Redcliffe Marina

Use this listing for Redcliffe Marina as a managed berth facility. TMR confirms bilge/sullage pump-out service is available to berth holders and directs berth availability enquiries to the marina manager.

Services are basic, transparent and priced by the metre. The 74 floating berths are stern-to pens taking vessels to 15 metres and, at a surcharge, beyond; every berth has power and water, with wi-fi, toilets and an electronic security gate, for which access tags carry a $25 refundable deposit. A bilge and sullage pump-out service is available to berth holders.

The published schedule (which includes GST) starts a 10-metre monohull at $595 per month or $5,650 per year, rising to $880 per month or $7,000 annually for 15 metres, with multihulls over five metres of beam charged roughly half as much again. Berth applications do not confer liveaboard rights: living aboard requires a separate approval, numbers are limited, and the charges are deliberately light, $60 a week for a single or $80 for a couple, and $220 to $280 per calendar month, with the first days complimentary.

Casual berthing exists but is constrained by low vacancy. Depth in the marina is under two metres at low water, manoeuvring room is rated tight, and tidal flow through the harbour arm demands attention when berthing. There is no fuel wharf, travel lift, hardstand or chandlery within the TMR marina; those needs are met next door at the private Scarborough Marina, which runs a 35-tonne travel lift, a Wiggins forklift, hardstand and drystack launching for power boats to 10 metres plus tenant marine trades.

The marina manager is reachable by mobile for berth enquiries, and berth layout and navigation plans are published on the department's site.

Scarborough Boat Harbour is the most protected all-weather harbour on the northern Moreton Bay shore, and the cruising ground at its doorstep explains the waiting lists. Moreton Island's western anchorages, the Tangalooma wrecks and the Big Sandhills lie a comfortable day sail across the bay; northward, the leads into Pumicestone Passage open the sheltered run to Caloundra; and the bay's island-fringed waters hold mackerel, snapper and whiting, with humpback whales passing through from June to November.

Inside the harbour the quirks are practical: depths are modest, so deeper keelboats work the tides, and the marina's low-water depths of under two metres rule out big draughts. Ashore, the Redcliffe Peninsula operates as a self-contained seaside town. Scarborough's cafes and takeaway strip front the harbour, the Sunday markets fill Redcliffe Parade, Suttons Beach and the Settlement Cove lagoon handle swimming days, and the Bee Gees Way display on the foreshore marks the suburb where the Gibb brothers signed their first contract.

Supplies, marine hardware and public transport are all close, with Brisbane's CBD about 35 kilometres away by road or reachable by bus and the Redcliffe Peninsula rail line, and whale-watching boats work the bay from the harbour in season. Local history runs deep for those interested: the 1824 convict settlement at Redcliffe was Queensland's first European foothold before it shifted to the Brisbane River the following year.

For berth holders the appeal is simple arithmetic: government-scale fees, an honest pump-out, a quiet liveaboard policy and a bay full of weekend destinations.