Marina service
Ivory Waterside Marina
About
Ivory Waterside Marina at a glance
32-berth private marina attached to the Ivory Waterside waterfront restaurant on the Tweed River, with berth sizes of 10, 12, 15 and 20m. Secured gates with toilet, shower and wash facilities; day, weekly, monthly and longer berthing offered.
Service area: Far North Coast
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- Ivory Waterside
- Region
- Far North Coast
- Water body
- Tweed River
- Wet berths
- 32
- Maximum vessel
- 20 m
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- 24/7 security
- power & water
- showers & laundry
- restaurant/cafe
- berth application and mailing list
- waterfront restaurant and bar on site
- gated pontoon access
- day/week/month berthing terms
- berth sizes 10/12/15/20m
About Ivory Waterside Marina
Ivory Waterside is a waterfront restaurant and tavern on the Tweed River at Tweed Heads that happens to run a 32-berth private marina off its front deck, and the pairing of a busy dining room with serious berthing is what sets it apart on this stretch of the river. The venue occupies a prime position on the lower estuary, close to the Kennedy Drive precinct and within sight of the commercial boat harbour, giving berth holders the rare convenience of stepping off the boat and straight into a licensed venue without leaving the property. The marina is small by Gold Coast standards, but its four berth sizes up to 20 metres and its secured, gated layout pitch it at owners who want a low-key, protected pen near the river mouth rather than a berth in one of the canal estate marinas further up the coast. Demand confirms the appeal: the operator reports all berths at full capacity and runs a mailing list for applicants, with a formal berth application form on the venue website. The restaurant above the pontoons trades seven days, dining from 11.30am to 9pm with the bar running later on weekends, so the marina functions as the waterfront extension of a working hospitality business rather than a standalone berthing operation. The clientele mixes Tweed and southern Gold Coast locals keeping cruisers and game boats close to the bar crossing with itinerant boaters taking a night or a week while they work the coast. For a river that is short on private marina infrastructure between the Gold Coast and Brunswick Heads, Ivory Waterside fills a genuine gap at the NSW end of the border strip.
Marina facilities
The marina's 32 berths come in four sizes, 10, 12, 15 and 20 metres, accommodating monohulls and power cats up to the 20-metre maximum, and the operator accepts bookings by the day, week, month or longer term, which makes it one of the few lower Tweed options for genuinely flexible stays. Security is a stated feature: gated access restricts the pontoons to berth holders and their guests, and the facility is promoted with 24/7 security. Berth-side services include power and water connections, and the amenities on site include toilets, showers and wash-down facilities, with laundry available for berth holders per current listings. Rates are not published on the website; enquiries go through the online booking form or directly to the marina phone, 0429 771 712, with the venue switchboard on 07 5506 9988 as backup. Because all berths were reported at full capacity, new applicants join a mailing list and are contacted as pens turn over, so anyone planning a stay should apply well ahead rather than arriving on spec. The hospitality side effectively extends the service list: the restaurant seats diners over the water with lunch and dinner seven days, and the bar's long trading hours mean berth holders rarely need to leave the property for a meal or a drink. There is no fuel berth, no pump-out, no slipway or hardstand and no on-site marine trades, so vessels needing diesel, mechanical work or antifouling use the commercial facilities elsewhere on the Tweed, including the boat harbour slipway precinct near Boyds Bay Bridge. What the marina trades on instead is proximity and amenity: a secure, serviced pen attached to a licensed restaurant a short run inside the river entrance, with Tweed Heads shopping and the Coolangatta foreshore both close by.
Local sailing knowledge
The marina fronts the lower Tweed River not far inside the entrance, so the passage from sea is short but not trivial: the Tweed bar is a trained entrance between breakwalls that still breaks heavily on outgoing tides against swell, and local advice is to treat every crossing as a genuine bar crossing with the usual preparation, timing arrivals around slack or flood water. Once inside, speed limits take over, with four-knot and no-wash zones through the boat harbour precinct and six knots around Boyds Bay Bridge further up. The river here is the boundary between New South Wales and Queensland in spirit if not strictly in law, and the cruising options reflect that dual identity: south lies the Tweed estuary proper, with Chinderah, Tumbulgum and the run up to Murwillumbah for houseboat-style exploring, while north the Gold Coast Broadwater begins just across the border. Anglers use the marina as a base for the offshore reefs off Fingal and Cook Island, including the 6 and 9 Mile grounds, or work the river walls for mulloway, bream and mangrove jack around the tide changes. Ashore, Tweed Heads' shops, clubs and the Kennedy Drive takeaway strip are close, and Coolangatta's beachfront is minutes away by road. The trawler fleet at the adjacent boat harbour means fresh local prawns in season, and seafood outlets near the bridge sell the day's catch cooked or raw. Berth holders should note the tidal range and current in the lower river when docking, particularly around the change of tide, and the fact that the river entrance area is the busiest recreational boating water on the far north coast, with weekend traffic to match. Early morning departures beat both the traffic and the afternoon nor'-easter.