Marina service
Cunninghame Quay (Lakes Entrance)
About
Cunninghame Quay (Lakes Entrance) at a glance
Town-centre quay at Lakes Entrance with free short-stay wall berthing and five premium valet berths (20m x 6m) providing power, water and security-gate protection, managed by Gippsland Ports (bookings via Lonsdale Cruises).
Service area: Gippsland Lakes
- Marina type
- government/transport wharf-marina
- Operator
- Gippsland Ports
- Region
- Gippsland Lakes
- Water body
- Cunninghame Arm, Gippsland Lakes
- Wet berths
- 5
- Maximum vessel
- 20 m
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- power & water
- valet berthing
- free 4-hour wall berthing (overnight outside hours)
- premium valet berths via Lonsdale Cruises
- power-only outer-face berthing
- Bulmer Street jetty (48hr stays, boats to 14m)
About Cunninghame Quay (Lakes Entrance)
Cunninghame Quay is the town-centre waterfront of Lakes Entrance, a working quay on the Cunninghame Arm where the holiday strip meets the fishing port. The main esplanade's shops, cafes, post office and pubs stand directly across the road from the berthing wall, and the foot traffic never really stops in season. The quay is managed by Gippsland Ports and operates on two levels. Along the wall in front of the shops, berthing is free, limited to four hours between 6am and 8pm, with overnight stays tolerated outside those hours; it is the classic pull-up-for-supplies stop for lakes cruisers. Behind a security gate, up to five premium valet berths of 20 by 6 metres offer paid overnight berthing with power and water, booked through Lonsdale Cruises. Fishing trawlers work the same waterfront, and fresh seafood sells off the boats when the fleet is in. The quay's position matters strategically as well as socially: it is the closest serviced berthing to the entrance bar, so coastal yachts transiting between Bass Strait and the lakes use it as their staging point while they wait for a weather window. Lakes Entrance itself is Victoria's busiest boating town, and in January the quay is standing room only, but out of season it settles back into a fishing-village rhythm with prawn and scallop boats coming and going. The quay takes its name from the Cunninghame Arm itself, the dredged channel that fronts the town and carries everything from hire cruisers to scallop boats. Unlike a purpose-built marina there are no gates along the public wall, no membership and no marina office on site, just a working waterfront where the town and the port share the same hundred metres of water.
Marina facilities
The free wall berthing carries no power or water and is governed by the four-hour daytime limit between 6am and 8pm, with overnight berthing outside those hours; it suits self-sufficient boats provisioning at the shops opposite. The premium end consists of up to five valet berths on the quay jetty, each 20 by 6 metres with the vessel required to fit entirely within the berth area, providing power, water and security-gate protection. Published rates run from $90 a night in the peak season, 1 December to Easter Monday, and from $45 a night for the remainder of the year, with a power-only outer-face temporary option from $27.30 a night and alongside rates on request; the berthing day runs noon to 11.30am. Bookings for the premium berths are managed for Gippsland Ports by Lonsdale Cruises on 0408 396 876, while the port's own office sits over on Bullock Island, phone (03) 5150 0500. A newer addition to the town waterfront is the Bulmer Street jetty, delivered by Gippsland Ports in October 2023 with $680,000 from the Better Boating Fund, which takes at least ten boats up to 14 metres and allows stays of up to 48 hours right in the town centre. Public toilets are nearby, laundry and fuel are available elsewhere in the port, and the fuel jetty on the Cunninghame Arm serves the waterfront. There is no lift, pump-out or repair facility at the quay itself; slipping and marine trades are found around Bullock Island and the North Arm. Everything within the port's pricing is reviewed periodically and published on the Gippsland Ports website.
Local sailing knowledge
The defining local fact is the bar. The Gippsland Lakes drain to Bass Strait through the artificial entrance cut in 1889, and the entrance channel, flanked by training walls about two kilometres south-west of the quay, can be dangerous when swell meets ebb tide; coastal skippers check conditions with Gippsland Ports and watch the entrance cameras before committing. Inside, the Cunninghame Arm is calm and dredged, and the quay is the closest berthing to the bar, which is why transiting yachts stage here. Ashore, the esplanade covers every provisioning need: supermarkets, bakery, post office, pubs and a stretch of cafes, with the locally famous coffee shop directly opposite the wall. Fresh seafood comes off the trawlers at the co-op when the fleet unloads, and fish and chips on the wall is something of a ritual. The Ninety Mile Beach lies across the footbridge for crews wanting surf after lake water. By water, the whole Gippsland Lakes system opens up: Metung is a short run west, Paynesville and Raymond Island a half day, and the Tambo and Nicholson rivers give sheltered overnight escapes when the lakes blow. Summer brings heavy traffic and hire-drive cruisers with inexperienced skippers, so patience at the jetty is part of the season. Offshore, the town hosts a large fishing fleet and charter boats running for snapper and gummies, and the entrance itself, with its tide rips and shifting leads, rewards a conservative first transit on a flood tide in settled weather. Kalimna jetty and the rock wall on the far side of the entrance reach are favourite land-based fishing spots for crews waiting out weather.