Marina service
d'Albora Port Macquarie Marina
About
d'Albora Port Macquarie Marina at a glance
Full-service marina at the mouth of the Hastings River, one of the safest ports on the eastern seaboard. 80 wet berths for boats to 75ft, upgraded boatyard with slipway haul-out and hardstand to 60ft, boat-on-trailer storage, 24/7 fuel and dockmaster assistance seven days. Acquired by d'Albora in December 2023.
Service area: North Coast
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- d'Albora Marinas
- Region
- North Coast
- Water body
- Hastings River
- Wet berths
- 80
- Maximum vessel
- 23 m
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- fuel
- slipway
- hardstand
- repairs & maintenance
- 24/7 security
- power & water
- showers & laundry
- restaurant/cafe
- boat ramp
- boat-on-trailer storage
- game fishing club on site
- outrigger club
- beauty salons
- real estate tenancies
- reciprocal berthing network
- live fuel pricing via app
About d'Albora Port Macquarie Marina
Sitting just inside the bar at the mouth of the Hastings River, d'Albora Port Macquarie Marina is the newest recruit to Australia's largest marina network, taken over by d'Albora in December 2023 after years operating under local ownership. The position is the point of difference. Port Macquarie lies roughly halfway between Sydney and the Gold Coast, and the Hastings entrance is regarded as one of the more forgiving bars on the New South Wales coast, so the marina functions as a natural staging post for the steady stream of cruisers migrating north each autumn and south each spring. Eighty wet berths take vessels to 23 metres, and the working boatyard beside them gives the place a practical, slightly industrial edge that pure lifestyle marinas lack. The tenant mix is peculiar in a good way: the Port Macquarie Game Fishing Club shares the precinct with two real estate agencies, a pair of beauty salons, an outrigger canoe club and waterfront dining at Sea Salt and Little Turkey. Each January the marina turns into tournament headquarters when the Garmin Golden Lure game fishing event runs out of the port. Regional manager Peter Moxham has emphasised the marina's role as a community hub, sponsoring the local outrigger and fishing clubs. For travelling boat owners the appeal is simple: one of the few ports between Newcastle and Coffs Harbour that can haul, service and provision a vessel of 18 metres without fuss, eight minutes from a regional airport and an easy walk to the town centre.
Marina facilities
The marina divides neatly into wet berthing and boatyard operations. Eighty floating berths accommodate vessels to 75 feet (about 23 metres), offered on annual, casual holiday and transient terms; the transient trade is significant, with east coast cruisers booking in for fuel, water and a few nights ashore. Every berth carries power and water, and dockmaster assistance runs seven days a week, including help at the fuel wharf. Fuel is available around the clock, a genuine 24/7 service that matters for boats timing a bar crossing at first light. The boatyard, upgraded in a major works program completed in late 2024, offers slipway haul-out and hardstand space for vessels to 60 feet, with boat-on-trailer storage filling the gap for smaller craft. Marine electricians and shipwrights work on site, supported by tenant Shotgun Marine Services, so planned maintenance and emergency repairs can both be handled without shifting the vessel. That full-service yard is a rarity in regional New South Wales and is the marina's strongest card. Landside amenities include toilets, showers and laundry, plus 24-hour security across the precinct. Eating options run from the Sea Salt cafe and restaurant to the Little Turkey eatery, and the Game Fishing Club rooms give visiting crews somewhere to swap stories. A public boat ramp sits within the precinct, and reciprocal berthing across d'Albora's sixteen-marina east coast network, up to thirty nights a year for members, adds value for annual berth holders. Bookings and berthing enquiries run through the central 1800 DALBORA line and the d'Albora app, which also posts live fuel pricing.
Local sailing knowledge
Approaching from seaward, the Hastings River entrance is a trained, breakwalled bar that treats skippers kindly in most conditions, though any east coast bar deserves respect after heavy weather or on a strong ebb against swell. Once inside, the marina lies immediately to hand, with the town's skyline and the 1879 Tacking Point Lighthouse astern. The river itself rewards exploration: upstream reaches toward Wauchope offer quiet mangrove-lined cruising, while dolphins work the lower river daily and whales pass outside from May to November. Port Macquarie is one of the fastest-growing regional cities in the state, so provisioning is supermarket-grade rather than general-store-grade, and shopping centres, hotels and resorts are an easy walk from the dock. Flynns Beach and Town Beach suit families, Lighthouse Beach draws the surfers, and more than 40,000 hectares of national park and state forest, including the World Heritage Gondwana rainforest of Werrikimbe, sit behind the town for days off the boat. The marina's clientele splits three ways: interstate cruisers treating the port as a refuelling and rest stop on the Sydney-Gold Coast run, local game fishers chasing marlin and tuna on the continental shelf, and trailer-boat owners using the ramp and storage. Each January the Golden Lure tournament fills the berths with game boats. For skippers running the coast, the practical takeaway is that this is the best-equipped port for several hundred nautical miles in either direction, and it can be entered, fuelled and departed on a single tide if needed. Camera crews occasionally gather at dawn on the breakwall when an east coast low is running, a reminder that even the friendlier bars make their own weather.