⚠ NOT FOR NAVIGATION. Use official charts and tide tables. This page is a planning aid only. Navigate with the current AHO chart, MSQ notices to mariners, official tide tables and local advice.

Brisbane River cruising guide

Official MSQ Beacon to Beacon mapsMB-10 map (PDF)MB-11 map (PDF)BR-4 map (PDF)BR-5 map (PDF)BR-7 map (PDF)Free official PDFs from Maritime Safety Queensland. Each button opens the right sheet.
Mouth to the city and upriver · 2 guidesLast checked: 18 October 2026Report a correction

The Brisbane River is a working port at the mouth and a city waterway higher up. Small boats share the cuttings with ships, so keep to the edges and keep a radio watch. Rivergate, just below the Gateway bridges, is where yachts arriving from overseas clear customs and biosecurity, and there's a shipyard close by. Upriver, berths at Dockside and in the city put you within walking distance of the CBD, with bridges whose clearances you need to check before you go.

Map of the Brisbane River region (Mouth to the city and upriver) with a numbered marker for each of its 2 cruising guide pages.
Numbers match the guide list below. Each name links to its page. Positions are approximate. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Positions are approximate and for orientation only. Not a chart. Not for navigation.
  1. 1Brisbane River Entrance & Rivergate · Port entry / customs / shipyard
  2. 2Brisbane City & Upriver · City marina + upriver

Guides in this region, south to north

Brisbane River Entrance & Rivergate

Port entry / customs / shipyard

Entering the Brisbane River in a yacht: ship-channel radio rules, no-anchor reaches, Rivergate's customs berth, fuel and haul-out.

Last checked: 18 October 2026 ⚠ 1 item flagged unverified

Brisbane City & Upriver

City marina + upriver

Berthing a boat in Brisbane CBD: Dockside Marina, Gardens Point, Story Bridge air draught, then upriver notes to Moggill and Ipswich.

Last checked: 18 October 2026 ⚠ 2 items flagged unverified

Entrances from the sea

Before any bar crossing, read MSQ's bar advice and the current notices to mariners. Depths on bars change between surveys.

Neighbouring regions

About these guides

These are planning notes written by a working delivery skipper from public sources: MSQ maps and notices, NGA Pub. 127 and OpenStreetMap. They are not for navigation. Use the official AHO charts, current MSQ notices to mariners, official tide tables and local advice. Each page shows when its facts were last checked and flags anything dated or unconfirmed.

Sources & credits

Maritime Safety Queensland. Contains Maritime Safety Queensland data (Beacon to Beacon guide, notices to mariners, nav-aid open data, pump-out map C2-335, speed-limit schedule, tide information) © State of Queensland (Department of Transport and Main Roads), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Facts restated and summarised in our own words. Not endorsed by MSQ or TMR.

Queensland legislation. Transport Operations (Marine Safety) Regulation 2016 and Transport Infrastructure (Waterways Management) Regulation 2012 © State of Queensland, CC BY 4.0. Summarised; the authorised versions at legislation.qld.gov.au prevail.

NGA. Background from NGA Pub. 127, Sailing Directions (Enroute) East Coast of Australia and New Zealand (2025), U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, a US Government work in the public domain. Parts of it are out of date; where a page leans on it, we say so. Not endorsed by NGA.

OpenStreetMap. Map tiles and some facility positions © OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL).

Others. Facts from local authority pages and notices (for example the Gold Coast Waterways Authority), volunteer marine rescue sites and businesses' own websites are cited for fact only and restated in our own words. Listing a business is not an endorsement.

Spotted something wrong or out of date? Report a correction and tell us what you saw and when.

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