Weinam Creek Marina (Marina Redland Bay)

About the marina

Weinam Creek at Redland Bay is less a conventional marina than a working transport interchange that happens to include berths and a boat ramp. The precinct, formally branded Marina Redland Bay, is the mainland jumping-off point for the four inhabited Southern Moreton Bay Islands: Russell, Macleay, Lamb and Karragarra. SeaLink Bay Islands passenger ferries leave the Banana Street terminal roughly every half hour on the TransLink network, while vehicle barges load nearby at Weinam Street, so the water here is in constant motion from first light. Around the ferry comings and goings sit short and long-term marina berths, a boat launching area and an unusual concentration of emergency services: the Redland Bay Water Police barge, the Redland Bay Coast Guard headquarters and the SES flood boat are all based in the creek. The precinct was declared a Priority Development Area in 2013 and is now being rebuilt in stages by Redland Investment Corporation, a council-owned company, under a master plan approved by the State Government in January 2022. Works already delivered include more than 500 car parks at Moores Road, a footbridge to the ferry terminal, new bus stops on Meissner Street and a three-lane recreational boat ramp with floating pontoon opened in late 2024, with a multi-storey car park and retail precinct still to come. The character is commuter-functional rather than resort-polished, but that is precisely its interest: few places in Queensland let a visiting boatie watch an island community's entire daily rhythm of ferries, barges, school runs and shopping trips from a berth or the foreshore, and fewer still are being remade quite so publicly around them.

Berthing & shoreside services

Services at Weinam Creek reflect its public, council-run nature rather than a commercial marina model. The existing facility provides short and long-term marina berths alongside the ferry infrastructure, plus boat launching that was comprehensively upgraded in 2024 when a new three-lane recreational ramp with a floating boarding pontoon opened at the southern end of the creek. The new ramp carries forty 72-hour trailer parking bays and rock seawall protection on its shoulders, with a further 45 trailer parks planned for the Moores Road precinct once the multi-level car park is built; the old ramp off Banana Street is now reserved exclusively for emergency service vessels to sharpen response times to the islands. Ferry terminal services include TransLink go card ticketing and a vending machine, sheltered waiting areas and accessible facilities, and the vehicle ferry booking office operates from Weinam Street. There is no commercial fuel wharf, travel lift, chandlery or boatyard on site; boat owners needing mechanical work, slips or supplies typically look to Redland Bay's nearby marine businesses or the larger boat harbours at Scarborough and Manly. Parking is the precinct's other practical service: more than 500 spaces at Moores Road, 122 temporary parks on Hamilton Street regulated to 72 hours, and time-limited commuter parking close to the terminal. The PDA program will layer in a multi-storey car park, supermarket, retail and dining tenancies and expanded marina capacity for private boats and ferries, with council projecting more than 700 jobs and close to $30 million in local economic benefit once the staged works complete around 2028.

Local context in YouSail

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

Approaching Weinam Creek is straightforward in reasonable weather but demands attention to tide and traffic. Southern Moreton Bay is shallow and laced with banks, and the marked channel into the creek carries ferries on tight schedules, so skippers should keep clear of the terminal approaches and expect wash and right-of-way constraints around arriving SeaLink vessels. The bay here is protected by North Stradbroke Island, making it a calm reach in the prevailing south-easterlies, though northerlies can push a chop across the long fetch from Redcliffe. Once secured, the foreshore at Redland Bay offers the slipways coffee stop that has greeted island commuters for generations, and the Redlands Sea Dragons dragon boat club trains from its clubhouse near the new ramp. The islands themselves are the cruising reward: Russell, Macleay, Lamb and Karragarra are stitched together by free inter-island ferry hops, and the surrounding waters of the Southern Moreton Bay Islands National Park hold dugong, dolphins and excellent winter whiting and bream. Canaipa, the point on Russell Island's north-east, takes its name from an Aboriginal word for the crossing place toward Stradbroke Island, a reminder that these waterways were Quandamooka sea roads long before the ferry timetable. Land transport connections are practical: Brisbane CBD is about 60 minutes by road, and TransLink buses link the terminal to Cleveland railway station at the end of the Cleveland line. Visiting cruisers using the berths should note the precinct is an active construction zone through to the late 2020s, with parking and access arrangements shifting between stages, so checking council's project page before arrival is worth the two minutes it takes.