⚠ 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.

Round Hill Creek & 1770

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Shallow creek bar · moorings · ramps · Bustard Bay anchorageLast checked: 27 October 2026Report a correction

Round Hill Creek is the little river at the Town of 1770, tucked in behind Round Hill Head. It's a gorgeous spot and the first real stop north of Bundaberg, but the way in is over a shallow, moving sand bar that's really for small boats and shoal-draft cruisers on a good tide. If you draw much, the honest answer is often to anchor out in Bustard Bay and dinghy in, or keep going to Pancake Creek.

Map of Round Hill Creek and the Town of 1770 with markers for the yellow buoy inside the bar, the creek entrance buoys, the sunken vessel buoy, the Town of 1770 ramp and the Round Hill Head light. — Round Hill Creek and 1770. Purple: buoys and features; green: ramp; red: hazard. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Positions are approximate and for orientation only. **Not a chart. Not for navigation.**
1Yellow buoy inside the bar (MSQ 455(T)) · Unlit special mark, August 2026.
2Round Hill Creek 1 and 2 buoys · Mark the creek, not the bar.
3Sunken vessel, Fl Y 3 (MSQ 521(T)) · In the mooring field.
4Town of 1770 ramp · OSM / TMR.

At a glance


What it is	Shallow coastal creek with a town, moorings and ramps
Bar	NGA gives only 0.6 to 1 m over the bar. MSQ says the channels move and shoal all the time
Marks	Unlit yellow buoy inside the bar (455(T)/2026); creek buoys 1 and 2 mark the creek only (376/2026)
Outside	Bustard Bay, sheltered in SE winds 1.5 miles W of the N end of Round Hill Head (NGA)
Map age	MSQ DC-3 current to 9 December 2020, with no soundings

Getting in over the bar

⚠ Call marine rescue before you cross. Bar conditions change quickly and our notes can't keep up. Before crossing, contact MRQ Round Hill (Marine Rescue Round Hill, Seventeen Seventy) for current bar conditions, and log on before you cross and off once you're through.

MRQ says radio monitoring at Round Hill is suspended (update of 8 July 2026). Log on/off with MRQ Gladstone (07) 4972 3333 or MRQ Bundaberg (07) 4159 4349, or on VHF 81 or 82
MRQ Round Hill duty phone: 0427 747 477
Emergency: VHF 16 or Triple Zero (000)

MSQ asks you to talk to MRQ Round Hill about the bar before crossing, but MRQ says its radio watch there is suspended for now, so ring the duty phone and log on with Gladstone or Bundaberg.

Contacts checked on the unit's official website on 19 October 2026: www.mrq.qld.gov.au/rescue-units/mrq-round-hill.

The bar. NGA says several beacons mark the creek entrance, with only 0.6 to 1 m over the bar. MSQ's DC sheets carry no soundings at all here: they're drawn from 2018 satellite imagery. So you're reading the water and the tide, not a chart.

What MSQ says now. Notice 455(T)/2026 (14 August 2026) put an unlit yellow buoy on the inside of the bar at about 24°09.175'S 151°52.814'E. The same notice says the channels over the bar are always moving or shoaling, to plan for the tide, your draft and the conditions, to avoid crossing at night, and to talk to MRQ Round Hill first. Notice 376/2026 (15 July 2026) moved buoys Round Hill Creek 1 and 2 to mark the best water inside the creek, and MSQ is clear they're not bar marks.

Coming from the south. Round Hill Head has a light, and NGA says it gives good radar returns out to about 17 miles. The south end of Bustard Bay is shallow, under 2 m inside the 5.5 m line.

Anchoring and moorings

Bustard Bay. NGA says the bay only gives shelter in offshore winds, but small craft can get protection from SE winds in 4.5 to 5.5 m about 1.5 miles W of the north end of Round Hill Head. That's the usual waiting spot for the tide.
In the creek. There's a mooring field off the town. ⚠ 521(T)/2026 (2 October 2026): a sunken, semi-submerged vessel in the mooring field outside the main channel at about 24°10.208'S 151°52.713'E, marked by a lit yellow buoy (Fl Y 3). ⚠ 328(T) and 102(T) of 2026 are also listed as sunken-vessel notices for this creek; check the Capricorn Coast list for what's still current.

Facilities

Ramp. The Town of 1770 ramp is on the creek (TMR lists it with 3 lanes and toilets), with a pontoon nearby.
MRQ Round Hill is based in Seventeen Seventy, but see the rescue box above about its radio watch.

Rules in brief

Marine park. The creek and bay sit next to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and inside Queensland marine park waters. Check the Reef Authority zoning map before fishing.
Notices. Capricorn Coast notices cover this creek. Read the latest before you go, because buoys here get moved.

Ashore

What's within about a 15-minute walk (1.2 km) of each marina, ramp or landing on this page, measured along streets and footpaths in OpenStreetMap. Addresses are from OpenStreetMap where it has one; where it doesn't, we show the name and distance only. ⚠ As at 18 October 2026: we haven't confirmed each place is still trading, so check before you walk.

From Town of 1770 ramp (boat ramp / dinghy landing)

Name	Type	Walk	Street address (OSM)
Bars, pubs and clubs
Cooper	Pub	570 m	–
Restaurants and cafes
1770 Marina Cafe	Cafe	200 m	Captain Cook Drive, 4677
The Tree	Restaurant	550 m	–

No marine stores or chandlers are mapped in OpenStreetMap within the walk; see the Facilities section above for marine businesses we know of.

Places, types, addresses and walking distances: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), fetched 18 October 2026.

About this page

These are free planning notes written by a working delivery skipper from public sources. They are not for navigation. Use the official chart, current MSQ notices to mariners, official tide tables and local advice. Spotted something out of date? Please use Report a correction below.

Official links

Check these before you go. They beat anything on this page.

Sources & credits

Written in our own words from MSQ Beacon to Beacon Discovery Coast sheet DC-3 (current to 9 December 2020) (read 19 October 2026; each MSQ sheet carries its own 'information current to' date, quoted on the page), NGA Pub. 127 Sailing Directions (Enroute) East Coast of Australia and New Zealand (2025), the MSQ notices-to-mariners listings on publications.qld.gov.au (notices named on the page read in full on 19 October 2026; notice lists rechecked 27 October 2026), the Queensland Government (TMR) recreational boating facilities list (fetched 19 October 2026), Marine Rescue Queensland unit pages (checked 19 October 2026), Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority zoning pages (linked, not reproduced) and OpenStreetMap. NGA Pub. 127 Sector 5 (Round Hill Head and Bustard Bay). MSQ notices 455(T)/2026 (14 August 2026), 376/2026 (15 July 2026) and 521(T)/2026 (2 October 2026) read in full on 19 October 2026; 328(T) and 102(T) of 2026 identified by title.

Maritime Safety Queensland. Contains Maritime Safety Queensland data (Beacon to Beacon guide, notices to mariners, nav-aid open data, port procedures maps, 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 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Queensland Parks and Defence notices), 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.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Zoning maps and plans of management are linked, not reproduced; the official maps and the zoning plan prevail.

Spotted something wrong or out of date? This bar changes all the time; if what you saw differs, tell us. Report a correction and tell us what you saw and when.
Last checked: 27 October 2026.

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