Diving the S.S. Yongala

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‘S.S. Yongala’

My first and most spectacular wreck dive was on S.S Yongala., a historic steel passenger and freight steamer that sunk in 1958 but now homes to so many invertebrates, corals and fishes. I saw so many sharks here and not to mention my first school of hammerheads.

5 / 5 Review by expert member Johnny Singh

‘Wreck of the S.S. Yongala’

The Yongala is thought of as one of the world’s ten best wreck dives because of the array of animal life that now lives in or near the wreck. Divers can see turtles, rays, giant groupers, barracudas, schools of giant trevally and cobia among others.

This steamer ship sank in 1911 but lay undiscovered for 50 years. It is the largest and most intact wreck in Australian waters.

Nearby Heron Island is also home to a turtle sanctuary and the famous Heron Island Bommie dive.

Review by editor Worldreviewer

‘Wreck of the Yongala’

Again, this has been called ‘the best dive in the world’ and ‘the best wreck in the world’ but it’s hard to compare dive or wreck sites. This is a steamer trading ship which was caught in a cyclone off Cape Bowling Green, just off Townsville on Australia’s east coast, in 1911 - which is why some guides will tell you it's Australia’s Titanic.

It sunk onto sand which is probably why it’s so well preserved and against the Great Barrier Reef which is probably why it’s now a garden of colourful coral. It also sunk in an upright position which makes it easy to get around, but you’re not allowed to go inside, it’s a finable offence and people have been fined. There’s plenty to see on the outside, as well as the coral gardens, full of anemones and sponges, there are batfish in schools which move like magic carpets across the wrecks surface, beautiful, flying manta rays and eagle rays, jacks, wrasse, barracuda, giant groupers, trevally, as well as turtles, octopuses, bull sharks, tiger sharks and sea snakes. This is part of the Great Barrier Reef so this amount of life and colour is to be expected, but it’s still astonishing to see how nature reclaims wrecks. It’s like Geoffrey Rush’s character’s face from the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films, corals growing on to other corals or on to living, moving creatures and parts of the wreck.

In water about 15ms deep at its shallowest point the wreck is about 100ms long. Currents can be unpredictable and so can visibility, but people who have done a lot of wreck diving rave about this wreck despite that.

Review by expert member Nick Shaw