SS Yongala Dive Site
SS Yongala Dive Site
4.5
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Full view
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Alva Beach, Queensland, Australia
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SS Yongala Dive Site
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4.5
75 reviews
Excellent
55
Very good
13
Average
3
Poor
0
Terrible
4
Jim
Brisbane7 contributions
July 2020 • Solo
Well well, best dive site on the East Coast of Australia. The Yongala dive Crew are awesome, the Skipper, instructor( Sally too) who run the boat and diving on the day are very professional. The dive and boat brief was every informative and accurate. This dive site can be dived by any certified open water diver, (In my opinion) and on 19 th July 2020 the dive was unbelievable, fish and coral of the highest quality. The double dived I enjoyed was amazing. These guys have the best gear/boat/experience to make the trip to Alva Beach worth it. I’ll be back again 100% sure of that.
Written 21 July 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Alwyn Gravey
1 contribution
Oct 2022 • Solo
Incredible dive site and great crew. Had such a good time with the team from yongala dive. Steve, Am and Dan where all great to be around and very helpful. Definitely recommend diving this wreck, so much to see.
Written 11 October 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Fourb2
Antipodes10,605 contributions
First a little background;
The S.S. Yongala left Melbourne for Cairns on her last voyage on March 14th, 1911. On board, she carried 29 first class passengers, 19 second class passengers, 72 crew members and a race horse. She was scheduled to arrive in Townsville at approximately 6.00am on March 24th, but never arrived. Approximately 11 miles off the coast of Cape Bowling Green, the S.S. Yongala presumably became overwhelmed by a severe cyclone and sank. The search that followed was one of the most intensive in Australian maritime history, but to no avail.
In 1943, a WW2 mine sweeper clearing a shipping lane came across a large object, however it was entered as a shoal on the sea charts. In 1947 the "object" was identified as a ship wreck, but it was not until 1958 that the watery grave of the S.S. Yongala was finally identified.
When the Yongala sank it locked up memories of a past era, and today gives those who visit the wreck a glimpse into yesteryear. Scattered throughout are signs of how people lived aboard ships almost 100 years ago. Dinner plates, knives, forks, lamps, bath tubs, toilets and bed frames among other items can all be seen if one is observant. Near the bow in a section of the ship which was once the crews quarters is evidence of skeletal remains.
Diving into the deep;
The first thing you'll notice about the dive site is the enormous abundance of fish life.....Even before you take the plunge off the boat you'll be surrounded by huge batfish and red emperors, not to mention the sea snakes and turtles, all coming up to check you out and see what they can scrounge from the boat. On a clear day, the outline of the wreck may become visible from the deck of the boat...all 363ft of her stretched out below you, it's quite a vision!
A descent line is usually necessary for the dive as the current can tend to be a bit strong mid-water. One of the most exhilarating feelings as a diver is watching the S.S. Yongala come into view at only a few metres under the waves. Her port side is poised at only 12 metres below the surface while the starboard side sits at about 27m. One of the best pieces of advise you can take on this dive is NOT to try to see the whole wreck in one dive, you'll just wear yourself out and miss most of the excitement.
Once you reach the sunken vessel, you enter a world of wonder and beauty unlike any other wreck beneath the sea. This is partly due to the fact that the Yongala is almost completely intact and has become a self-supporting ecosystem, and partly because the amazing diversity of marine life seems so BIG! Corals of every shape colour and size form a coral forest over the wreck and provides the backdrop to some fascinating fish life.
Schools of bait fish that seem to total in the millions, Barracuda, giant gropers the size of small cars, huge schools of every type of tropical marine fish you can imagine, and the rays! Schools of giant rays that hover just above you! But don't forget to look for the little things, small clown fish playing in the anemone, brightly coloured Nudibranch's, exotic sea fans, and so much more.
The S.S. Yongala left Melbourne for Cairns on her last voyage on March 14th, 1911. On board, she carried 29 first class passengers, 19 second class passengers, 72 crew members and a race horse. She was scheduled to arrive in Townsville at approximately 6.00am on March 24th, but never arrived. Approximately 11 miles off the coast of Cape Bowling Green, the S.S. Yongala presumably became overwhelmed by a severe cyclone and sank. The search that followed was one of the most intensive in Australian maritime history, but to no avail.
In 1943, a WW2 mine sweeper clearing a shipping lane came across a large object, however it was entered as a shoal on the sea charts. In 1947 the "object" was identified as a ship wreck, but it was not until 1958 that the watery grave of the S.S. Yongala was finally identified.
When the Yongala sank it locked up memories of a past era, and today gives those who visit the wreck a glimpse into yesteryear. Scattered throughout are signs of how people lived aboard ships almost 100 years ago. Dinner plates, knives, forks, lamps, bath tubs, toilets and bed frames among other items can all be seen if one is observant. Near the bow in a section of the ship which was once the crews quarters is evidence of skeletal remains.
Diving into the deep;
The first thing you'll notice about the dive site is the enormous abundance of fish life.....Even before you take the plunge off the boat you'll be surrounded by huge batfish and red emperors, not to mention the sea snakes and turtles, all coming up to check you out and see what they can scrounge from the boat. On a clear day, the outline of the wreck may become visible from the deck of the boat...all 363ft of her stretched out below you, it's quite a vision!
A descent line is usually necessary for the dive as the current can tend to be a bit strong mid-water. One of the most exhilarating feelings as a diver is watching the S.S. Yongala come into view at only a few metres under the waves. Her port side is poised at only 12 metres below the surface while the starboard side sits at about 27m. One of the best pieces of advise you can take on this dive is NOT to try to see the whole wreck in one dive, you'll just wear yourself out and miss most of the excitement.
Once you reach the sunken vessel, you enter a world of wonder and beauty unlike any other wreck beneath the sea. This is partly due to the fact that the Yongala is almost completely intact and has become a self-supporting ecosystem, and partly because the amazing diversity of marine life seems so BIG! Corals of every shape colour and size form a coral forest over the wreck and provides the backdrop to some fascinating fish life.
Schools of bait fish that seem to total in the millions, Barracuda, giant gropers the size of small cars, huge schools of every type of tropical marine fish you can imagine, and the rays! Schools of giant rays that hover just above you! But don't forget to look for the little things, small clown fish playing in the anemone, brightly coloured Nudibranch's, exotic sea fans, and so much more.
Written 1 October 2009
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Justin E
Feldmeilen1 contribution
Aug 2013 • Friends
My Dive at Yongala wasn't safe at all. My air bottle was loosing air, I mentioned it to the Crew but they didn't fix it. I ran out of air quite quick and gave a sign to our dive guide a couple of times but he continued the dive. At the beginning of our safety stop on our ascent at 10m depth I was already at 0.5 bar. There was en extra regulator, but this one let water through and not usable. As I was really low on air the dive guide gave me his extra regulator but his was CRASHED AS WELL!! I was down there with six other rather unexperienced diver and the regulator of our guide was broken! The behaviour of the crew was absolutely negligent. Finally I reached the surface with 0.2 bar.. I am glad that nothing serious happend I would recommend everyone not to go there.
Written 30 July 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
KiaHagglund
3 contributions
Apr 2014
Boat in an absolutely terrible state! Broken down several times according to employees!
Our trip started with motor not getting any petrol! Instructors had to fidle around with boat mechanics. Got it working. Skipper decided to just go for it! 3/4 of time out we were airborn due to speed. (Whole trip very uncomfortable and felt really unsafe) The boat crashed back into the water causing one of the air"ballons" to pop/rupture! The guys still kept going until we reached the dive site. There they said the boat was not "seaworthy" and we had to go back. It would take 1/2 hour back! And the boat was deflating! There was another boat at the site but clearly the employees didn't even consider going to that boat to get assistance! Instead they offered us cheese and crackers! I will never attempt a second dive w this guys! Called the owner. Spoke to a Sarah and told her I was one of the divers on the boat which was driven to break and she said. "OK, what do you want!" Not a single sorry!!! She said she was going to call me back because she was to busy to speak. So far nothing!
Our trip started with motor not getting any petrol! Instructors had to fidle around with boat mechanics. Got it working. Skipper decided to just go for it! 3/4 of time out we were airborn due to speed. (Whole trip very uncomfortable and felt really unsafe) The boat crashed back into the water causing one of the air"ballons" to pop/rupture! The guys still kept going until we reached the dive site. There they said the boat was not "seaworthy" and we had to go back. It would take 1/2 hour back! And the boat was deflating! There was another boat at the site but clearly the employees didn't even consider going to that boat to get assistance! Instead they offered us cheese and crackers! I will never attempt a second dive w this guys! Called the owner. Spoke to a Sarah and told her I was one of the divers on the boat which was driven to break and she said. "OK, what do you want!" Not a single sorry!!! She said she was going to call me back because she was to busy to speak. So far nothing!
Written 27 April 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Johann&Sandra
8,248 contributions
Sept 2012 • Couples
We recently dove the SS Yongala, and frankly we expected it to be a bit overhyped. We were amazed to find out that it really is that good! The visibility is not that great here (maybe 40-50 feet on a good day), and there can be strong currents at times (though not bad at all when we went), but if I add up all the marine life "highlights" from my last 20 dives or so, I think I saw all of them on one dive on Yongala!
LOCATION - Yongala is located about 30 minutes offshore of Alva Beach by zodiac (the dive shop there is Yongala Dive). It's about 15 minutes east of Ayr, and about 85 km from Townsville. We drove down from Townsville that morning - took about 1.5 hours. There is road construction going on right now along this stretch, so that can take time if you hit it - luckily when we went through, they hadn't started work yet. It's a really isolated dive site, there is nothing else to dive nearby except Yongala.
THE DIVE SITE - SS Yongala is not a huge ship, only about 150m long, lying on its side, with the bottom being about 28m and the top about 14m deep. It is a grave site, as all the passengers and crew went down with the ship, though the remains have been safely stored in an enclosed area that is not accessible. You can't penetrate Yongala, only swim along the outside. There is a lot of coral still covering the ship, even though some of it got blown away by a cyclone some time back. The real attraction to Yongala is the thralls of marine life that is attracted here.
Water temps are cool, you'll be using a 5mm wetsuit, but we were comfortable. You basically swim out along the bottom and back along the top, then when you get back to the start, you swim around along the top watching the marine life. This can make it crowded toward the end of the dive because the shop takes up to 12 divers in 2 groups at a time, all sharing the same 150m stretch of water.
THE DIVE - Our day was sunny and warm, and the water was relatively calm. There is a descent line you will use to go up and down. The current was light this day, and almost immediately we were surrounded by several large groupers and large trevally, mackerel and a lone barracuda.
Within a minute, a huge marble ray swooped right over my head, then swam calmly beside me for a couple minutes more before disappearing. Just as I turned my head, another huge marble ray hovered just above me, playing in my bubbles. A sea snake slithered near the bottom below, and everywhere I looked another big grouper or huge angelfish was lurking. As we rounded the top, we were literally swarmed by schools of tiny fish, so thick they were actually obscuring our view of the massive ecosystem at work there. The first dive was deep so everyone had a bottom time of about 30-38 minutes.
After our surface interval, the sun came out more, bringing out more of the colors of the reef. The current subsided, and we had a really relaxing dive. An eagle ray popped out of the blue immediately, several sea snakes, a gargantuan sea turtle, a reef shark, huge schools of trevally and jack, all you could do was literally just hover and stare and see what passed by you next. The divemasters didn't even bother pointing things out because everyone just swam around with their jaws (figuratively) hanging open.
Although the visibility was certainly a lot less than most of the sites we'd dove recently, it wasn't until we started to recount what we saw after the dive that it really struck us how amazing this spot is. That's when we realized that any one of the things we'd seen would have been the "talked-about highlight" of most of our other dives in other parts of the world. There were just so many highlights we lost sight of them all. Until we sat and thought about it, we weren't sure that it was worth our drive all the way down from Cairns, but now in reflection, it for sure was.
LOCATION - Yongala is located about 30 minutes offshore of Alva Beach by zodiac (the dive shop there is Yongala Dive). It's about 15 minutes east of Ayr, and about 85 km from Townsville. We drove down from Townsville that morning - took about 1.5 hours. There is road construction going on right now along this stretch, so that can take time if you hit it - luckily when we went through, they hadn't started work yet. It's a really isolated dive site, there is nothing else to dive nearby except Yongala.
THE DIVE SITE - SS Yongala is not a huge ship, only about 150m long, lying on its side, with the bottom being about 28m and the top about 14m deep. It is a grave site, as all the passengers and crew went down with the ship, though the remains have been safely stored in an enclosed area that is not accessible. You can't penetrate Yongala, only swim along the outside. There is a lot of coral still covering the ship, even though some of it got blown away by a cyclone some time back. The real attraction to Yongala is the thralls of marine life that is attracted here.
Water temps are cool, you'll be using a 5mm wetsuit, but we were comfortable. You basically swim out along the bottom and back along the top, then when you get back to the start, you swim around along the top watching the marine life. This can make it crowded toward the end of the dive because the shop takes up to 12 divers in 2 groups at a time, all sharing the same 150m stretch of water.
THE DIVE - Our day was sunny and warm, and the water was relatively calm. There is a descent line you will use to go up and down. The current was light this day, and almost immediately we were surrounded by several large groupers and large trevally, mackerel and a lone barracuda.
Within a minute, a huge marble ray swooped right over my head, then swam calmly beside me for a couple minutes more before disappearing. Just as I turned my head, another huge marble ray hovered just above me, playing in my bubbles. A sea snake slithered near the bottom below, and everywhere I looked another big grouper or huge angelfish was lurking. As we rounded the top, we were literally swarmed by schools of tiny fish, so thick they were actually obscuring our view of the massive ecosystem at work there. The first dive was deep so everyone had a bottom time of about 30-38 minutes.
After our surface interval, the sun came out more, bringing out more of the colors of the reef. The current subsided, and we had a really relaxing dive. An eagle ray popped out of the blue immediately, several sea snakes, a gargantuan sea turtle, a reef shark, huge schools of trevally and jack, all you could do was literally just hover and stare and see what passed by you next. The divemasters didn't even bother pointing things out because everyone just swam around with their jaws (figuratively) hanging open.
Although the visibility was certainly a lot less than most of the sites we'd dove recently, it wasn't until we started to recount what we saw after the dive that it really struck us how amazing this spot is. That's when we realized that any one of the things we'd seen would have been the "talked-about highlight" of most of our other dives in other parts of the world. There were just so many highlights we lost sight of them all. Until we sat and thought about it, we weren't sure that it was worth our drive all the way down from Cairns, but now in reflection, it for sure was.
Written 28 September 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
KnightFire
Slough, UK38 contributions
Nov 2011 • Solo
I booked this trip as a lasty minuite thing as it looked like it would fit in nicely with the time I had left in Oz.
When I met people and told them my plans they were saying to me that it is one of the 10 best dive sites in the world and that I wouldnt be dissapointed.
Well they were right!. Its not so much that the wreck is amazing its the amount and the size of the animals that go there!.
We saw lots of huge Turtles, Rays, Sharks, Grouper, Potato Cod, Morays, Snakes and more.
I only wish that I had planned to stay a day longer and go out to sea the next day and fit in a couple more dives on the Yongala
Deffinately worth a visit!
When I met people and told them my plans they were saying to me that it is one of the 10 best dive sites in the world and that I wouldnt be dissapointed.
Well they were right!. Its not so much that the wreck is amazing its the amount and the size of the animals that go there!.
We saw lots of huge Turtles, Rays, Sharks, Grouper, Potato Cod, Morays, Snakes and more.
I only wish that I had planned to stay a day longer and go out to sea the next day and fit in a couple more dives on the Yongala
Deffinately worth a visit!
Written 16 December 2011
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Rod P
Perth, Australia56 contributions
Oct 2016
As everyone says the quality of the dive and site are weather dependant. A rought trip out and strong current could spoil your day. We had an unusually flat sea and good visability for the site.
Lots of fish life and following the wreck profile is easy to follow a dive plan.
Pick the dive company dependant on the boat size or journey time to suit you.
I agree with the other reviewers, well worth the effort to dive here, just hope you weather is as good as we had.
Lots of fish life and following the wreck profile is easy to follow a dive plan.
Pick the dive company dependant on the boat size or journey time to suit you.
I agree with the other reviewers, well worth the effort to dive here, just hope you weather is as good as we had.
Written 30 October 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Phatt_T0ny
Cairns, Australia220 contributions
Sept 2012 • Friends
My complaint: I was so overwhelmed by the amazing diversity of marine life in such a small area that I forgot there was even a ship wreck near by....
Seriously though, I have taken diving trips all over the world and this is one of the most amazing dive sites I have visited to date.
Seriously though, I have taken diving trips all over the world and this is one of the most amazing dive sites I have visited to date.
Written 15 April 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Mandy S
Holland47 contributions
Dec 2012 • Friends
Gorgeous shipwreck. Did my hundred dive on it and it was beautiul :)
The first dive we had absolutley no current at all and the second dive just bit, so it was still pleasant diving! The wreck is more then 100 years old and you definitely have to dive it when you are around!!
The first dive we had absolutley no current at all and the second dive just bit, so it was still pleasant diving! The wreck is more then 100 years old and you definitely have to dive it when you are around!!
Written 29 January 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Are there any tours that go to both Yongala and Ribbon Reef? From what I've read, those are the 2 most interesting sites (correct me if I'm wrong)
Written 24 May 2020
Do i need a dive certificate before diving or do you instruct?
Written 18 August 2018
The Yongala is quite a deep dive (26m deep or so) and experience is highly recommended. Doing it without a license is not a good idea.
Having said that, they do instruct, but again, you’d be much better off with some prior experience
Written 18 August 2018
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