Marina service
Deep Creek Marina
About
Deep Creek Marina at a glance
Private houseboat and paddleboat marina on the Murray River about 18km downstream of Echuca-Moama on the NSW side, with privately owned moorings, a leveed dry-dock area and a marina hotel. Private houseboat marina 18km west of Moama on Torrumbarry Weir pool (constant water level); Deep Creek Marina Hotel (pub) onsite, bottle shop with ice, boat ramp, parking, council pump-out station; berth count variously cited as 86-150 (120 per Deep Creek Houseboats)
Service area: Murray Riverina
- Marina type
- private/residential
- Operator
- Deep Creek Marina
- Region
- Murray Riverina
- Water body
- Murray River
- Wet berths
- 120
- Berth types
- permanent berthing, swing moorings
Facilities and services
- pump-out
- boat ramp
- ice
- licensed club
- marina cafe
- bottle shop with ice
- visitor moorings
- holiday accommodation
- dry-dock area
- second boat ramp
- parking
About Deep Creek Marina
Deep Creek Marina is less a conventional marina than a riverside village organised around boats. It lies on the New South Wales bank of the Murray at 1771 Perricoota Road, Moama, about 18 kilometres downstream of the Echuca-Moama bridge, on the long, level pool held up by Torrumbarry Weir. The marina was purpose-built for houseboats and paddleboats, and its moorings are privately owned, with the berths variously cited at between 86 and around 150 depending on how the stages are counted; the operator's own community site refers to 86 houseboat moorings, while the adjoining Waterfront Moama estate describes roughly 150 privately owned berths. Around the moorings has grown a mixed community of permanent residents, weekender owners and holiday renters, with townhouses and river-frontage houses overlooking the basin, a leveed dry-dock area for hull work, and the Deep Creek Marina Hotel anchoring the social side. The hotel is a classic country pub that happens to float its view over a marina: famous locally for generous parmas and hot chips, it keeps nearby moorings for visitors arriving by river, and pairs with a marina cafe and a bottle shop that also sells ice. The pool's constant level, courtesy of the weir downstream, means houseboats here avoid the seasonal rise and fall that complicates mooring elsewhere on the Murray, and the 4-knot zoning near the moorings keeps wash down among the floating homes. The site acknowledges the Yorta Yorta people as traditional custodians, and recent years have seen a community push to keep the marina transparent, well run and welcoming as the surrounding Perricoota district develops around it.
Marina facilities
Services reflect the marina's private, residential character. The moorings themselves are privately owned houseboat and paddleboat berths rather than rentable marina pens, so berthing arrangements are made with individual owners or through the marina community rather than a walk-in berthing office; visitor moorings near the hotel cater for boats coming up by river for a meal. The most important shared facility is the council pump-out station listed by Transport for NSW at the marina, available to clients and the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week, operated by the customer with the fee charged by the local council through a rate notice against the vessel's registration number; toilets for clients and the public are open 9am to 5pm. A boat ramp, with a second ramp serving the adjoining estate, handles trailer boats and the speed boats that many houseboat owners tow, and parking is provided on site. The Deep Creek Marina Hotel supplies the licensed club element: meals, cold beer and river views, with the bottle shop selling ice, an essential commodity for houseboat fridges and eskies. A marina cafe trades beside the water, and holiday accommodation in marina townhouses and river-front houses, some with pools and spas, is widely let through booking platforms for those who want the marina lifestyle without owning a hull. There is no fuel wharf published at the marina, so boaters tank up at Moama or Echuca outlets before the run downstream, and major mechanical work is handled by marine businesses back in the twin towns. The leveed dry-dock area allows houseboats to be taken out for survey and maintenance, a rare and valuable facility on this stretch of the Murray.
Local sailing knowledge
The marina sits on the Torrumbarry Weir pool, where the Murray widens, slows and takes on a lacustrine character, with low grassy banks and willow lines replacing the tight red-gum bends found further upstream. That constant, weir-regulated level is the reason houseboating works so well here, and the long straight reaches downstream are some of the best waterskiing water in the district; the world-famous Southern 80 and the Barry Beehag ski races run this part of the river, and marina frontages give prime viewing. Torrumbarry Weir itself lies further downstream and regulates the pool, while upstream the run back to Echuca-Moama takes a couple of hours at houseboat pace, ending at the historic port precinct with its paddle-steamer fleet. Note that hire houseboats in the district are generally not permitted beyond the Barmah Bridge upstream. By road, the marina is about 15 minutes from Moama's supermarkets, bakeries and pubs along Perricoota Road, and the local dining circuit has real depth: the Perricoota Station packing shed restaurant, the Three Black Sheep cafe, and the cellar doors of the Perricoota wine region, including Morrisons Riverview and St Anne's, all within a short drive. Moama's clubs, the Rich River Golf Club, the bowling club and the RSL, run courtesy buses. River practicalities: the 4-knot zones near moorings are enforced, snag awareness is second nature on the Murray even in the pooled reaches, and summer weekends bring heavy ski-boat traffic on the straights. Wildlife is a daily feature, with cockatoos, ibis and egrets working the red gums, and evening campfire culture thrives along the sandy banks downstream toward the weir.