About
Cammeray Marina at a glance
Modern sheltered marina in Willoughby Bay, Middle Harbour, with marina berths and swing moorings for vessels up to 65 ft, showers, laundry, BBQ, free ferry service and a boatyard able to carry out all repairs.
Service area: Middle Harbour
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- Cammeray Marina
- Region
- Middle Harbour
- Water body
- Middle Harbour (Willoughby Bay / Long Bay)
- Maximum vessel
- 19.8 m
- Berth types
- permanent berthing, casual berthing, swing moorings
Facilities and services
- repairs & maintenance
- power & water
- showers & laundry
- slipway to 50 ft
- marine surveys
- electrical engineering
- mechanical engineering
- BBQ facilities
- common room
- free ferry service
About Cammeray Marina
Cammeray Marina has been operating since 1965 on Long Bay, the sheltered inner arm of Willoughby Bay in Middle Harbour, and it remains a family business: the Rabbitts family, long associated with the promotion and protection of Sydney Harbour's waterways, has run it for decades, with Kelvin Rabbitts, raised at the marina, now a well-known marine surveyor as well as marina manager. The address is 6 Cowdroy Avenue, Cammeray, but the real address is the water: a pocket of deep, still, bush-fringed harbour about seven kilometres north of the CBD, reached by passing through the Spit Bridge, which keeps the whole of inner Middle Harbour quieter and cheaper than the outer harbour marinas. The operation combines a modern floating marina with a large swing mooring field, around 22 berths and 100 moorings in published descriptions, taking vessels up to about 65 feet. What distinguishes Cammeray is the blend of marina, boatyard and survey practice in one family-run site. There is a working slipway, on-premises electrical and mechanical engineering, and a professional survey service, so boats can be slipped, inspected, repaired and re-launched without leaving the bay. The clientele is a mix of long-term mooring holders, many of them yacht owners, and visiting cruisers drawn by the marina's reputation for hospitality; the staff are boat owners and sailors themselves, and the common room, barbecue deck and free ferry service give the place a clubby feel that commercial marinas rarely manage. In a harbour full of marina choices, Cammeray's pitch is continuity: sixty years, one family, one bay.
Marina facilities
Berthing at Cammeray covers marina berths and swing moorings suitable for vessels up to about 65 feet (19.8 metres), with roughly 22 berths and 100 moorings available for long-term, monthly or weekly stays, and power and water on the floating marina. Amenities are simple but genuinely useful: bathrooms with hot showers, a laundry with dryer, a barbecue with flame stove and a dining area overlooking the water, and a common room fitted with fridge, microwave, kettle, books and DVDs. A free ferry service runs for customers, removing the classic mooring-holder's pain point. The technical side is where Cammeray earns its living. The marina provides electrical and mechanical engineering services on the premises, and its boatyard can carry out the full range of repairs; the slipway, currently managed by SHS Marine Cammeray, takes vessels up to 50 feet at rates the marina describes as competitive, and out-of-water lifts are used routinely for pre-purchase and insurance surveys as well as maintenance. That ties into the on-site survey practice, Shipwright Surveyors, which offers pre-purchase, insurance and damage-assessment surveys and will slip client vessels at the marina for inspection. The net effect is a one-stop arrangement: moor or berth the boat, slip it when due, have mechanical and electrical work done on site, and get an independent survey from people who have known the bay all their lives. Enquiries run through 02 9953 4761 or the marina email, and as a smaller operator the advice is to book berths, moorings and slipway slots ahead rather than arrive on spec, particularly in the pre-Christmas rush when every yard in Middle Harbour fills.
Local sailing knowledge
The defining navigational fact for Cammeray is the Spit Bridge. Everything in inner Middle Harbour, including this marina, sits west of a bascule bridge that opens only at scheduled times, so skippers of masted vessels must plan arrivals and departures around the published opening times; powerboats that fit under the closed span come and go freely. Once through, Willoughby Bay is deep, protected and uncrowded, with the marina lying in Long Bay at the bay's head, surrounded by bush that hides the suburbs above. Middle Harbour itself is a cruiser-friendly system: Sugarloaf Bay, Bantry Bay and the upper reaches all offer anchorages inside Garigal National Park territory, and the run downstream to The Spit gives access to d'Albora's 24-hour fuel berth there, since inner Middle Harbour's fuel options are limited, with Roseville Marina the other option for fuel and pump-out west of the bridge. Ashore, Cammeray and neighbouring Northbridge and Castlecrag provide the necessities: Cammeray's shops and cafes are up the hill, and a car or the marina ferry solves provisioning. By dinghy or ferry, The Spit precinct offers restaurants including the well-regarded Ormeggio at The Spit, plus the cluster of marinas, yacht club and chandleries around Mosman Bay. The local boating culture is old Sydney: families who have kept boats on these moorings for generations, yacht owners who race offshore from Middle Harbour Yacht Club, and a steady trickle of interstate and international cruisers who discover that a berth inside the Spit Bridge costs less and sleeps better than one outside it. For a stay of more than a night or two, that trade is usually worth the wait for a bridge opening.