Marina service
Kiama Harbour (Robertson Basin)
About
Kiama Harbour (Robertson Basin) at a glance
Historic Robertson Basin harbour (opened 1876) at Kiama, a small sheltered harbour used by recreational boats and fishing craft near the famous Kiama Blowhole.
Service area: Illawarra
- Marina type
- government/transport wharf-marina
- Operator
- Kiama Council / NSW Crown Lands
- Region
- Illawarra
- Water body
- Kiama Harbour (Tasman Sea)
Facilities and services
- slipway (bookable, under 45ft x 12ft)
- visitor moorings
- boat ramp
- fish cleaning
- public wharf
- fishing fleet
About Kiama Harbour (Robertson Basin)
Kiama Harbour is one of the oldest engineered small ports in New South Wales and still looks the part: a compact stone-walled basin tucked under Blowhole Point, with the famous Blowhole on one headland and the 1887 lighthouse on the other. Ships had worked this roadstead since the 1840s, landing cargo at a jetty on Black Beach that heavy weather repeatedly swept away, until the colony committed to a proper harbour in 1868. The basin was excavated behind a cofferdam using rock quarried where the tennis courts now stand, a job that took nearly a decade, survived what may have been Australia's first maritime strike when divers and carpenters downed tools over a wage cut, and ended with the cofferdam dramatically blowing out overnight when the basin was flooded in September 1876. Named Robertson Basin after the Colonial Secretary and costing thirty-six thousand pounds, it triggered a blue metal quarrying boom; loading staithes fitted in 1881 were dispatching up to four hundred tons of crushed basalt a day within two years. Steamers such as the SS Illawarra made the port a regular call. Today the quarry trade is long gone and the basin shelters a mix of recreational craft and a small commercial fishing presence, ringed by heritage fishermen's sheds, with the terrace of cafes and the Kiama township immediately above. The harbour marked its 150th anniversary with historical society walks and sea shanty nights, a sign of how firmly the basin remains woven into the town's identity rather than standing apart as a fenced marine facility.
Marina facilities
This is a Transport for NSW managed regional harbour, and its services are those of a small public port rather than a marina. Transport administers leases for around twenty-five berths around Robertson Basin, and the Kiama Harbour Boat Owners Association manages the moorings and the fishermen's sheds under a Permissive Occupancy arrangement with Crown Lands, keeping a waiting list, registering vessel movements and providing visitor moorings; the association can be reached by email or on 0481 881 915. The association also operates the Kiama Slipway, which can be booked by any boat under about 45 feet by 12 feet for minor maintenance and repairs, one of the few community-run slipping facilities left on the coast. A double-lane concrete boat ramp inside the harbour works at all tides, with a ramp pontoon, lighting, toilets, a fish-cleaning table and car-trailer parking, and there is a public wharf plus a commercial working quay. Casual or temporary berthing is arranged through Transport at Port Kembla, the boat owners association or Marine Rescue. What the harbour does not have is just as important to know: there is no fuel berth and no sewage pump-out in the basin, and no chandlery, so crews arrive self-sufficient or run fifteen nautical miles north to Shellharbour Marina or Wollongong for those services. The state boating network plan flags future upgrades to the public wharf or a new pontoon inside the basin, but for now the offer is shelter, moorings and a slip. Transport's own planning documents record the harbour's constraint plainly: a small area of enclosed waters, one public wharf, one commercial quay and no on-water storage expansion room, which is why the mooring waiting list moves slowly and berth leases are tightly held. Visiting yachts are generally directed to the courtesy moorings at Bass Point or Killalea rather than inside the basin itself.
Local sailing knowledge
Kiama is a fair-weather friend. The entrance between the breakwaters is straightforward and carries around two metres of draught allowance, but the basin is small and surge works inside almost continuously, so fenders and snubbers earn their keep and a night here in a big easterly is rarely restful; experienced coast-hoppers rate it a day stop or a bolt hole rather than a destination anchorage. In the days of sail, entering ships dropped anchor to snag a heavy chain laid across the harbour mouth to check their way off the lee wall, a reminder that the place has punished the unwary for 150 years. The reward for stopping is the setting: the Blowhole performs in any sea with east in it, the Pilot's Cottage museum and lighthouse crown the point, and the town's pubs, cafes and Saturday markets are all within a few hundred metres of the wharf. Cruising legs are short and pleasant: Shellharbour Marina lies about fifteen nautical miles north and the Crookhaven River entrance about sixteen south, with the Jervis Bay Marine Park a comfortable day beyond that. Bass Point and Killalea offer courtesy moorings either side for weather. Local fishing boats still work out of the basin, and the fish co-op heritage is visible in the sheds along the eastern wall where the blue metal staithes once stood. The 2-metre draught guidance matters; deeper yachts stand off or lie to the courtesy moorings. For provisions, Terralong Street's supermarkets, bakeries and pubs sit five minutes' walk up the hill, and the Kiama farmers market runs weekly near the surf beach.