Mooloolaba Marina

About the marina

Mooloolaba Marina is the largest marina on the Sunshine Coast, with 265 floating berths spread along the Mooloolah River at Parkyn Parade, only a few hundred metres inside the river entrance. Its position is the drawcard: step off the pontoon and you are across the road from a patrolled surf beach, next door to the trawler wharves where the local fleet unloads prawns, tuna and reef fish, and a short walk from The Wharf precinct and the Mooloolaba Esplanade. About 100km north of Brisbane, it functions as both a home port and a cruising stopover, and it welcomes multihulls as readily as monohulls, with catamarans a common sight on the wider berths. The marina has also become a small industry hub. Mooloolaba Yacht Brokers has traded from the site since 1985, joined by Multihull Solutions and The Yacht Sales Co, while Sunshine Sailing Australia runs sail training including bar-crossing tuition from the same pontoons. The marina's social anchor is Pier 33, a waterfront restaurant and function venue in the revitalised former Mooloolaba Yacht Club building, and the yacht club itself operates from a clubs precinct within the marina alongside outrigger and paddling groups and a Sailability program. The result is a marina that feels woven into the town rather than fenced off from it: working fishing port on one side, holiday beach on the other, and a busy, mixed fleet in between. Berth ownership is active here, with a local brokerage trading berths as long-term marine assets alongside the casual and permanent rental pool.

Berthing & shoreside services

The 265 berths accommodate monohull and multihull vessels to 18m, with single-phase 15amp power and water at each berth and key-fob security gates controlling pontoon access around the clock. Published rates start at $72 a day for a 10m berth, rising through weekly, monthly and quarterly tiers, and berths also change hands on the open market, with asking prices from around $80,000. Core services include a pump-out facility, gas bottle refills, an ice machine, coin-free laundry, amenities blocks with showers and toilets, wifi and 24-hour security, and the office is staffed seven days a week. An uncovered trailer-boat storage yard takes vessels to about 8m (8.5m including trailer) on daily through yearly terms, from $74 a day, with half spaces for jetskis; the public boat ramp sits directly beside the yard, access is via two locked gates with a $50 refundable key deposit, and washdown only is permitted in the yard. There is no fuel wharf inside the marina itself, but three options lie close by on the river: Rockliff's at 10 Parkyn Parade for unleaded, Mooloolah River Fisheries for diesel off a fixed wharf with no floating dock, and Chippo's Fuel Supplies for diesel in the Buddina canals by phone arrangement. Haul-out and shipyard work are available elsewhere on the Mooloolah River, and the marina maintains a directory of on-site and visiting trades including marine electricians, engine mechanics, riggers, trimmers, surveyors, fibreglass repairers and refrigeration specialists. Berth guests receive a 10 percent discount at Pier 33, and the Mooloolaba Yacht Club's licensed clubhouse in the marina's clubs precinct serves drinks at club prices several afternoons and evenings a week.

Local context in YouSail

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

The Mooloolah River entrance is a trained, bar-type entrance that shoals continually, and Maritime Safety Queensland maintains an ongoing dredging program at the entrance and in the boat harbour. Most skippers time entry for the top half of the tide in any swell, and first-timers can book bar-crossing and berthing tuition with Sunshine Sailing Australia, based right in the marina. Once inside, the river is well sheltered, and the canals at Buddina to the south offer protected waterside cruising. Provisioning is excellent by Queensland coastal standards: seafood straight off the trawlers next door, supermarkets and the Esplanade restaurant strip within walking distance, and The Wharf precinct with its eateries and Sea Life aquarium a few minutes on foot. Cruising yachts use Mooloolaba as a staging point between Moreton Bay, about 40 nautical miles to the south, and the Noosa coast and Wide Bay to the north, and winter brings humpback whales close past Point Cartwright, with whale-watch and fishing charters departing the marina precinct daily in season. Anchoring room in the river is limited, so most visiting keelboats take a berth. Club racing through the Mooloolaba Yacht Club keeps the river busy on weekends, and events like Sail Mooloolaba draw fleets from Brisbane clubs. For trailer boaters, the adjacent ramp and storage yard combination makes this one of the most convenient launch-and-leave setups on the Sunshine Coast, though it fills quickly on summer weekends. Summer nor-easters can make the bar lumpy by afternoon even when the morning was flat, a pattern the local charter skippers plan their days around.