Marina service
Deepwater Marina
About
Deepwater Marina at a glance
Small family-run marina at New Town Bay north of Hobart on the western shore of the Derwent. Could not verify current operation - no website or recent directory listings found; only a 2002 cruising guide reference (family-run, laid back, Newtown Bay; ph (03) 6228 7221 / (03) 6278 2878, unverified); a 2010 Deloitte Investment Monitor entry records a Leisure Inn Hotels proposal for a 40-berth marina at New Town Bay (Glenorchy City Council), suggesting possible redevelopment of the site
Service area: Hobart / River Derwent
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- Deepwater Marina
- Region
- Hobart / River Derwent
- Water body
- New Town Bay
Facilities and services
- No services verified on site
- fuel, pump-out, laundry and Wi-Fi available nearby at Prince of Wales Bay Marina
- marine trades concentrated in adjacent Derwent Park
About Deepwater Marina
Deepwater Marina is the ghost entry of Hobart's marina scene: a small, family-run operation at New Town Bay, on the western shore of the Derwent north of the city, whose current status could not be verified at the time of writing. What is known comes from a handful of older references. A 2002 cruising report by the American yacht Adagio, which spent months in southern Tasmania, listed Deepwater Marina at Newtown Bay with home and office phone numbers, describing it as family-run and laid back, the kind of low-key yard where a handful of local boats found cheap berths away from the city marinas. A 2010 Deloitte Investment Monitor entry recorded a proposal by Leisure Inn Hotels for a 40-berth marina at New Town Bay within the Glenorchy City Council area, which suggests the site attracted redevelopment interest at that time, though no completion of such a project can be confirmed. No website, social media presence or recent directory listing for the marina could be found, and the published phone numbers are unverified. New Town Bay itself is a shallow, open bight between Cornelian Bay and the industrial waterfront of Derwent Park, better known for its rowing course and mooring field than for marina infrastructure. Boaters researching a berth here should treat the listing as historical, ring ahead before setting out, and look to the well-documented alternatives nearby: Prince of Wales Bay Marina one bay to the south, and the club marinas at Lindisfarne, Bellerive and Sandy Bay. Its inclusion here preserves that record honestly, flagging both what the 2002 guide described and what remains unknown.
Marina facilities
No current, verifiable service list exists for Deepwater Marina, and it would be misleading to invent one. The 2002 reference describes a family-run, laid-back marina, which in the Tasmanian context of that era typically meant pile or modest floating berths with basic arrangements and informal management; there is no published record of fuel, pump-out, a travel lift, hardstand, showers or chandlery at the site, and none should be assumed. The recorded phone numbers, (03) 6228 7221 and (03) 6278 2878, date from the same 2002 guide and remain unconfirmed. The 2010 investment proposal for a 40-berth marina at New Town Bay was never followed by any discoverable opening announcement, so the scale and even the existence of operating berths today is uncertain. What can be stated with confidence is the service landscape around the bay, which is strong. Prince of Wales Bay Marina, the next bay south, is a 160-berth floating marina opened in 2012 with a 24-hour card-operated fuel dock selling high and low flow diesel and unleaded, a pump-out at the fuel berth, an office attended seven days and laundry and Wi-Fi. Directly across that bay stands the Cleanlift marine complex and Incat's shipyard, and the surrounding Derwent Park district concentrates many of Hobart's marine trades: engineering, electrical, rigging and chandlery suppliers. TasPorts' Domain slipyard, further south, provides slipping and 24-hour prepaid diesel. Any crew considering Deepwater should verify it directly by phone and plan fuel, water and repairs through these neighbouring facilities, which collectively offer everything a cruising boat needs within a mile or two.
Local sailing knowledge
New Town Bay lies on the Derwent's western bank about four nautical miles above the Tasman Bridge, reached by a straightforward run up the deep, well-marked river channel. The bay is broad and shallow around its margins, with a mooring field along its southern side and the green headland of Cornelian Bay, topped by its cemetery, marking the eastern edge; depths drop off quickly outside the moorings, and the bay is open to southerly fetch coming straight up the river. The surrounding shore is a working one: the Selfs Point fuel berth and the Derwent Park industrial area lie to the south, and the zinc works and Boyer paper mill traffic further upriver mean occasional commercial movements past the bay. For cruising crews, the practical anchors of the neighbourhood are Prince of Wales Bay, where the marina's fuel dock is signposted from the river and the office keeps seven-day hours, and the MONA art museum at Berriedale a few miles upstream, which has its own jetty and draws ferries and private boats alike. New Town and Moonah, just inland, provide supermarkets and hardware, and the Glenorchy CBD is a short bus or bike ride south. History adds some colour: the northern suburbs' bays were Hobart's small-boat heartland through the twentieth century, home to rowing clubs, sailing dinghies and backyard moorings long before pontoon marinas arrived. Whether Deepwater Marina still operates is best settled with a phone call before any passage plan depends on it, and the fallbacks in every direction are good.