Marina service
Bunbury Casuarina Boat Harbour
About
Bunbury Casuarina Boat Harbour at a glance
DoT-managed boat harbour in a retail and tourist precinct between Bunbury's CBD and Koombana Bay, with 48 recreational and five commercial boat pens, swing moorings, a slipway currently capable of vessels up to 40 tonnes, a service jetty and two public boat ramps.
Service area: South West
- Marina type
- government/transport wharf-marina
- Operator
- Department of Transport and Major Infrastructure (DTMI)
- Region
- South West
- Water body
- Koombana Bay
- Wet berths
- 53
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing, swing moorings
Facilities and services
- slipway
- power & water
- boat ramp
- swing moorings
- 24hr Baileys (Ampol) diesel on service jetty
- HSA Marine slipway and hardstand (40t)
- universal access floating jetty at ramp
- multipurpose building with penholder showers
- accessible fishing platform (planned)
- 54 new floating pens funded 2026
About Bunbury Casuarina Boat Harbour
Casuarina Boat Harbour occupies the strip of coast between Bunbury's CBD, the Outer Harbour and Koombana Bay, about 175 kilometres south of Perth, and it is in the middle of the most ambitious redevelopment of any small-craft harbour in the state. The harbour has served the South West boating community for decades from its position inside a retail and tourist precinct, with the Dolphin Discovery Centre, a calm swimming beach and the Koombana foreshore as neighbours, but since 2018 the Transforming Bunbury's Waterfront program has committed about $218 million to rebuilding it. Stage works have delivered a new Koombana foreshore, a rebuilt Dolphin Discovery Centre, the Jetty Road causeway upgrade and a refurbished two-lane ramp, and in late 2025 rock work finished on a 460-metre northern breakwater built from roughly 290,000 tonnes of core rock and 65,000 tonnes of armour by a WA Limestone and Italia Stone joint venture. That breakwater, together with a land and seabed tenure change that roughly doubled the harbour footprint, is designed to take the facility from around 60 pens toward an ultimate capacity of up to 400. The character of the place is already shifting from a functional council-era boat harbour toward a regional marine industry hub, with serviced lease sites planned for boat lifting, repair and stacking businesses in the coming years. Through all the construction, the harbour has stayed open and busy: commercial fishers, charter operators and a loyal pen-holder community have worked around the dredges and rock trucks, and the daily parade of dolphins in Koombana Bay continues regardless of the machinery. Bunbury, the state's largest city outside Perth, has talked about fixing its waterfront since the 1980s, and this harbour is where that talk has finally turned into stone and floating concrete.
Marina facilities
Current facilities centre on 48 recreational and five commercial fixed pens ranging from 10 to 20 metres, charged at published Department of Transport rates of $606.40 per metre of pen annually for a pen with walkway, alongside swing moorings and casual berthing options. A service jetty engineered for 50-tonne displacement vessels provides diesel around the clock through a Baileys Marine Fuels (Ampol) card-operated facility, and carries a 5-tonne gross crane load. The slipway, storage and maintenance yard at the harbour entrance is operated commercially by HSA Marine (email bunbury@hsamarine.com.au), currently handling vessels to about 40 tonnes. The two-lane public ramp was rebuilt in 2022 with a universal access floating jetty and free car and trailer parking, a new toilet block followed in December 2023, and pen holders have shower and toilet facilities inside the multipurpose building on Jetty Road. Inclusive facilities are a theme: a fishing platform, tactile pathways, accessible parking, toilets and showers, and bicycle racks. Expired flares go to the DTMI Bunbury office. The pipeline of works is substantial: an $89.1 million stage announced in April 2026 funds 54 new floating pens, an accessible fishing precinct with a $4 million platform carrying ten wheelchair bays on the northern breakwater, seawall upgrades and commercial lease lots, with delivery through to 2029. Three former Iluka mineral sands sheds, 1,440 to 3,168 square metres each, have been offered for hospitality, retail or marine industry redevelopment. The five commercial pens keep the harbour's working-boat credentials intact, servicing local charter and fishing operators, while the slipway yard's wash-down and storage areas handle the maintenance needs of the pen fleet. Booking and fee administration runs through the DTMI Bunbury office, which also manages the casual pen allocations for visiting vessels.
Local sailing knowledge
Sea access is via Bunbury's Outer Harbour, with a clear passage between the land-backed wharf to the west, and the new northern breakwater with its permanent navigation aids has already noticeably quietened the basin against the north-westerly winter swell that once rolled straight in. Skippers should still expect commercial shipping movements through the adjacent port channel and give the entrance leads a wide berth on big tide days. The harbour's party trick is its wildlife: Koombana Bay hosts a resident population of bottlenose dolphins, and the rebuilt Dolphin Discovery Centre next door runs interaction zones and cruises, while the deliberately scuttled Lena dive wreck lies offshore for divers. The sheltered beach inside the harbour is the city's default family swim spot, with grassed shade and barbecues, and swimming, fishing and paddle craft share the bay with the pen fleet. Provisioning is as easy as regional boating gets: Bunbury's CBD, with supermarkets, pubs, chandleries and marine trades, is walking distance over the Jetty Road causeway, and the Koombana Bay Sailing Club nearby runs Wednesday twilight and Saturday racing for crews wanting a competitive fix. Summer afternoons bring a reliable south-westerly sea breeze, so morning departures for Geographe Bay, Busselton or the run north to Mandurah are the local habit. Marlston Hill's old lighthouse lookout gives a useful eyeball of conditions before committing to open water. One practical quirk worth knowing: the harbour has no wash-down facility at the ramp, so trailer boats flush engines at home or at commercial wash pads in town. Winter frontal systems can still send surge through the entrance despite the new breakwater, and locals check the port authority notices before crossing the bar area in heavy weather.