Moreton Bay cruising guide
Moreton Bay is big, tidal and shallow round the edges. NGA puts it at about 38 miles long and 9 to 17 miles wide, with the Brisbane shipping channels down the middle and Moreton Island along the eastern side. The western shore has the boat harbours at Manly, Cabbage Tree Creek and Scarborough, and NGA rates Tangalooma Roads, off Moreton Island, as the best west-coast anchorage in south-east gales. The big things for a small boat are the ship channels and the radio watch that goes with them, the strong tidal set across them, and the short, steep sea a fresh breeze against the tide kicks up.
- 1Manly Boat Harbour · Marinas
- 2Sandgate & Cabbage Tree Creek · Creek harbour + rivers
- 3Scarborough & Newport · Marinas
- 4Tangalooma & Moreton Island · Anchorages
Guides in this region, south to north
Manly Boat Harbour
Marinas
Manly Boat Harbour on Moreton Bay: RQYS, East Coast Marina and Wynnum Manly Yacht Club berths, haul-out, fuel and St Helena Island.
Sandgate & Cabbage Tree Creek
Creek harbour + rivers
Cabbage Tree Creek at Shorncliffe and Sandgate: the marina, Queensland Cruising Yacht Club, VMR Brisbane, ramps and recent wreck buoys.
Scarborough & Newport
Marinas
Scarborough Boat Harbour and Newport Marina on the Redcliffe Peninsula: fuel, boatyard, dry stack, pump-out, visitor berths and CG Redcliffe.
Tangalooma & Moreton Island
Anchorages
Anchoring off Tangalooma and western Moreton Island: Tangalooma Roads, Cowan Cowan, Bulwer and Yule Road, plus resort mooring rules.
Entrances from the sea
- South Passage Bar & Amity: Open-sea bar at the south-east corner of the bay, covered in the Southern Moreton Bay region. Shipping enters the bay from the north, past Caloundra Head.
Before any bar crossing, read MSQ's bar advice and the current notices to mariners. Depths on bars change between surveys.
Neighbouring regions
- South: Southern Moreton Bay Islands
- North: Brisbane River
- Tweed to Mooloolaba (section map)
- All cruising guide sections
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.
Need a boat moved through the Moreton Bay region?
Get a delivery quote