5500 seems like a large number, but Australia's a young country, and as Allan says, they may not have caught them all yet.

While researching losses of Fleetwood Trawlers, I had sight of a hard-copy version of Shipwreck Index of the British Isles: Vol 4 Scotland by Richard Larn. There's a graphic representation in it where each dot represents the geographical location of individual shipwrecks. The coast of Great Britain and Ireland is thickly outlined, with even inland waterways, lakes and lochs showing recorded losses.

I later came across a website for the publishers which seems to offer the eventual possibility of an online search facility.

From the FAQs page of Shipwrecks UK website :-

"How many wrecks are detailed within Shipwrecks UK?

Well over 44,000 shipwrecks, within the sea areas surrounding Great Britain and Ireland. The number continues to grow, as a result of additional research, acquisition of additional historic reference material, and new wrecks."

On the Shipwrecks UK website, the "map" mentioned above is shown in the thumbnail pic to the left of the banner heading on each page.

Ross