the Yongala, the Swan and J4 for Advanced divers, and J1, J2, J5 and the Nord are deep dives. If you want to go inside a wreck, do a wreck course first; our PADI Wreck Diver course guide covers it. Two more purpose-sunk warships, the Ex-HMAS Canberra off Ocean Grove in Victoria and the Ex-HMAS Hobart in Yankalilla Bay in South Australia, have their own pages.

The Tangalooma Wrecks off Moreton Island, pictured above, are the gentle end of the scale: 15 vessels scuttled by the Queensland Government between 1963 and 1984 to give small boats a sheltered anchorage. They sit in 2 to 12 metres and are snorkelled as well as dived, but a strong current runs between the wrecks and the beach when the tide is running, the beach is unpatrolled, and boats and jet skis pass through.

Site Access and Logistics

The Yongala is reached with Yongala Dive from Alva Beach near Ayr, a 30 to 40 minute boat ride (Advanced Open Water completed or in progress and at least 10 logged dives), or on full-day trips with Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive from Townsville and Magnetic Island (Advanced Open Water, or Open Water with deep experience; a guide is compulsory with fewer than 15 logged dives). The Brisbane's closure runs to 31 January 2027, so check the QPWS park alerts before you plan a trip. The Tobruk is dived with operators from Hervey Bay and Bundaberg; Hervey Bay Dive Centre runs two guided dives a trip, timed around the tide.

In Western Australia, Swan Dive runs charters to the Swan from Busselton and sells the permit, and Southcoast Diving Supplies in Albany is the contact for the Perth. Victorian charters to the J-class submarines leave from Portsea and Queenscliff. Dive Darwin requires PADI Advanced certification. Gold Coast Dive Adventures, based at Runaway Bay, lists the Scottish Prince among its sites, and 50 Great Dives names Eaglehawk Dive Centre at Pirates Bay and Go Dive Tasmania in Hobart for the Nord. The Tangalooma Wrecks are a 15 to 20 minute walk up the beach from Tangalooma Island Resort, which runs guided snorkel tours by boat, and Sub Surface Scuba offers double dives there with return transfers to the island.

Sources

- Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database: Yongala - Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority: Visiting maritime heritage sites - 50 Great Dives: Yongala - Yongala Dive: SS Yongala day trip, departing Alva Beach - Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive: Dive the SS Yongala wreck - Adrenalin Snorkel & Dive: SS Yongala wreck diving for certified divers - DCCEEW: Underwater Cultural Heritage Act - DCCEEW: Visiting underwater heritage sites - QPWS: Ex-HMAS Brisbane Conservation Park (parks.qld.gov.au/parks/ex-hmas-brisbane) - QPWS: Ex-HMAS Brisbane dive and permit information (parks.qld.gov.au/parks/ex-hmas-brisbane/about/dive-information) - QPWS: Ex-HMAS Brisbane nature, culture and history (parks.qld.gov.au/parks/ex-hmas-brisbane/about/culture) - Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database: Brisbane HMAS - Queensland Government: Ex-HMAS Tobruk, from wreck to reef - QPWS: Great Sandy Marine Park artificial reefs (parks.qld.gov.au/parks/great-sandy-marine/management-and-zoning/artificial-reefs) - QPWS park alert: Ex HMAS Tobruk public mooring temporarily closed - Hervey Bay Dive Centre: ex-HMAS Tobruk dive tour (diveherveybay.com.au/tours/dive-the-tobruk) - Wikipedia: HMAS Tobruk (L 50) - Margaret River Region: HMAS Swan Dive Wreck, dive permits (margaretriver.com/?p=1870103) - 50 Great Dives: HMAS Swan II (DE 50) - Wikipedia: HMAS Swan (DE 50) - Visit Albany: Former HMAS Perth II Dive Wreck - 50 Great Dives: HMAS Perth II - Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database: Perth II HMAS - Wikipedia: HMAS Perth (D 38) - Royal Australian Navy Sea Power Centre: HMAS J1 - Royal Australian Navy Sea Power Centre: HMAS J3 - Royal Australian Navy Sea Power Centre: HMAS J4 - Royal Australian Navy Sea Power Centre: HMAS J7 - Divernet: Discover the hidden treasures of Victoria's J-class submarines - Borrett: J2 Submarine - Borrett: J4 Submarine - Borrett: J5 Submarine - Wikipedia: Bombing of Darwin - Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database: USAT Meigs - Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database: USAT Mauna Loa - Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database: USS Peary (DD-226) - Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database: Catalina 4 - NT Government: Maritime heritage (nt.gov.au/leisure/arts-culture-heritage/visit-a-cultural-or-heritage-site/maritime-heritage) - NT Heritage Branch: U.S.S. Peary brochure (PDF, linked from the NT Government maritime heritage page) - Dive Darwin: Darwin Harbour wreck tours booking page (divedarwin1.rezdy.com/708255/darwin-harbour-wreck-tours) - NT Government: Box jellyfish (nt.gov.au/wellbeing/emergencies-injuries-and-accidents/bites-and-stings/box-jellyfish) - Be Crocwise, NT Government: Saltwater crocodile policy (becrocwise.nt.gov.au/crocodile-management/saltwater-crocodile-policy) - Wikipedia: Darwin Harbour - Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database: Scottish Prince - Gold Coast Dive Adventures: Gold Coast dive sites - Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database: Nord - Michael McFadyen: SS Nord - 50 Great Dives: SS Nord - NSW Crown Lands: Ensuring diver safety, Ex-HMAS Adelaide dive site closure - Wikipedia: HMAS Adelaide (FFG 01) - Tangalooma Island Resort: Tangalooma Wrecks - Sub Surface Scuba: Scuba diving Tangalooma Wrecks, double dive (subsurfacescuba.rezdy.com/93930/scuba-diving-tangalooma-wrecks)

Header photo: Aerial view of the Tangalooma Wrecks off Moreton Island, by Ishara Udawela, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.