⚠ 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.

Jumpinpin Bar

Official MSQ Beacon to Beacon mapSMB-12 map (PDF)Free official PDFs from Maritime Safety Queensland. Each button opens the right sheet.
Coastal bar · local knowledge onlyLast checked: 18 October 2026Report a correction

Jumpinpin, "the Pin" to locals, is the natural gap between North and South Stradbroke Islands, linking the ocean to the top of the Broadwater and Southern Moreton Bay. It's a famous fishing spot and a short cut for anyone who knows it. For everyone else it's a trap. MSQ's own map says plainly that it shouldn't be crossed without local knowledge: the banks are always shifting and the ebb runs hard. Our honest advice for a delivery or a first visit is to use the Gold Coast Seaway, about 12 miles south, and come up the Broadwater inside.

Map of Jumpinpin between North and South Stradbroke Islands with numbered markers for the bar area, a sunken-boat buoy, the Millionaires Row anchorage beacon and the Tabby Tabby Island channel.
Jumpinpin. The bar marker is only the approximate position of the map label, not a crossing point. Red: bar; blue: anchorage; purple: notices. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Positions are approximate and for orientation only. Not a chart. Not for navigation.
  1. 1Jumpinpin Bar (map label, approx.) · MSQ designated coastal bar. Local knowledge only.
  2. 2Sunken boat buoy · Fl Y 2.5s, March 2026 (MSQ 129(T)/2026).
  3. 3Jumpinpin Red (North), Millionaires Row · Fl R 1.5s, moved Nov 2024 (MSQ 544/2024).
  4. 4Tabby Tabby Island channel · Beacons moved for shoaling, Sept 2026 (MSQ 515/2026).

At a glance
What it is Unstabilised natural entrance between North and South Stradbroke Islands; an MSQ designated coastal bar
MSQ warning "Jumpinpin Bar should not be crossed except with local knowledge" (MSQ map SMB-12, 2016)
Hazards Constantly shifting banks; strong currents on the ebb; shoals out to about a mile offshore (NGA)
Leads or a crossing window None in our sources
Safer alternative Gold Coast Seaway (trained, dredged entrance)
Map age MSQ Beacon to Beacon map SMB-12 current to 9 May 2016
Last checked 18 October 2026

The bar

⚠ Call marine rescue before you cross. Bar conditions change quickly and our notes can't keep up. Before crossing, contact MRQ Jacobs Well (Marine Rescue Jacobs Well, the nearest unit) for current bar conditions, and log on before you cross and off once you're through.Contacts checked on the unit's official website on 18 October 2026.

What the sources say:

  • MSQ lists Jumpinpin as a designated coastal bar. Its Beacon to Beacon map warns that the bar shouldn't be crossed without local knowledge, that the banks are constantly shifting and that currents are strong on the ebb. It also says depth contours across Southern Moreton Bay mostly haven't been re-surveyed since the 2011 and 2013 floods.
  • NGA Pub. 127 (written for big ships) says the entrance has shoal water extending about a mile offshore and changes often. ⚠ Dated and very general. It doesn't describe the channel at all.
  • We found no leads, no published depths and no recommended crossing time in our sources. The marker on our map is where MSQ printed the name, not a crossing point.

If you're set on crossing, do it the way the locals do: get current local advice (MRQ Jacobs Well is the nearest rescue base), watch it on a flood tide in good light, and if it looks wrong, go to the Seaway. Log on with marine rescue before you cross and log off after. Don't cross on the ebb, in a swell, or at night.

Inside the bar

Inside, the channels split among low mangrove islands (Crusoe, Stingaree, Short and Cobby Cobby among them) towards Canaipa Passage, Jacobs Well and the Broadwater.

  • Millionaires Row is the gazetted Jumpinpin anchorage, inside near the north tip of South Stradbroke Island. It's a 6-knot zone. MSQ moved the "Jumpinpin Red (North)" beacon (Fl R 1.5s) in November 2024.
  • ⚠ March 2026: a yellow buoy (Fl Y 2.5s) marks a partially submerged boat at the northern tip of South Stradbroke Island, right in the Jumpinpin area. It was a temporary notice; check whether it's still current.
  • ⚠ September 2026: beacons in the Tabby Tabby Island channel, further west, were moved because of shoaling.

Our sources don't give depths, holding or shelter for anchorages here.

Skipper's notes

Garry's own observations from deliveries through Jumpinpin Bar. First-hand notes, dated, and no substitute for the chart.

Depth
[Garry to add: depths seen, state of tide and date.]
Holding
[Garry to add: bottom type and how the anchor held.]
Shelter
[Garry to add: wind directions it is good or bad in.]
Other notes
[Garry to add: anything else worth knowing, with date.]

Notes last updated: [date]

Rescue and radio

MRQ Jacobs Well (formerly VMR Jacobs Well) is crewed 24 hours a day and its area includes Jumpinpin Bar. Log on with it on VHF 82 or (07) 5546 1100 before you cross and log off after (see the call-out under The bar). In an emergency, VHF 16 or Triple Zero (000).

Rules in brief

  • Speed. 6 knots in the Jumpinpin Anchorage (Millionaires Row) and in McKenzies Channel.
  • Marine park. The Canaipa Passage–Jumpinpin conservation park zone (CPZ10) and green zones at Swan Bay–Never Never Creek (MNP31, also a go-slow area), Cobby Cobby Island (MNP30) and Pannikin Island (MNP28) sit inside the Pin. Check the zoning maps before you fish or anchor.
  • Lifejackets. Lifejackets are compulsory when crossing a designated coastal bar in an open boat. See our Gold Coast Seaway page and MSQ's bar-crossing advice below for the exact rule.
  • Gold Coast rules. South of 27°41′S, the Gold Coast parts of the Waterways Management Regulation apply.

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.

Nothing mapped within the 15-minute walk of: Jumpinpin Red (North), Millionaires Row.

There's nothing ashore within walking distance of the Jumpinpin anchorages: OpenStreetMap shows no walkable path network or venues near them. The nearest food, fuel and supplies are back on the mainland side; see our Jacobs Well and Canaipa Passage pages.

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

This page is a planning aid written by a working delivery skipper from public sources. It is not for navigation and is no substitute for local knowledge on this bar. Use the official AHO chart (Aus 814), 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 fresh words from the facts in the Hartshorne Marine Sailing Directions area guide for Jumpinpin, south Russell Island and Steiglitz (edition of 16 October 2026) and chapter 3 of the Tweed to Mooloolaba guidebook. Those draw on MSQ Beacon to Beacon map SMB-12 (current to 9 May 2016), NGA Pub. 127 (Sailing Directions, East Coast of Australia and New Zealand), MSQ notices to mariners to 16 October 2026, the MSQ speed-limit schedule and the Moreton Bay Marine Park layers.

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? This bar changes all the time. Tell us what you saw. Report a correction and tell us what you saw and when.
Last checked: 18 October 2026.

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