⚠ 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.

Shute Harbour

No MSQ Beacon to Beacon map covers this waterMSQ's Beacon to Beacon series stops at Keppel Bay. Use the official chart, plus these official maps:MSQ Whitsundays pilotage area map (PDF)Reef Authority zoning Map 10: WhitsundayWhitsundays Plan of Management
Ramp · moorings · strong streams in Long Island SoundLast checked: 27 October 2026Report a correction

Shute Harbour is the little harbour east of Airlie, the closest mainland point to the islands, with a public ramp and a mooring area. For a trailer boat it's the quickest way out to the Whitsundays. For a yacht it's handy, but the entrance is cluttered with islets and reefs, and there are a couple of new hazards on the notices this year. Have a look at the chart before you nose in.

Map of Shute Harbour with markers for the public ramp, the wreck on the mudflats, the semi-submerged mooring buoy and the underwater obstruction off Long Island.
Shute Harbour. Green: ramp; red: hazards. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Positions are approximate and for orientation only. Not a chart. Not for navigation.
  1. 1Shute Harbour ramp · TMR PP21, 2 lanes.
  2. 2Wreck on the mudflats, Fl Y 3s (461(T)) · 11.3 m steel yacht.
  3. 3Semi-submerged mooring buoy (152(T)) · South end of the anchorage.
  4. 4Obstruction off East Rock, Y Fl 3s (502) · Long Island.

At a glance
What it is Small mainland harbour with a ramp and moorings
Entrance Islets and reefs (Shute Islet, Low Reef, Repair Island) in the mouth of Rooper Inlet (NGA)
Ramp 2 lanes with a pontoon (TMR)
Hazards Wreck on the flats; a semi-submerged mooring buoy; an obstruction off Long Island
Maps No MSQ Beacon to Beacon map. MSQ pilotage area map, chart and Reef Authority Map 10

Getting here

Long Island Sound. NGA says only high-powered vessels of moderate draft should use Long Island Sound because of the strong tidal streams. Most yachts come round via Whitsunday Passage or the Molle Channel instead.

The entrance. NGA describes the area as the entrance to Rooper Inlet, with Shute Islet (lit beacon off its north end), Low Reef (Low Rock beacon on its east side), Repair Island (a light) and a light on The Beak. It says boats without local knowledge shouldn't try to go between the islets in the entrance.

New hazards. ⚠ 461(T)/2026 (19 August 2026): a wreck of an 11.3 m steel yacht near the intertidal mudflats at about 20°17.708'S 148°46.626'E, marked with a yellow special mark (Fl Y 3s). ⚠ 152(T)/2026 (30 March 2026): a semi-submerged mooring buoy at the southern end of the Shute Harbour anchorage, about 20°18.01'S 148°47.23'E. ⚠ 502/2026 (17 September 2026): an underwater obstruction 0.2 mile SE of East Rock, Long Island, with a special mark (Y Fl 3s). Stay well clear.

Anchoring and moorings

  • The mooring area. There's an anchorage and mooring area off the harbour. Watch for the semi-submerged buoy at its south end.
  • Out of the stream. NGA gives 13 to 15 m, mud, about 0.6 mile north of Humpy Point on Long Island, out of the worst of the tide.
  • Rooper Inlet. NGA says small vessels with local knowledge can anchor in 5.5 m. Shute Bay at the head is shallow.

Facilities

  • Ramp. TMR lists 2 lanes and a pontoon.

Rules in brief

  • Marine park. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the Whitsundays Plan of Management apply.
  • Notices. Whitsundays notices cover Shute Harbour.

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: Shute Harbour Marina / Shute Harbour ramp.

OpenStreetMap shows no bars, restaurants, shops or marine stores within a 15-minute walk of the landings on this page.

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.

Sources & credits

Written in our own words from NGA Pub. 127 Sector 7 (Long Island Sound and Rooper Inlet) and the MSQ Whitsundays pilotage area map (no MSQ Beacon to Beacon map covers the Whitsundays) (read 19 October 2026; each MSQ 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), the MSQ notices-to-mariners listings on publications.qld.gov.au (notices named on the page read in full on 19 October 2026; notice lists rechecked 27 October 2026), the Queensland Government (TMR) recreational boating facilities list (fetched 19 October 2026), Marine Rescue Queensland unit pages (checked 19 October 2026), Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority zoning pages (linked, not reproduced) and OpenStreetMap. MSQ notices 461(T)/2026 (19 August 2026), 152(T)/2026 (30 March 2026) and 502/2026 (17 September 2026) read in full on 19 October 2026.

Maritime Safety Queensland. Contains Maritime Safety Queensland data (Beacon to Beacon guide, notices to mariners, nav-aid open data, port procedures maps, 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 Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Queensland Parks and Defence notices), 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.

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Zoning maps and plans of management are linked, not reproduced; the official maps and the zoning plan prevail.

Spotted something wrong or out of date? Marks and wrecks here change; tell us what you found. Report a correction and tell us what you saw and when.
Last checked: 27 October 2026.

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