About
Empire Marina Bobbin Head at a glance
Family-owned marina inside Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park with 200 berths (8-30 m), 10 moorings, 50 t travel lift, overnight security and the licensed Waterside Bistro; 2011 MIA Marina of the Year (over 140 berths).
Service area: Broken Bay / Cowan Creek
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- Empire Marinas Group
- Region
- Broken Bay / Cowan Creek
- Water body
- Cowan Creek (Bobbin Head)
- Wet berths
- 200
- Maximum vessel
- 30 m
- Berth types
- permanent berthing, casual berthing, swing moorings
Facilities and services
- fuel
- pump-out
- travel lift
- repairs & maintenance
- 24/7 security
- power & water
- wifi
- restaurant/cafe
- fuel wharf (fuel, ice, gas, bait, 7 days)
- 50t travel lift
- hardstand
- antifouling
- on-site trade services
- Waterside Bistro licensed
- bottle shop
- dockmaster berthing assistance
- overnight security
- SMART Boating syndicate base
- Fliteschool Sydney e-foil school
- park visitor information access
About Empire Marina Bobbin Head
Empire Marina occupies the head of Cowan Creek at Bobbin Head, entirely enclosed by the sandstone bushland of Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Australia's second-oldest national park. There is no passing water traffic here, only the comings and goings of the marina's own boats, and at night the silence is broken by little more than fish working the shallows under the boardwalk. The marina is family owned by the Richardson and Vaux families under the Empire Marinas Group, whose managing director Darren Vaux is also president of the Boating Industry Association; the group added Lake Macquarie's Marmong Point Marina to its holdings in 2021. Bobbin Head itself is the group's showpiece and claims a crowded trophy shelf: the 2011 Marina Industries Association Marina of the Year for over 140 berths, a second national marina of the year title, the first induction into the Australian Marina Hall of Fame, and the first 5 Gold Anchor Platinum rating achieved in Australia. The scale is serious for a national park address, with 200 deepwater berths, ten moorings, a 50-tonne travel lift, hardstand and full trade services, yet the tone is deliberately relaxed, with a dockmaster to catch lines and barista coffee at the licensed Waterside Bistro. The site also carries history: Aboriginal engravings on the rock wall beside the marina are signposted on the waterfront, and the NRMA records that a humpback whale and calf were sighted here in 1957. The clientele mixes upper-north-shore families keeping cruisers and trailer boats, syndicate owners, and cruising yachts pausing on a Hawkesbury loop, all sharing a waterfront where bush turkeys patrol the car park and cockatoos heckle from the angophoras. Walkers off the Sphinx and Warrimoo tracks filter through for coffee, so the bistro deck doubles as a trailhead refuelling stop as much as a boaties' canteen.
Marina facilities
The marina's 200 floating berths take vessels from 8 to 30 metres, with power, water and wifi at each berth, wide fairways and generous fingers designed to make berthing low-stress in the sheltered, wind-shadowed creek; depths in the marina vary between about two and four metres at low tide. Ten moorings cater for boats drawing less than four metres. The fuel wharf sells fuel, ice, gas and bait seven days, and a pump-out facility handles sewage. The maintenance yard operates a 50-tonne travel lift rated for vessels up to 2.6 metres draft, with a hardstand and on-site antifouling and boat maintenance services; trade contractors cover the rest. Overnight security and plentiful parking are part of the package, and casual berthing is available alongside permanent occupancy. The Waterside Bistro is licensed, trades 8am to 4pm daily with an outdoor deck over the water, uses locally sourced produce for breakfast and lunch, and sells takeaway snacks and a bottle shop selection for boats heading up the creek; the fish sanctuary under the deck is a drawcard in itself. Park entry fees apply for vehicles arriving by road, $12 per vehicle per day at the time of research. The marina also hosts a SMART Boating syndicate base, giving boat-share owners use of the facility, and Fliteschool Sydney runs electric hydrofoil lessons from the site. Bookings and berthing enquiries go through the office on 02 9457 9011. The NSW National Parks service lists the marina as a park boating facility, reflecting its unusual status as a full-service commercial marina inside a national park boundary.
Local sailing knowledge
Bobbin Head sits at the tidal head of Cowan Creek, about 12 kilometres from the creek's junction with the Hawkesbury, and the approach is one of the easiest in New South Wales: through Broken Bay past West Head and up a fjord-like, deep and well-marked waterway with no bar and almost no navigational hazard, though depths shoal quickly above the marina toward Apple Tree Bay. The marina is roughly 24 kilometres north of the Sydney CBD by road through North Turramurra, which makes it a genuine upper-north-shore boating base, 15 minutes from St Ives. Cruising options fan out in every direction: Refuge Bay and America Bay with their club and public moorings, Jerusalem Bay, Waratah Bay where Edward Windybank ran hire houseboats from the 1880s, and downstream the Cottage Point Inn and Cottage Point Kiosk for waterside meals. Ashore, Bobbin Head's 1930s picnic ground, the art deco Bobbin Inn cafe and information centre, and the Gibberagong mangrove boardwalk make the marina a walking destination as much as a boating one, and the Sphinx, Warrimoo and Bobbin Head tracks all converge here. A historic bridge at Cockle Creek links the marina to the picnic area. Fuel, groceries and ice are only at the marina or at Cottage Point, so boats heading further up the Hawkesbury should provision here. The gates to West Head close overnight, and fire danger can shut the park in summer, both worth checking before planning a road pickup. Tide range here is around two metres, and while the creek is deep mid-channel, the flats beside the boardwalk and the upper reaches above Apple Tree Bay dry to mangrove-lined shallows, so tenders and houseboats should keep to the channel. Yellow public moorings are scattered through the creek's bays and fill early on summer weekends; anchoring room remains good off Refuge and Jerusalem Bays. Fishing is fair for flathead and bream around the creek mouths, and kayaks and hire paddle craft launch at Apple Tree Bay's public ramp a few minutes upstream. Mobile phone coverage is patchy in the gorge, which is part of the appeal for the crews who base here year round.