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

Gabo Island & Mallacoota

Official Victorian sources for this areaParks Victoria: Gabo Island Harbour Gippsland Ports: Port of Mallacoota Inlet Gippsland Ports: ocean access bars and crossings Gippsland Ports notices to marinersFree official pages and PDFs from the Victorian port managers. Read the current notices before you go. Not for navigation.

Santa Barbara Bay · NW anchorage · Bastion Point ramp · Mallacoota Inlet entrance closes at timesLast checked: 28 October 2026Report a correction

Gabo Island is the first stop in Victoria after Cape Howe: a pink granite island with a lighthouse, a little harbour on its west side and an anchorage that NGA rates well. Mallacoota, on the mainland about 14 km away, has a sheltered inlet, but its entrance moves and can close, so most boats come and go over the Bastion Point ramp.

Map of Gabo Island and Mallacoota with markers for the Gabo Island jetty and lighthouse reserve, Bastion Point, Mallacoota Inlet, Bucklands Jetty and the town boat ramp. — Gabo Island and Mallacoota. Navy: jetties; green: ramp; red: inlet entrance; purple: features. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Positions are approximate and for orientation only. **Not a chart. Not for navigation.**
1Gabo Island jetty · OSM.
2Gabo Island Lighthouse Reserve · OSM (Nominatim).
3Bastion Point · OSM (Nominatim).
4Mallacoota Inlet · OSM (Nominatim).
5Bucklands Jetty · OSM.
6Mallacoota town boat ramp · OSM.

At a glance


What it is	Island lighthouse reserve, plus a coastal inlet town
Island harbour	Santa Barbara Bay on Gabo's west side, with a jetty (Parks Victoria)
Anchorage	Small sandy bay on the NW side, 9.1 m in the middle, room for one vessel (NGA)
Inlet	Mallacoota Inlet; entrance shifts and closes from time to time (Gippsland Ports)
Port manager	Gippsland Ports for Mallacoota; Parks Victoria for Gabo Island

Gabo Island

Anchorage. NGA describes a small sandy bay on the north-west side of the island, with 9.1 m in the middle. It's good anchorage for one vessel except in heavy south-west gales, and NGA notes several moderate SW gales have been ridden out there. Scarcely any of the outside swell is felt in the bay. There's a submerged rocky ledge on its east shore.

The harbour and jetty. Parks Victoria says the harbour is in Santa Barbara Bay on the west side. Access is only when ocean conditions allow, the maximum vessel weight for mooring at the jetty is 4.5 tonnes, and private vessels staying overnight need to be experienced and well equipped for changing ocean conditions.

Ashore. Day visitors go in daylight hours only. Dogs, cats, fires and camping aren't allowed, and you stay on the tracks because penguin burrows are everywhere (Parks Victoria visitor guide, 2022). The island has what may be the world's largest breeding colony of little penguins.

Nearby. Tullaburga Island, a 9 m rock about 4 miles ENE of Bastion Point, has a historic wreck on its south-east side (NGA). Heading west, New Zealand Star Bank, about 6 miles SE of Little Rame Head, has a least depth of 15 m and an uneven bottom that throws up a confused sea in heavy weather (NGA).

Mallacoota Inlet and Bastion Point

⚠ Call marine rescue before you cross. Conditions on bars and entrances change quickly and our notes can't keep up. Before crossing, call Mallacoota Coast Guard (flotilla VF15, 7 Dorron Avenue, Mallacoota), or the port manager, for current conditions and a radio check, and tell someone ashore when you're through.

Marine Radio Victoria monitors VHF 16 (67 is the alternative) 24 hours a day, out to 20 nm off the Victorian coast
Emergency: VHF 16 or Triple Zero (000)

Unit checked against the Victorian Government list of marine search and rescue units on 28 October 2026: www.vic.gov.au/marine-search-and-rescue-unit-locations.

The entrance. Gippsland Ports says the entrance channel changes in position and depth and is dangerous to navigate without local knowledge, and that the entrance closes from time to time. From Captains Point to the entrance it's extremely shallow even at high water, with large sand banks and weed. Go slowly, in daylight only, and keep a good lookout. It's an unmarked ocean bar: Gippsland Ports says ocean access through it is very dangerous and not recommended.

Bastion Point. The dual-lane ramp and breakwater at Bastion Point (finished in 2015) give direct access to Bass Strait. Gippsland Ports asks you to plan departures and returns for favourable conditions, and runs a webcam there. NGA notes a rock 0.9 m high and a second rock with 2.7 m over it, 0.3 mile SW and 0.2 mile SE of the point.

Rules. The Vessel Operating and Zoning Rules for the port are in Schedule 109 (Local Port of Mallacoota Inlet). Mallacoota is a listed ocean bar in the Victorian handbook, so treat a crossing as a time of heightened risk.

Facilities

Gippsland Ports facilities. Mallacoota Wharf, the Mallacoota slipway and jetty, and Gipsy Point Jetty, up the inlet.
Jetty. OpenStreetMap shows Bucklands Jetty in the town.

Victorian rules in brief

Heightened risk. On vessels up to 12 m underway, the Victorian Recreational Boating Safety Handbook counts these among the times of heightened risk: crossing an ocean bar, boating in a Designated Hazardous Area (Port Phillip Heads is one), boating from an hour after sunset to an hour before sunrise, in restricted visibility, or where a gale, storm force or severe weather warning is current. Lifejacket rules are tighter then; check the handbook's tables for your boat.
Warnings. The Bureau of Meteorology issues strong wind (26 to 33 kn), gale (34 to 47 kn) and storm force (48 kn and over) warnings. Safe Transport Victoria strongly advises small craft not to go out when one is current.
Radio. Marine Radio Victoria monitors VHF 16 (67 alternative) 24/7 out to 20 nm, gives forecasts twice daily, and broadcasts current warnings on VHF 67 at 48 minutes past every even hour (the first at 00:47), eastern standard time (handbook).

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. Listings as fetched from OpenStreetMap on 28 October 2026; check opening hours before you walk.

From Mallacoota town boat ramp (boat ramp / dinghy landing)

Name	Type	Walk	Street address (OSM)
Restaurants and cafes
Scallywags	Cafe	320 m	Allan Drive, Mallacoota 3892
Lucy's	Restaurant	560 m	–
Lee's Pizza & Take Away	Takeaway	610 m	–
Supermarkets and provisioning
Mallacoota Bakery	Bakery	250 m	Allan Drive, Mallacoota 3892
IGA	Supermarket	590 m	–
Foodworks	Supermarket	650 m	–

Nothing mapped within the 15-minute walk of: Bucklands Jetty.

No marine stores or chandlers are mapped in OpenStreetMap within the walk.

Places, types, addresses and walking distances: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), fetched 28 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, the current notices to mariners from the Victorian port managers, 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 the Parks Victoria Gabo Island Harbour page and Gabo Island Lighthouse Reserve visitor guide, and the Gippsland Ports Port of Mallacoota Inlet and ocean bars pages, NGA Pub. 127 Sailing Directions (Enroute) South and East Coasts of Australia, 16th edition (2025, corrected to 30 July 2026), the Victorian Recreational Boating Safety Handbook (Safe Transport Victoria, 2024 edition), the vic.gov.au Marine Search and Rescue unit list and OpenStreetMap, all read on 28 October 2026. NGA Pub. 127 Sector 2 covers Gabo Island and Mallacoota.

Parks Victoria. Facts from the Parks Victoria notices to mariners, the Port Phillip and Western Port Recreational Boating Guides, the boating and swimming zones pages and the Gabo Island, Refuge Cove and Wilsons Promontory pages, restated and summarised in our own words. Parks Victoria web content is CC BY 4.0 unless marked otherwise; the boating guides and notices are linked, not reproduced. Not endorsed by Parks Victoria.

Gippsland Ports. Facts from Gippsland Ports notices to mariners, navigation warnings, local navigation notices and port pages, cited for fact only and linked, not reproduced. The current notices prevail.

Ports Victoria. Notices to mariners for the ports of Melbourne, Geelong and Hastings, cited for fact only.

Safe Transport Victoria. Facts from the Victorian Recreational Boating Safety Handbook (2024 edition), restated in our own words and linked, not reproduced. The handbook and the Marine Safety Act 2010 and its regulations prevail.

Bureau of Meteorology. Tide, tidal stream and forecast pages are linked, not reproduced; the Port Phillip Heads slack-water guidance is summarised.

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

Victorian Government. Marine search and rescue units from the vic.gov.au unit list, checked on the date shown in the rescue box.

Spotted something wrong or out of date? Tell us what you found at the jetty or the entrance. Report a correction and tell us what you saw and when.
Last checked: 28 October 2026.

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