Townsville is the gateway for Magnetic Island and SS Yongala

  • Location: 19.25120, 146.80020
  • Population: 178,860 (2016 ) United Nations
  • Elevation: 15 m
  • Area 693.3 km²

Off the Queensland coast from Townsville is the 100-year-old shipwreck SS Yongala.

One hundred twenty-five kilometres of reefs offer coral gardens, amazing dropoffs and outer reefs with pinnacles and deep w off the coast of Townsville. 

The most famous Reef for scuba divers is the Yongala Wreck, considered one of Word’s top ten wreck sitesWord.

  • Wheeler Reef

Considered ideal for night dives, it’s on the continental shelf and in the shape of a perfect circle. The options range from soft corals and isolated bommies to branching corals and plate formations. Marine life includes a buffet of fish, Reef sharks, rays and eels.

  • Yongala Wreck

the 110 metres long SS Yongala shipwreck that became a shipwreck losing all onboard 122 lives in cyclonic weather on the 28th January 1896, one of the worst marine disasters in Australia’s history.

The SS Yongala wreck continues as one of the World’s Great Wreck scuba dives.

Advanced scuba divers will see a fantastic variety of Reef life, giant sea turtles, manta rays, giant barracuda, and sea snakes.

Queensland Groupers are by far the most spectacular fish on the wreck.

Marine Biologists visiting the SS Yongala claim that the wreck has a broader variety of coral than most reefs.

For Advanced Scuba divers, only the SS Yongala wreck offers amazing dives with abundant marine life.

Make sure you don’t miss the chance to dive into this wreck.

If you want to dive the SS Yongala and are not an advanced scuba diver, head to Cairns to learn to dive and become an advanced scuba diver.