Stunning images of WWII wrecks

An unexploded mine, a life raft and a "floral tribute" to those lost at sea have been uncovered by researchers exploring the wrecks of Australia's best known warship and the German raider that sank it.

The joint Curtin University and WA Museum expedition to photograph the wrecks of HMAS Sydney II and the HSK Kormoran snapped images of the torn bow of the Sydney, a mine amid the wreck of the Kormoran and a garden of anemones that had sprung up on the German vessel, looking like flowers at a gravesite.

The photographs included one of a Carley float - a type of life raft - among the Sydney debris.

A Carley float washed up on Christmas Island in 1942 containing the body of a sailor presumed to have been from the Sydney.

A Carley Float pictured with the wreck of the HMAS Sydney. Picture: WA Museum

Photos taken on a WA Museum/Curtin University expedition to HMAS Sydney II. Picture: WA Museum.

Images taken of HMAS Sydney. Picture: WA Museum

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Curtin University research engineer Andrew Woods said the 2008 expedition that discovered the Sydney and Kormoran wrecks collected about 1500 images. This year's expedition had taken more like 700,000.

Dr Woods was yesterday aboard the research ship Skandi Protector, which was due to return to Henderson this morning.

HMAS Sydney. Picture: WA Museum

"I feel extremely privileged to be working and exploring this site and being part of delivering this very significant part of the Australian story to people who will not be able to see it with their own eyes," he said.

The Sydney and the Kormoran were destroyed in battle in November 1941 off WA.

For many years the fate of the Sydney and her 645 crew was a mystery until the two wrecks were found about 200km west of Shark Bay.

Anemones growing on the wreck of the HSK Kormoran. Picture: WA Museum