Urangan Boat Harbour & Hervey Bay
Urangan Boat Harbour is the working heart of Hervey Bay on the water: a breakwater harbour on the south-east side of Dayman Point, at the northern end of the Great Sandy Strait, with marinas, the whale-watch fleet, the K'gari tourist terminal and the Marine Rescue base. It's the natural jumping-off point for the strait, for Platypus Bay up the island, and for the run north to Bundaberg.
- Fuel, haul-out and visitor berths: OpenStreetMap lists the marinas, but our sources do not confirm current services.
- 1Urangan harbour entrance channel · TMR HB96.
- 2Great Sandy Strait Marina · OSM.
- 3Hervey Bay Marina · OSM.
- 4Fisherman's Wharf Marina · OSM.
- 5Urangan, Jetty Rd ramps · TMR HB71/HB73.
- 6MRQ Hervey Bay · MRQ.
At a glance
| What it is | Breakwater boat harbour at Dayman Point, Hervey Bay |
| Entrance | Marked channel between breakwaters (TMR). ⚠ NGA's 1990 note says depths were "uncertain" |
| New in 2026 | ⚠ 1 June 2026 (297/2026): virtual AIS aids established for the Urangan entrance to the strait |
| Marinas | Great Sandy Strait Marina, Hervey Bay Marina, Fisherman's Wharf Marina (OSM) |
| Ramps | Jetty Road ramps 1 and 2, 4 lanes each with pontoons (TMR) |
| Map age | MSQ GSS-1 current to 28 January 2016 |
Getting here
From Hervey Bay. NGA warns that north-westerlies give little shelter in the bay and often come with haze, so go carefully without local knowledge, and keep in more than 13 m until you have a good position when heading for the strait. The Great Sandy Strait fairway buoy is the usual starting point. MSQ's GSS-1 sheet shows the harbour, a ship navigation area caution and a "shoals, local knowledge" warning near the approach.
The entrance. NGA's note that entrance depths were uncertain dates from 1990, so don't take it as current. MSQ's own action this year is more useful: ⚠ notice 297/2026 (1 June 2026) set up virtual AIS aids for the Urangan entrance to the strait. Check the notice for positions and load them if your plotter doesn't show AIS aids. Ships over 35 m report to Gladstone VTS for pilotage, so you may share the approach with the odd bigger vessel.
Anchoring and berths
Most visitors take a marina berth. Our sources don't list visitor berth numbers, depths alongside or prices for any of the three marinas, so ring ahead. Out of the harbour, NGA points to Platypus Bay on K'gari's east side as the good anchorage in winds from SE round to N.
Skipper's notes
Garry's own observations from deliveries through Urangan Boat Harbour & Hervey Bay. 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.]
- To check
- [Garry to add: Entrance depth at low water and any silting you have seen.]
- To check
- [Garry to add: Your usual berth, fuel and haul-out here, and the weather window you want for Bundaberg or the strait.]
Notes last updated: [date]
Facilities
- Marinas: OpenStreetMap shows Great Sandy Strait Marina, Hervey Bay Marina, Fisherman's Wharf Marina and the Great Sandy Straits Marina Tourist Terminal on Buccaneer Drive.
- MRQ Hervey Bay is at 1 Buccaneer Drive. See Radio and rescue below.
- Trades: there's a working-harbour cluster of marine businesses around Buccaneer Drive (see Ashore). ⚠ We haven't confirmed fuel or haul-out hours.
Boat ramps
From the TMR list: Urangan, Jetty Road ramps 1 and 2 (4 lanes each, pontoons, toilets, not tide-limited) and the Urangan barge ramp. Along the foreshore are Torquay, Point Vernon and Gatakers Bay (tide-limited in places).
Radio and rescue
MRQ Hervey Bay's radio room runs 6 am to 6 pm daily, and the unit lists log on/off on VHF 73, monitoring 73, 67, 22 and 16. After hours, VTS Gladstone watches 16 and 67 for emergencies only. Emergencies: VHF 16 or Triple Zero (000).
Rules in brief
- Speed. 6 knots in the boat harbour (general limit).
- Marine park. The strait and Platypus Bay are in the Great Sandy Marine Park.
- Notices. Maryborough pilotage area list.
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 Great Sandy Strait Marina / Hervey Bay Marina / Fisherman's Wharf Marina / Urangan, Jetty Rd ramps (boat ramp / dinghy landing, marina)
| Name | Type | Walk | Street address (OSM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bars, pubs and clubs | |||
| Hervey Bay Boat Club Yacht Squadron | Yacht/boat club | 150 m | – |
| Hervey Bay Boat Club | Yacht/boat club | 280 m | Buccaneer Drive, Urangan QLD 4655 |
| Restaurants and cafes | |||
| Truly Asia Urangan | Restaurant | 200 m | – |
| Entertainment | |||
| Freedom Whale Watch and Charters | Attraction | 310 m | Buccaneer Drive, Urangan QLD 4655 |
| Blue Dolphin Whale Watching | Attraction | 400 m | – |
| Reefworld Aquarium | Aquarium | 870 m | – |
| Supermarkets and provisioning | |||
| Urangan Fisheries Wholesale | Seafood shop | 800 m | – |
| The Bakers Room Artisan Baker | Bakery | 890 m | – |
| Fuel and shop | Convenience store | 1.0 km | – |
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.
- MSQ notices to mariners, Maryborough pilotage area (Wide Bay Bar, Great Sandy Strait, Urangan)
- BoM: Hervey Bay coast waters forecast
- MSQ: crossing a coastal bar (safety advice)
- Queensland notices to mariners, all areas (subscribe)
- MSQ Queensland tide tables
- Bureau of Meteorology: tide predictions
- Bureau of Meteorology: Queensland warnings (incl. marine wind warnings)
- Bureau of Meteorology: Queensland coastal waters forecasts
Sources & credits
Written in our own words from MSQ Beacon to Beacon Great Sandy Strait sheets GSS-1 (with enlargement A Urangan Boat Harbour) (read 19 October 2026; each 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), Sector 5, the MSQ notices-to-mariners listings on publications.qld.gov.au (titles and dates checked 19 October 2026), the Queensland Government (TMR) recreational boating facilities list (fetched 19 October 2026), Marine Rescue Queensland unit pages (checked 19 October 2026) and OpenStreetMap. NGA Pub. 127 paras 5.38 and 5.39. MSQ notice 297/2026 identified by title and date.
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.
Last checked: 19 October 2026.
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