Disney diving into WA shipwrecks

  • Posted by Allen Newton
  • |
  • 7 August, 2025

WESTERN Australia’s coastline is home to more than 1600 shipwrecks, many of them rich in history and intrigue with stories yet to be revealed.

The Disney+ documentary Shipwreck Hunters in its second season delves into some of those maritime histories, revealing the stories of six wrecks.

The documentary series premieres on 27 August on Disney+.

While the channel hasn’t released the names of the vessels it searches for in this series, we know they are from the Midwest, around the south coast to Esperance.

A team of divers led by Ash Sutton, Andre Rerekura, Nush Freedman, Johnny Debnam, and Ryan Chatfield is supported by maritime archaeologists Dr Ross Anderson and Dr Deb Shefi.

Season 1 of Shipwreck Hunters Australia featured wrecks of colonial-era vessels, pearling luggers and trading ships.

They included the Glenbank, a Finnish sailing shp that sank off the Pilbara coast in 1911, the location of which the team confirmed using archival research and underwater footage.

In 1727 the Zeewijk, a Dutch East India Company vessel was shipwrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, one of WA’s most famous wrecks, with a dramatic survival story involving makeshift rafts.

A Japanese air raid in 1942 sank multiple Catalina and Dornier flying boats and the team explored remnants of these wartime wrecks in Roebuck Bay, Broome.

Shipwreck Hunters Australia Season 2 is a co-production between VAM Media, Terra Australis Productions and Barking Mad Productions for Disney+. 

Posted by Allen Newton

Allen is DCN's WA correspondent. He is one of WA's most experienced journalists with a career that includes roles as Managing Editor of The Sunday Times and PerthNow and as Editor in Chief of Fairfax's WAtoday.

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