Marina service
Cairns Marlin Marina
About
Cairns Marlin Marina at a glance
Australia's premier superyacht homeport in the Cairns CBD with 264 berths, including 12 dedicated superyacht berths taking vessels to 140m and 6.5m draft at Sailfish Quay. Features a wave-barrier cyclone protection system, customs and biosecurity clearance berths, helipad and fuel bunkering; gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.
Service area: Cairns / Far North QLD
- Marina type
- superyacht marina
- Operator
- Ports North
- Region
- Cairns / Far North QLD
- Water body
- Trinity Inlet, Trinity Bay
- Wet berths
- 264
- Maximum vessel
- 140 m
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing, superyacht berths
Facilities and services
- fuel
- pump-out
- customs clearance
- 24/7 security
- power & water
- wifi
- showers & laundry
- restaurant/cafe
- helipad
- duty-free fuel bunkering
- oil disposal
- waste compactor
- alongside crew vehicle parking
- VHF 16 contact
- alongside berthing for 60-140m at Sailfish Quay
About Cairns Marlin Marina
Cairns Marlin Marina occupies the foreshore of Trinity Inlet at the foot of the Cairns CBD, a position that no other Australian superyacht facility can quite match: an international airport ten minutes away, a resort and casino strip along the same waterfront, and the Great Barrier Reef beginning barely forty nautical miles offshore. Managed by Ports North, the 264-berth facility is a working mixture rather than a pure yacht haven. Reef day-trip catamarans, commercial operators, game fishing boats and cruising yachts share the pontoons with visiting superyachts, and the marina's calendar still bends around the black marlin season that has drawn game boats to Cairns since the 1960s. Twelve dedicated superyacht berths take vessels to 140 metres, the largest of them lying along the fixed wharf at Sailfish Quay with 6.5 metres of alongside depth, while floating pontoons handle yachts to 60 metres. The marina's standing was confirmed early when Boat International's 2009 review ranked it among the top three superyacht marinas in Australia and the South Pacific, and its pulling power was on display again in 2025 when the 126-metre expedition yacht Octopus berthed for a month-long stay coinciding with the Superyacht Group Great Barrier Reef's 25th anniversary. A wave-barrier cyclone protection system, customs and biosecurity clearance berths and a helipad round out a facility that functions as Far North Queensland's front door for large yachts. After hours the place has a distinctly crew-oriented feel, centred on the Salthouse bar and restaurant looking back over the docks. The CBD frontage means berth holders step off the pontoon straight into a tropical city rather than an industrial estate, and that blend of urban convenience and serious blue-water access explains why so many yachts now base here year-round.
Marina facilities
Berthing splits into floating pontoon berths for vessels to 60 metres and the fixed Sailfish Quay wharf for yachts from 60 to 140 metres, with casual, permanent and superyacht terms all offered through the Ports North booking office, which publishes a fee schedule online. Every berth carries potable water and single-phase power to 15 amps included in the fee; three-phase shore power up to 200 amps is available on request at selected berths, metered at Ergon Energy tariff rates. The fuel berth sells diesel and ULP, and superyacht berths can be reached by 20,000-litre tanker trucks for bunkering, with duty-free bunkering available for eligible vessels. Customs and biosecurity clearance is conducted from dedicated berths inside the marina, making this a genuine first port of entry. Amenities beside F Finger hold card-accessed showers, toilets and laundry with washers and dryers; the adjacent services building houses a waste compactor and oil disposal bins, and bulk refuse removal is arranged for larger yachts. Security runs around the clock: gated pontoon access by issued card, regular patrols, dock lighting and 21 CCTV cameras recording across the facility. A marina carpark, including alongside parking for crew vehicles at the superyacht berths, is permit-controlled. Wireless broadband is provided, and a helipad serves the big-boat end. Trades, provisioning suppliers and agents have direct wharfside access for deliveries and work. The Salthouse bar and restaurant operates within the marina, and the Pier Shopping Centre, Shangri-La, Hilton, Pullman and Reef Hotel Casino complexes stand immediately behind it, putting crew services, banking and provisioning within a five-minute walk.
Local sailing knowledge
Approach is through the Cairns shipping channel, a 13-kilometre dredged cut 90 metres wide with a declared depth of 8.3 metres LAT, picked up about ten kilometres west of Cape Grafton across Trinity Bay; the marina monitors VHF channel 16 as 'Marlin Marina'. Inside the bar the inlet is straightforward but tidal, with strong streams past the wharves on big tides and mudbanks that shelve quickly outside the marks. Cairns sits inside the cyclone belt, so the November-to-April wet season dictates movement for many yachts, though the marina's wave barrier was engineered with cyclone protection in mind. The cruising payoff is immediate: Green Island and Fitzroy Island lie within an easy day run, the ribbon reefs and Lizard Island beckon north, and the reef fleet terminal next door runs daily trips for crew guests. September to November brings the black marlin fleet and a busy, sociable waterfront. Provisioning is supermarket-grade within walking distance, and the Cairns marine refit precinct at Portsmith, five minutes by car, covers haul-out, engineering and chandlery needs. The Esplanade lagoon, night markets and the bulk of the city's restaurants are ten minutes on foot. Crew change logistics are about as easy as Australian ports get, with the international airport a ten-minute drive and daily papers delivered to the docks. Tidal range here runs to about three metres on springs, so plan dock lines accordingly. Winter brings the south-east trades and the busiest, most social months on the docks. Chart updates matter here because maintenance dredging and shifting mudbanks alter the edges between surveys.