Marlin Marina (Cairns)

Location

1 Spence Street, Cairns, Queensland 4870, in Trinity Inlet, at about 16 55.5 S 145 47 E, 1,750 km north of Brisbane and 11 km west of Cape Grafton

Operator

Far North Queensland Ports Corporation Ltd, trading as Ports North, a Queensland government-owned port corporation

Berths

261 stated by Ports North; 264 by the Super Yacht Group Great Barrier Reef; Maritime Safety Queensland gives 217 pontoon berths to 80 m plus 30 reef fleet berths plus 10 superyacht berths

Vessel range

superyachts to 140 m LOA and 6.5 m draught. Vessels to 60 m lie on floating pontoon; 60 m to 140 m go alongside the fixed wharf at Sailfish Quay

Approach

a dredged channel about 13 km long and 90 m wide carrying 8.3 m at lowest astronomical tide, entered about 10 km west of Cape Grafton, with the port pilotage plan setting minimum under keel clearance at 0.9 m or 10 per cent of draught, whichever is greater, for the general case in the fairway

Tides

semidiurnal. Mean high water springs 2.67 m, mean low water springs 0.82 m, a mean spring range of about 1.85 m, highest astronomical tide 3.57 m, all above the lowest astronomical tide datum (Maritime Safety Queensland semidiurnal tidal planes)

VHF

channel 16, call sign Marlin Marina, for the marina. Cairns VTS listens continuously on VHF 12 and VHF 16 and monitors the passage

Pilotage

compulsory under Commonwealth law for any vessel of 70 m or more in the designated Great Barrier Reef pilotage areas, including the inner route from Cape York south to latitude 16 39.91 S. Vessels over 50 m participate in Reef VTS

Shore power

water and 15 amp power on all berths, with three-phase up to 200 amps on selected berths only

Electricity charge, 2026-2027 tariff

AUD 242.43 a day including GST per three-phase outlet and AUD 83.12 a day per single-phase outlet, both qualified as if available. Water AUD 4.18 per kilolitre including GST

Fuel

refuelling facility operated under licence by Viva Energy, diesel and unleaded, 06:00 to 11:00 and 15:00 to 18:00 seven days, closed the four hours between, bookings essential, VHF 16 call sign Viva Energy. Superyacht berths can take 20,000 litre road tankers. No price published

Customs status

first port of entry. Pre-arrival report to the Australian Border Force at least 96 hours out, biosecurity clearance from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry on arrival

Quarantine waste

minimum collection fee AUD 1,111.68 including GST covering the first 100 kg, then AUD 2.83 per kg to 600 kg and AUD 3.53 per kg above

Cyclone exposure

the Regional Harbour Master directs port closure and evacuation of the marina under the Maritime Safety Queensland extreme weather contingency plan; vessels are towed or assisted to designated areas of shelter

Airport

Cairns International, about ten minutes by road. Non-stop international services include Singapore (Singapore Airlines, five a week as at August 2026, daily from December), Osaka Kansai and Tokyo Narita (Jetstar, year round), Port Moresby, Auckland, Christchurch, Bali and Fiji, with a seasonal Hong Kong service. No direct service to Europe or North America, but Singapore is a one-stop with no domestic sector

Refit

Tropical Reef Shipyard in the Cairns Marine Precinct, five minutes away, advertises 3,000 tonnes of lift on a 135 m dry rail slipway. A 5,000 tonne shiplift for vessels to 120 m is proposed but not built

What Cairns is, and what an owner plans a season around

The port of Cairns lies 1,750 kilometres north of Brisbane and 11 kilometres west of Cape Grafton, in a naturally protected harbour formed by Trinity Inlet. Marlin Marina is at 1 Spence Street, in the central business district itself, at roughly 16 degrees 55.5 minutes south, 145 degrees 47 minutes east. The reef fleet, the game fishing fleet and the cruise terminal all work out of the same water. Cairns International Airport is about ten minutes by road and the marine and refit precinct is about five. Nothing in Australia puts a superyacht this close to both a runway and the outer reef.

The season is the reason to be here and it is short. June to October is the reliable window: dry weather, calm seas, underwater visibility commonly quoted at 20 to 30 metres, and August and September the best of it. Dwarf minke whales come to the Ribbon Reefs north of Cairns in June and July, the only place in the world where you can swim with them. From November the picture inverts. Stinger season runs November to May with the worst of it December to March, the wet season brings rain and reduced visibility, and the Australian cyclone season runs November to April with the risk concentrated north of Townsville, which is to say here. An owner plans a Cairns season around a five-month dry and takes the boat somewhere else, or secures it very carefully, for the other seven.

Ports North, the berth count, and the superyacht wharf

The marina is owned and operated by Far North Queensland Ports Corporation Ltd, trading as Ports North, which also runs the ports of Cairns, Cape Flattery, Karumba, Mourilyan, Skardon River, Quintell Beach, Thursday Island, Burketown and Cooktown. It is a government-owned corporation, not a resort operator, and the marina is a working part of a working port. Ports North states 261 berths. The Super Yacht Group Great Barrier Reef listing says 264. Maritime Safety Queensland's port procedures give the most useful breakdown of the three: 217 pontoon berths for game fishing, dive, recreation and tourist vessels up to 80 metres, plus 30 reef fleet berths and 10 berths for superyachts.

The superyacht arrangement is the part that matters and it is a two-tier one. Vessels up to 60 metres go on the floating pontoons. Vessels from 60 to 140 metres go alongside the fixed wharf at Sailfish Quay. The published maximum is 140 metres length and 6.5 metres draught, which is deeper than the marina at Sanctuary Cove can contemplate and longer than any marina berth in Australia. The Super Yacht Group listing counts 12 superyacht berths against Maritime Safety Queensland's 10, so the exact number moves depending on how the quay is split on the day, and a large yacht should confirm the actual allocation rather than the headline. Crew park alongside, and the Cairns central business district, the Esplanade, the Pier Shopping Centre, the Shangri-La, the Hilton, the Pullman and the Reef Casino are all within a five-minute walk.

Every rate is published to the cent, including GST, which almost no marina in this guide manages; and the marina is evacuated on the harbour master's order often enough that the contractor's case study lists the job as annual recurring.

The channel, the tide and the pilotage

Access is through a single dredged channel running roughly 13 kilometres from a point about 10 kilometres west of Cape Grafton, 90 metres wide and carrying 8.3 metres at lowest astronomical tide. That is a real shipping channel, and it is the reason a 140 metre yacht can get here at all. It was widened and deepened under the Cairns Shipping Development Project, a Queensland government scheme costing up to AUD 127 million that dredged around 800,000 cubic metres of mud and silt through an eight kilometre pipeline to a land reuse site, built 30 new berthing dolphins on six century-old wharves, and finished its dredging in March 2020 and its wharf works in April. The stated purpose was to let vessels up to 300 metres into the port.

Working the channel is a port exercise rather than a marina one. Cairns VTS listens continuously on VHF 12 and VHF 16 and monitors the passage; you call the marina itself on VHF 16 with the call sign Marlin Marina. The pilotage plan sets minimum under keel clearance by vessel class, with 0.9 metres or 10 per cent of draught, whichever is greater, applying across the fairway for the general case. Cairns is semidiurnal, with mean high water springs at 2.67 m and mean low water springs at 0.82 m above the lowest astronomical tide datum, a mean spring range of about 1.85 m, and the highest astronomical tide at 3.57 m above datum. A deep hull is still working with the tide even in 8.3 metres of charted water, but the swing is smaller than the headline height suggests. Under the Great Barrier Reef rules any vessel of 70 metres or more must carry a licensed pilot in the compulsory pilotage areas, and vessels over 50 metres participate in Reef VTS.

What a berth costs, and why that is unusual

Ports North publishes the whole thing, which almost no marina in this guide does. The Schedule of Charges for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 prices small berths by berth size and superyachts by the metre, and prints both the GST-exclusive and GST-inclusive figure for every line. For a standard berth, daily casual rates including GST run AUD 77.24 for a 10 metre berth, AUD 92.32 for 12 metres, AUD 115.65 for 15 metres, AUD 156.01 for 18 metres and AUD 174.74 for 20 metres. Take an annual contract and the same berths fall to AUD 44.01, AUD 52.64, AUD 65.91, AUD 88.91 and AUD 99.59 a day. Multihulls pay a 50 per cent surcharge. A live-aboard charge of AUD 34.84 a week including GST applies to annual berth holders.

Above 20 metres the tariff switches to a per-metre-per-day basis with five terms: daily, weekly, four-weekly, six-monthly and annual. Daily casual inner-berth rates including GST are AUD 13.13 per metre for 20 to 25 metres, AUD 16.43 for 25 to 30 metres, AUD 23.01 for 30 to 35 metres and AUD 25.62 above 35 metres. On an annual contract the same bands fall to AUD 7.47, AUD 9.37 and AUD 13.08 per metre per day, with the top band shown as price on application. In round numbers, a 30 metre yacht on an annual contract at the inner-berth rate is about AUD 281 a day including GST, and a 40 metre yacht on a daily casual rate is about AUD 1,025 a day. Cancel inside 24 hours of arrival and Ports North may charge you a day. Invoices fall due at 30 days and unpaid accounts carry 12 per cent a year charged daily, plus a minimum AUD 100 administrative fee on recovery.

Fuel, power, water, and the charges that catch people

The refuelling facility is operated under licence by Viva Energy, with diesel and unleaded, open 06:00 to 11:00 and 15:00 to 18:00 seven days. It is shut for four hours in the middle of the day, which is exactly the window a captain would plan a fill into. Bookings are essential for every refuelling, and jerry can fills run 08:00 to 08:30 daily with no booking. Viva is on 0407 492 513 or VHF 16 with the call sign Viva Energy. Superyacht berths can also be bunkered by 20,000 litre road tanker, which is how the large end of the fleet actually takes fuel here. No pump price is published by either Ports North or Viva.

Power and water are where the bill surprises people. All berths carry water and 15 amp power, with three-phase up to 200 amps on selected berths only. Ports North charges electricity on two limbs, not one. There is a daily availability charge per outlet, AUD 242.43 a day including GST for three phase and AUD 83.12 for single phase, and on top of that one single-phase connection up to 15 amps is included in the berth fee while anything above 15 amps is metered at Ergon Energy tariff rates, and the schedule qualifies both with the words if available. Water is AUD 4.18 per kilolitre including GST. Metered power is read out on departure and invoiced separately, so you cannot leave until the reading is done. The charge most international arrivals do not budget for is quarantine waste disposal: a minimum collection fee of AUD 1,111.68 including GST covering the first 100 kilograms, then AUD 2.83 a kilogram to 600 kilograms and AUD 3.53 a kilogram above that. Everything off an international yacht is quarantine waste.

Clearing in, the charter licence, and the sunset nobody has filled

Cairns is a first port of entry and international arrivals are cleared here. Lodge a pre-arrival report with the Australian Border Force at least 96 hours out, and expect biosecurity clearance from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry on arrival, with inspection for timber pests, food and animals. Border Force, not the captain, then chooses the importation basis on the day, from temporary importation for up to 12 months, a Control Permit for pleasure cruising only, or full importation for home consumption with duty and GST payable. Full importation attracts a general customs duty of 5 per cent on the customs value and 10 per cent GST on the customs value plus international transport, insurance and the duty. Crew need a subclass 408 Temporary Activity visa obtained before arrival. Ports North will only berth a comprehensively insured vessel and wants the certificate at check-in.

Charter is the unresolved part. The Special Recreational Vessels Act 2019, passed in December of that year, allowed foreign-flagged superyachts to opt in to the coastal trading regime and charter in Australia under a Coastal Trading Temporary Licence, quoted at an AUD 400 application fee and valid 12 months, renewable, with GST applying to the charter value and the yacht required to be entered for home consumption, hold an Australian Business Number and register for GST. The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts states on its own coastal trading page that the Act sunset on 30 June 2025. Yotters could not establish from a primary source what has replaced it or whether it was extended, and industry material still describes the scheme in the present tense. That is the same gap we flagged at Sanctuary Cove and it applies identically here. If your season depends on charter income, get the current position in writing from an endorsed agent before you commit a delivery.

The Marine Park rules a visiting owner does not know to ask about

Everything seaward of the port is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, and its rules are set by vessel length in a way no Mediterranean owner will expect. Overall length for this purpose is 110 per cent of the vessel's load-line certification. A commercial superyacht, meaning one carrying anyone who has paid for passage or charter, needs a Marine Park permit, and the Reef Authority warns that a permit application can take up to 50 business days depending on complexity. Recreational use needs no permit, but a recreational superyacht registered outside Australia needs a Control Permit from the Australian Border Force and must supply that permit to the Reef Authority in order to be issued the login it needs to book anchorages at all. That is a three-step chain and each step has a lead time.

Then the length bands bite. At 35 metres or less you can anchor at all locations in the Cairns Planning Area provided group size limits are followed. Above 35 metres and below 70 metres you must anchor in designated anchorages with a booking, or outside a Location and tender in, and if you want a bad weather anchorage for northerly winds you are told to contact the Reef Authority ahead of time because special requirements apply. At 70 metres and over you are restricted to designated anchorages with a booking and you must carry a licensed pilot in the compulsory pilotage areas, which include the inner route from Cape York south to latitude 16 degrees 39.91 minutes south, a line that sits just north of Cairns. No-anchoring areas are mostly marked with white pyramid buoys carrying a blue label, but the ones at Cod Hole and Lizard Island, both prime destinations north of here, are unmarked.

Cyclone season, and where the boats go

This is the honest centre of the page. The Australian cyclone season runs November to April and Cairns sits inside the part of the Queensland coast where the risk is real. Marlin Marina is a floating marina in a river inlet, not a cyclone hole. When a system threatens, the Regional Harbour Master directs port closure and the evacuation of the marina under Maritime Safety Queensland's extreme weather contingency plan, and vessels leave for designated areas of shelter up the creeks of Trinity Inlet.

The clearest description of what that means in practice comes from North Marine, the Cairns operator engaged to carry it out. Its own case study says it provides marina evacuation assistance in the Port of Cairns for forecast severe weather, tropical cyclones and port closures directed by the Regional Harbour Master; that on the directive to evacuate Cairns Marlin Marina its workboats and crew tow unmanned vessels and assist those under power to their designated area of shelter; that vessels are re-berthed once permitted; and that it inspects and maintains existing moorings and installs cyclone-rated moorings in preparation. The line on that document that an owner should read twice is the date field, which says annual recurring. An absentee owner needs a standing arrangement with an operator, a cyclone-rated mooring booked, and insurance that has read the same document.

The yard question, and how this differs from Sanctuary Cove

Cairns has genuine marine industry and a genuine ceiling. Tropical Reef Shipyard, in the Cairns Marine Precinct five minutes from the marina and next to HMAS Cairns on the main shipping channel, advertises 3,000 tonnes of lift capacity on a 135 metre dry rail slipway, with deep-water fitout berths, and services defence and commercial work alongside yachts. BSE Cairns Slipways operates a full marine repair and refit facility on the same precinct. Above that there is a plan rather than a yard: Ports North is seeking a partner to co-fund and build a Common User Facility with a 5,000 tonne shiplift for vessels to 120 metres, climate-controlled blasting and painting sheds, a 100 metre wet berth and hardstand, and as of this writing it is at expression of interest stage, not under construction.

Against Sanctuary Cove, the trade is stark and it goes both ways. Cairns takes 140 metres against Sanctuary Cove's 150 feet, publishes every rate against Sanctuary Cove publishing none, and puts you in a shipping channel with 8.3 metres of water rather than a river the harbour master caps at 60 metres and assesses case by case above 35. Sanctuary Cove has two 300 tonne travel lifts and over 70 refit sheds within an hour and a half of the marina, a five-star resort, two golf courses and nineteen restaurants inside the gate, and sits south of the cyclone belt's worst. Cairns has a defence-oriented precinct that is superb at steel and thin at superyacht paint and interiors, a city rather than an estate outside the gate, and an evacuation plan that runs most summers. Put simply: bring a big yacht to Cairns for the reef and a dry season, and take it to the Gold Coast for the refit.

لمين هو: An owner who wants the Great Barrier Reef from a berth in a city, will run a June to October season and accepts a working port with a cyclone evacuation plan; not an owner looking for a resort berth or for heavy refit capacity on the doorstep.