About
Albatross Marina at a glance
Family-owned working marina at 44 Cook Parade, Lemon Tree Passage, described as the most naturally protected marina in Port Stephens. 52 walk-on berths and 15 moorings, slipway taking cats to 8.5m beam, yachts of 2.5m draft and trawlers to 75 tonnes, onsite chandlery and marine mechanic, coin laundry and EV charging.
Service area: Port Stephens
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- Albatross Marina (family owned)
- Region
- Port Stephens
- Water body
- Tilligerry Creek (Port Stephens)
- Wet berths
- 52
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing, swing moorings
Facilities and services
- slipway
- repairs & maintenance
- chandlery
- power & water
- showers & laundry
- restaurant/cafe
- slipway (cats 8.5m beam
- 75t)
- contract antifouling
- DIY slipping
- EV charging
- coin laundry
- boat & engine sales
- tenant village (restaurant, distillery, fish & chips, bottleshop, bait & tackle)
- heritage showboat cruises
About Albatross Marina
Albatross Marina at 44 Cook Parade, Lemon Tree Passage, is a family-owned working yard on Tilligerry Creek in the western reaches of Port Stephens, and it wears its dual identity openly: part boatyard, part village square. The owners describe it as the most naturally protected marina in Port Stephens, and the geography supports the claim, with the creek bending around the site and mangrove islands knocking down weather from every quarter. Fifty-two walk-on berths and fifteen moorings hold a mixed fleet of yachts, power cruisers, trawler-types and cats, while the slipway beside the berths has been hauling local boats for decades. What distinguishes the place from a yard on an industrial estate is the tenant village built around it. The Poyers, a family seafood restaurant sitting over the water, was named NSW's best seafood restaurant for 2024 by the Sydney Fish Market; the Lemon Tree Passage Distillery pours gin and vodka made with native botanicals from Friday to Sunday; John Dory's does fish and chips and big breakfasts; and Anglerz Corner sells bait, tackle, chandlery and last-minute groceries. Add a bottle shop, a conveyancer and the heritage 1922 showboat Wangi Queen boarding passengers for western harbour cruises, and the marina functions as the social and commercial centre of Lemon Tree Passage, not just its boat park. The family ownership shows in the working rhythm of the place: the same people who quote the slipping rates answer the phone about moorings, and the stated aim is to keep a working marina's rates realistic rather than chase the leisure-boat premium common elsewhere in the port.
Marina facilities
The slipway is the engine room of the business and its published capability is unusually specific: catamarans to 8.5 metres of beam, yachts drawing up to 2.5 metres, and trawlers and heavy displacement hulls to 75 tonnes. The yard runs Monday to Friday, 7.30am to 4pm, and owners can book full-service slipping or do the work themselves. Rates are posted publicly: haul and launch on the cradle runs from $14 per foot for boats under 25 feet up to $23 per foot at 51 to 60 feet, with cats at $27 to $37 per foot depending on length and vessels over 45 tonnes at $42 per foot. Extra days on the cradle cost $150 to $185 daily, a water blaster hires at a $100 set fee, wash-down by marina staff is $175 per hour, and an environmental fee of $125 to $300 applies to every vessel. Contract antifouling is priced at $40 per foot for monohulls and $55 per foot for cats, covering wash-down, barnacle removal, acid wash, primer and antifoul. Around the slipping operation sit an on-site marine mechanic, a chandlery, boat and engine sales with spares and antifoul stock, secure male and female showers and toilets at the rear of the marina, a coin laundry open 6am to 8pm, 24/7 EV charging, free parking on site and on Cook Parade, and ample waste and recycling. Berths come with power and water, and the tenant strip covers food, grog and bait. The marina emphasises flexibility between DIY and full-service work: owners may sleep aboard and work on their own vessel on the cradle, or hand the whole job to the yard team, with the mechanic and chandlery on site to supply parts and labour as needed. Berths, moorings and slipping are all booked directly through the office.
Local sailing knowledge
Tilligerry Creek is the western gateway of Port Stephens, and the run in from the main body of the port is via a marked channel over broad, shallow flats; at low tide the margins dry, so keep to the beacons and expect to share the channel with the local oyster punts. Once inside, Lemon Tree Passage is dead calm in nearly all weather, which is the marina's whole point. The town behind the marina is a quiet holiday and retiree settlement on the Tilligerry Peninsula, with a small shopping strip, a club and the foreshore park around the marina square; koalas still show in the local gum trees, a claim the peninsula promotes seriously. Western Port Stephens cruising from here is underrated: Fame Cove and North Arm Cove give sheltered anchorages an hour or two away, the Karuah River runs up to the highway bridge, and the Myall River connection through to Tea Gardens opens the whole Myall Lakes system for shallow-draft boats. The Wangi Queen showboat boards at the marina for morning tea and sunset cruises. Fishing over the flats produces flathead, whiting and bream, and Anglerz Corner at the door will say what is biting. Watch the tide when slipping: the yard schedules lifts around water depth, and the creek's tidal range is enough to matter for deep-draft boats. Lemon Tree Passage fronts Port Stephens proper, so sea breezes arrive reliably in summer afternoons but the marina's tucked position behind the point keeps the pens flat. Tilligerry Habitat, the local koala reserve, is a short drive away, and the peninsula's waterfront cycle path links the marina to Tanilba Bay.