Marina service
Iluka Boatshed & Marina (Iluka Clarence River Marina)
About
Iluka Boatshed & Marina (Iluka Clarence River Marina) at a glance
Small marina and boatshed at Iluka on the lower Clarence River, offering secure moorings suited to visiting yachts leaving vessels for days or months, plus fuel. Its Charles Street jetty is used by the Clarence River ferry service to Yamba.
Service area: Clarence Valley
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- Iluka Clarence River Marina
- Region
- Clarence Valley
- Water body
- Clarence River
- Berth types
- casual berthing, swing moorings
Facilities and services
- fuel
- boat ramp
- diesel fuel
- ferry terminal
- cafe
- licensed bar
- nearby fish co-op harbour
- power & water at berths
- Island Cruising Rally discounts
About Iluka Boatshed & Marina (Iluka Clarence River Marina)
Iluka Boatshed and Marina occupies the river end of Charles Street, the main street of Iluka, on the northern bank of the lower Clarence River. Iluka is the quieter of the two towns guarding the river mouth, a fishing village of around eighteen hundred people pressed between the sea and the Bundjalung National Park, and the marina reflects that scale: a compact, personally run boatshed operation rather than a pontoon farm. Its jetty doubles as the Iluka stop for Clarence River Ferries, whose two vessels, the 1973-built MV Mirigini and the catamaran Alleykat, cross to Yamba several times daily, so the waterfront sees a steady shuffle of foot passengers, bikes and dogs on leads alongside working boats. The precinct has gathered a small food and drink trade in recent years, with the Chez Basho boatshed cafe serving Japanese-fusion dishes beside the ferry boarding point and a sunset drinks venue trading from the marina address. What draws cruising yachts, though, is the marina's particular niche: secure, attended moorings on one of the east coast's great rivers, where owners can leave a vessel for days or months while they travel inland, knowing someone is watching the lines. The Clarence system behind the town holds more than a hundred islands, and the whole lower reach has the feel of a big, slow, working waterway. A government wharf has stood at Iluka since 1875, built when the river mouth breakwater works brought the town into being, and the boatshed continues that tradition of the waterfront as the village's working front door rather than a leisure appendage.
Marina facilities
The core offering is moorings. The marina provides secure swing moorings and casual berthing on the lower Clarence, explicitly pitched at visiting yachts that want to leave a boat unattended, whether for a single night ashore or a season away, without the anxiety of dragging anchor or another vessel dragging down on them. Mooring fees attract discounts for Island Cruising Rally members under a published arrangement, and the same members receive discounts on fuel purchases. Fuel is available at the marina, a genuine convenience on this reach of the river, and there is a boat ramp for launching trailer craft. Power and water can be arranged for vessels on the marina's berths, and the operator can be reached directly by mobile on 0411 057 362, which suits yachts working to tide windows. Just downstream, the Clarence River Fishermen's Co-operative maintains its small boat harbours at both Iluka and Yamba, with catwalk-accessed mooring berths allowing reasonable use of power and water and diesel sold for commercial and recreational vessels; the Co-op's mooring officer can be contacted on 02 6645 0955. There is no travel lift, slipway or hardstand at the boatshed itself, and major haul-out work means a trip across the river to Yamba's yards. The jetty's role as the ferry terminal brings regular foot traffic, and the adjacent cafe and the Sedgers Reef Hotel up Charles Street cover meals, while Iluka's small supermarket, bait and tackle store and bakery handle provisioning a short walk away. Security is personal rather than electronic: the operator lives with the boats, ferry movements keep the jetty observed through the day, and the small scale means a vessel left for a month is checked by eye daily. Casual visitors are usually accommodated on a mooring rather than alongside, and rates are quoted on enquiry.
Local sailing knowledge
The Clarence entrance at Yamba is a trained, breakwatered river mouth that still demands respect: the bar can stand up hard against a run-out tide with any easterly swell, and local advice is to cross on a rising tide in settled conditions and to call Marine Rescue Iluka Yamba for a bar report before committing. Once inside, the river is deep and easily navigated well upstream, and Iluka's waterfront lies only a couple of miles from the heads. The ferry crossing to Yamba takes about forty-five minutes and runs seven days, a cheap way to reprovision from the larger town without moving the boat. Upstream, the river spreads into an inland archipelago; locals talk of a pub crawl by boat from Iluka to Grafton passing more than ten waterfront hotels. Ashore, Iluka holds the largest remaining seaside rainforest in New South Wales, part of the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage listing, with an easy walking track out to the Iluka Bluff lookout. Fishing is the town's other religion, from the breakwall, the jetty and the beaches, with bream, flathead and mulloway the standard catch. The Sedgers Reef Hotel, known affectionately as the Fibro Hilton, runs a courtesy shuttle to meet the ferry. Summer nor'easters freshen across the moorings in the afternoon, so set chafe gear accordingly. Birdwatchers rate the Iluka Nature Reserve's littoral rainforest track, flat and easy at 2.6 kilometres, and the monthly markets on the first Sunday fill the street behind the marina. The fish co-op sells prawns and fish straight off the trawlers downstream, the cheapest provisioning on the river.