Marina service
Lakes Entrance Marina
About
Lakes Entrance Marina at a glance
Marina at Lakes Entrance, Victoria's busiest boating town on the Gippsland Lakes. Berthing at Lakes Entrance is managed by Gippsland Ports (office at Bullock Island); up to 5 premium valet berths (20m x 6m, with power, water and security gate) on the Cunninghame Quay jetty, booked via Lonsdale Cruises ph 0408 396 876; further itinerant berths at Grassy Point Marina adjacent to Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club
Service area: East Gippsland
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Region
- East Gippsland
- Water body
- Cunninghame Arm, Gippsland Lakes
- Maximum vessel
- 20 m
Facilities and services
- power & water
- valet berthing
- Grassy Point itinerant berths & outer alongside
- yacht club showers for visitors
- fuel jetties (North Arm & Cunninghame Arm)
- Bullock Island boat ramp (yachts)
- swing moorings
About Lakes Entrance Marina
Lakes Entrance Marina describes the spread of managed berthing across Victoria's busiest boating town rather than a single gated basin: a network of quays, floating pontoons and itinerant berths administered by Gippsland Ports from its office on Bullock Island. The town sits where the Gippsland Lakes, some 350 square kilometres of interconnected tidal water, meet Bass Strait, and boating underpins the entire economy, from the commercial trawler fleet to hire-drive cruisers that need no licence to operate. For visiting boats the practical berthing map has several pieces. The premium valet berths on the Cunninghame Quay jetty in the town centre provide serviced overnight stays. Grassy Point Marina, adjacent to the Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club on the Kalimna side of the entrance reach, takes itinerant berths and outer alongside tie-ups, with the club's showers and hospitality close by. Public jetties and floating pontoons scatter along the Cunninghame Arm and North Arm for shorter stops. The clientele is as mixed as the water: trailer sailors, houseboat-style cruisers, game fishing boats, and coastal yachts ducking in off Bass Strait. Peak season turns the waterfront into a boat show of everything afloat, while winter returns the port to its fishing roots, with the fleet unloading at the co-op and the lakes nearly empty of visitors. It is less a marina than a boating town that happens to be run like one. Gippsland Ports took over management of the region's wharves and berths from the old port authority structure, and its published pricing and centralised bookings give the town's scattered berthing a single point of accountability.
Marina facilities
Berthing services are coordinated by Gippsland Ports, whose office on Bullock Island (phone 03 5150 0500) administers casual and permanent arrangements across the port. The premium offering is up to five valet berths on the Cunninghame Quay jetty, each 20 by 6 metres with power, water and security-gate protection, charged from $90 a night in the December-to-Easter peak and from $45 otherwise, booked through Lonsdale Cruises on 0408 396 876; a power-only outer-face option runs from $27.30 a night. Itinerant berths and outer alongside space at Grassy Point Marina, next to the Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club, give keelboats a floating-pontoon alternative to the town wall, and the Grassy Point Sailability jetty sits alongside. The club itself extends showers and meals to visiting crews. Around the port, floating pontoon jetties handle day stops, and the town wall offers free short-stay berthing. Supporting infrastructure is spread the same way: public boat ramps at Bullock Island (reserved for yachts) and Marine Parade, fuel jetties on the North Arm near the boat ramp and on the Cunninghame Arm, and marine trades, slipping and repairs concentrated around Bullock Island and the North Arm boatyard precinct. Public swing moorings in the lakes, historically around $15 a night including showers, cover overflow. Gippsland Ports publishes its full berth and mooring pricing annually, and casual rates across the network are modest by metropolitan standards, reflecting the port's role as a working harbour first and a destination second. Bookings for the valet berths run noon to 11.30am, and vessels must fit entirely within the berth rectangle. Power and water connections are standard at the serviced berths, and security gates separate the premium pens from the busy public promenade.
Local sailing knowledge
Everything here is governed by the entrance. The bar at the sea mouth, where the lakes meet Bass Strait through the trained entrance, demands respect: conditions turn dangerous when an ebb tide meets easterly swell, leads shift with sand movement, and Gippsland Ports issues advice and maintains cameras that prudent skippers consult before crossing. Flood tide in settled weather is the conservative choice for a first transit. Once inside, the port opens into one of the great cruising grounds of the south-east: Lake King, Lake Victoria and Lake Wellington stretch west for over 60 kilometres, with Metung's waterfront pub, Paynesville's marinas and the Raymond Island koala ferry all within day-run range. The Tambo and Nicholson rivers offer sheltered overnight jetties when the lakes get rough. Fishing is superb by Victorian standards, with bream, flathead, luderick and garfish through the lower lakes and mulloway around the entrance. The town provisions completely: supermarkets, chandlers, marine mechanics, pubs and a strong cafe strip along the esplanade. Bullock Island, reached by the bridge, carries the port office, the yacht club's racing and the boatyard activity. History runs deep too, from the 1889 entrance cut to the fishing fleet that still works out through the bar. Visiting crews should expect hire-drive traffic in summer, sandflies at dusk near the reeds, and some of the most relaxed miles of sheltered cruising in Australia once clear of the entrance reach. Lakes Entrance markets itself on the combination of surf beach and sheltered lake, and crews regularly split their days between the two. Fuel prices at the port's jetties track regional rates, and ice and bait are sold at the ramps in season.