About
Blackwattle Bay Marina at a glance
Purpose-built marina in Blackwattle Bay catering for charter boats 8-40 m, with power and water to each berth.
Service area: Sydney Harbour
- Marina type
- charter vessel marina
- Region
- Sydney Harbour
- Water body
- Blackwattle Bay (Sydney Harbour)
- Maximum vessel
- 40 m
- Berth types
- permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- power & water
- sewage pump-out
- charter vessel staging
- parking (approx 80 cars)
- passenger embarkation
- Boatsmart HQ network member
About Blackwattle Bay Marina
Blackwattle Bay Marina occupies the Bridge Road foreshore of Glebe, tucked under the western end of the Anzac Bridge in one of Sydney Harbour's most historically layered bays. Unlike the leisure marinas further up the harbour, this is a purpose-built commercial facility catering for charter and function vessels between 8 and 40 metres, and it operates as Blackwattle Bay Marina Pty Ltd, the company behind the All Occasion Cruises fleet. Its story is inseparable from the bay's industrial past: the shoreline here carried timber wharves from the 1860s, the Allen Taylor yards lined Bank Street by 1919, the brick warehouses at 1-3 Bank Street later served as the base of the Cam and Sons trawler fleet for three decades, and Strides' ship-breaking yard cut up the Manly ferry Dee Why in these shallows. Today the bay is officially zoned for passive recreation, shared with the Glebe Rowing Club, founded in 1879 and the third oldest rowing club in the country, plus dragon boat clubs and canoeists. That zoning made the marina a flashpoint when a 2018 proposal sought to shift the charter operation to Bank Street beside the new Sydney Fish Market site; the Glebe Society and local rowing community objected strongly to large vessels manoeuvring among shells and dragon boats. The new Fish Market building now rises at the head of the bay, and the precinct is mid-transformation from working waterfront to curated harbour foreshore, with the marina's long-term footprint still a matter of public debate. For a visiting cruiser the marina is more landmark than destination: its charter fleet marks the southern shore while the marked anchorages across the bay provide the actual berthing for private yachts.
Marina facilities
The marina's offer is narrow and commercial: permanent berthing for charter vessels from 8 to 40 metres with individual power and water supplied to each berth, on a site that currently includes parking for around 80 cars to service crew and function operations. A sewage pump-out facility operates on the premises, one of the few on this side of the harbour. There is no fuel berth, slipway, hardstand, chandlery or public amenities block, and the facility is not set up for casual recreational berthing; it exists to stage a commercial charter fleet, with passenger embarkation handled under the site's plan of management. Visiting private boats looking for a berth should look to the recreational marinas at Rozelle Bay and the fish market precinct, or to the swing moorings and marked anchorages in the bay itself. The marina is listed in the Boatsmart HQ location network as the Blackwattle Bay location, identifying it as a base for managed charter operations rather than a walk-in marina. Security is by virtue of the working yard and gated foreshore. Given the controversy that has surrounded lease conditions and the proposed relocation to Bank Street, operators and berth users deal with the company directly rather than through any public booking system, and the NSW government redevelopment of the surrounding bays precinct means the site's configuration, access and parking arrangements have been under active review. Yachts transiting the bay can, however, make practical use of the pump-out by arrangement, which is the one service here of real value to private vessels.
Local sailing knowledge
Blackwattle Bay is the eastern of the two bays inside the Glebe Island peninsula, and reaching it means passing under the Anzac Bridge and through the permanently open spans of the disused Glebe Island swing bridge, so there are no opening delays; masted yachts should confirm their air draft against the Anzac Bridge before planning a visit. The bay is shallow, around 4.5 metres, and three designated anchoring grounds are marked by buoys and signs: between Glebe Rowing Club and Blackwattle Bay Park, between the park and Glebe Point, and at the far end near the Annandale side, where an unmarked soft sandbar splits the anchorage and has grounded more than one catamaran. Holding is reported as patchy and the anchorages are narrow, so set the hook carefully and expect company close by. Four public dinghy docks serve the shore: the Glebe Rowing Club pontoon, the Blackwattle Bay public dock, the Rozelle Bay pontoon near the TramSheds food hall, and the Sydney Fish Market dock closest to the city. Wash discipline matters here because the bay is a passive-boating zone thick with rowing shells, dragon boats and canoes, particularly at dawn. Provisioning is excellent: the Fish Market, the TramSheds and Glebe Point Road's cafes and pubs cover everything from oysters to a mechanic's lunch, and the light rail stops at the head of the bay. The Harbour history walks along the foreshore pass the sites of the Pyrmont baths, the timber yards and the old trawler base, a reminder that this quiet pocket was once the industrial belt of the port.