Cabbage Tree Creek Marina

About the marina

Cabbage Tree Creek Marina is a small, privately run facility at 149 Station Road, Deagon, on Brisbane's northside, sitting on the tidal reaches of Cabbage Tree Creek a short distance upstream from where the creek meets Moreton Bay beside Shorncliffe. With roughly twenty slips it is one of the smallest marinas in south-east Queensland, and it keeps a correspondingly low profile: no glossy website, no berth sales office, just a working creek-front yard that has served local boaties for decades. The surrounding waterway has a strong boating pedigree. The Queensland Cruising Yacht Club, founded in 1948 to run the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race, lies near the creek mouth at Shorncliffe, and Deagon Slipways, a wooden-boat yard established in the 1950s by boatbuilder Clem Masters, operates on the creek nearby. Three of the classic Tasman Seabird yachts were built at that yard. The marina itself is best known today as the home base of Moreton Bay Holidays Afloat, a boat and yacht hire business whose fleet of sailing yachts, catamarans and party pontoons departs from the creek for Moreton Bay and Moreton Island. The clientele is unpretentious: trailer boat owners, small keelboat sailors, fishing crews and holiday hirers rather than marina-resort visitors. Its scale and setting give it the feel of a suburban boat harbour rather than a commercial marina, and that informality is precisely its character. For anyone keeping a modest vessel on Brisbane's northside, it offers creek mooring within twenty kilometres of the CBD and a straight run out past Shorncliffe Pier into the bay.

Berthing & shoreside services

Published detail on the marina's facilities is thin, and what exists comes mostly from directory listings, so intending visitors should ring (07) 3269 3487 before arriving. Waterway Guide records about twenty slips at the Deagon site, with water available at the dock but no berth-side power outlets listed, and no wifi, cable or phone connections; the office monitors VHF channel 16 and keeps hours of 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Saturday and 9am to 5pm Sundays. Dock rates are not published and are quoted on enquiry. The most concrete service offering at the address is Moreton Bay Holidays Afloat (0418 988 394), which hires out sailing yachts Moreton Maiden and Moreton Magic, the power catamaran Nautilus and the sailing catamaran Salubrious on bareboat or skippered terms, plus small-boat options including a 17-foot half-cabin cruiser and a barbecue pontoon boat. Published package prices run from a $2000 long weekend on the Nautilus up to $7200 for seven nights on Moreton Magic, with skippers available. Marine trades are close at hand rather than on site: Deagon Slipways, a family yard operating on the creek for more than fifty years, slips vessels and specialises in timber boat restoration and maintenance with experienced boatbuilders, while the broader Sandgate-Shorncliffe waterfront supports chandlery, mechanical and rigging suppliers. A public boat ramp on the creek serves trailer boats, and weekend ramp traffic is heaviest through the summer months. Casual berth availability is limited by the marina's small size, so the hire operator's fleet and regular berth holders occupy most of the water space; overnight visitors are the exception rather than the rule. There is no fuel wharf, pump-out, travel lift or dry stack at the marina itself; the nearest full-service yards are across the bay at Manly and Scarborough.

Local context in YouSail

This is directory context, not navigation advice. Check current charts, notices and official boating resources before passage.

Cabbage Tree Creek enters Moreton Bay between Shorncliffe and Sandgate, and the run from the marina to open bay water is short but tidal: the creek shallows toward low water and newcomers should follow the marked channel, which the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club describes as well marked and easy in and out. Once past the creek entrance the whole of southern Moreton Bay opens up. Moreton Island lies roughly 25 kilometres across the bay, which is why the hire fleet based here markets island escapes, and the protected anchorages of the bay, from Wellington Point to Bribie Island, are all within day-sail reach. Ashore, Deagon is a railway suburb on the Shorncliffe line, so crews can reach the marina from Brisbane's CBD by train with a walk from Deagon station. Provisioning is straightforward at the Sandgate village shops a few minutes away, and the Shorncliffe Pier, a 350-metre timber structure rebuilt in 2016, is the local landmark for a leg-stretch. Fishing in the creek itself produces flathead and bream, with bay snapper grounds beyond. The neighbourhood's sailing history runs deep: the Brisbane to Gladstone fleet has started off this shoreline every Easter since 1949, and on race morning the creek mouth fills with spectator boats. Visiting yachts usually bypass Deagon for Manly or Scarborough, which keeps the creek quiet, uncrowded and firmly local in feel. Tidal range in this corner of the bay runs to around two metres on ordinary tides, so a mid-tide departure is the comfortable choice for deeper keels. Skippers heading north should note the shallow banks off Shorncliffe and give the pier a wide berth in a northerly blow. The creek takes its name from the cabbage tree palms that once lined its banks, and the lower reaches still carry mangrove edges that hold bait and birdlife at dawn.