⚠ 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.

Sunshine Coast & Noosa cruising guide

Official MSQ Beacon to Beacon mapsSC-1 map (PDF)SC-2 map (PDF)SC-3 map (PDF)SC-4 map (PDF)NR-1 map (PDF)NR-2 map (PDF)NR-3 map (PDF)NR-4 map (PDF)NR-5 map (PDF)NR-5A map (PDF)NR-6 map (PDF)Free official PDFs from Maritime Safety Queensland. Each button opens the right sheet.

Maroochy River to Noosa and the lakes · 3 guidesLast checked: 19 October 2026Report a correction

North of Mooloolaba the Sunshine Coast has two rivers, and both have bars that MSQ says not to cross without local knowledge. The Maroochy at Maroochydore is a shallow trailer-boat river. Noosa, tucked behind Noosa Head, is a gorgeous 6-knot river that runs up into the lakes and the Everglades, but its entrance carries about a metre or less. For most keelboats on a delivery, this stretch means Laguna Bay at anchor, or Mooloolaba to the south and the Wide Bay Bar to the north.

Guides in this region, south to north

Maroochy River

River and shallow bar

Maroochy River from the bar to Bli Bli and Dunethin: shifting entrance, speed zones, ramps and where shallow-draft boats can stop.

Last checked: 19 October 2026 ⚠ 1 item flagged unverified

Noosa Bar & Noosaville

Bar crossing + river moorings

Crossing the Noosa bar, Noosa Sound, Noosaville moorings and Tewantin: tides, shallows, speed zones and fuel. Not for navigation.

Last checked: 19 October 2026 ⚠ 2 items flagged unverified

Noosa Lakes & Everglades

Upper river and lakes

Lake Cooroibah, Lake Cootharaba, Boreen Point and the Noosa Everglades: depths, speed limits, camping and permits. Not for navigation.

Last checked: 19 October 2026

Entrances from the sea

Maroochy River: Designated coastal bar. MSQ: dangerous, local knowledge only.
Noosa Bar & Noosaville: Designated coastal bar, 0.6 to 1.2 m (NGA). MSQ: local knowledge only.

Before any bar crossing, read MSQ's bar advice and the current notices to mariners. Depths on bars change between surveys.

Neighbouring regions

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.

Spotted something wrong or out of date? Report a correction and tell us what you saw and when.

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