Marina service
Loch Sport Marina
About
Loch Sport Marina at a glance
Small township marina and jetty on Lake Victoria at Loch Sport, between Lake Wellington and Lake King on the Gippsland Lakes; free public berthing near the town's hotel is a feature of Gippsland Lakes cruising.
Service area: Gippsland Lakes
- Marina type
- government/transport wharf-marina
- Operator
- Wellington Shire Council
- Region
- Gippsland Lakes
- Water body
- Lake Victoria, Gippsland Lakes
- Berth types
- casual berthing
Facilities and services
- showers
- toilets
- launching ramp
- powered wet berths
- dry storage
- fenced secure yard
- casual overnight berthing
- free public jetty berthing nearby
- sewage pump-out nearby
About Loch Sport Marina
Loch Sport occupies a narrow ribbon of land between Lake Victoria and the dunes of the Ninety Mile Beach, roughly midway along the Gippsland Lakes system, and its marina precinct is the closest Lakes berthing to Melbourne, about two and a half hours from Dandenong by road. That position shapes the place: it draws trailer-sailer owners and small cruising powerboats from the western suburbs and the Latrobe Valley who want Lakes water without the longer haul to Paynesville or Lakes Entrance. The marina itself is a compact, fenced yard with a mix of wet berths and dry storage rather than a big commercial operation, and it sits within a short walk of the Loch Sport hotel, whose waterside jetty has long been one of the classic free overnight stops on a Lakes cruise. The township behind it is a quiet grid of holiday houses and permanent retirees, with a general store, a bakery and a boat ramp on Victoria Parade. Scale is the defining characteristic here. Boats are mostly under ten metres, arrivals are greeted by pelicans rather than dockmasters, and the social centre of gravity is the pub verandah looking across Lake Victoria toward the mountains of the high country. For many cruisers working their way between Lake Wellington and Lake King, Loch Sport is the pause that breaks the long western reach of the system, and the marina gives the town a working boating heart that the public jetties alone would not provide. Summer transforms the population several times over, and the marina and jetties fill with boats whose owners treat the town as their annual cruising base, returning season after season to the same stretch of foreshore.
Marina facilities
Facilities at Loch Sport divide between the small commercial marina yard and the council and Gippsland Ports public jetties scattered along the foreshore. The marina takes boats from about 5 to 14 metres, with a practical draught limit of around 1.6 metres set by the channel entrance, and offers both wet berths, most with electricity, and dry berthing for shorter or longer terms. Its published storage rates for 2026-27 run from $1,150 a year for a boat under 5.5 metres up to $3,400 for a 7.5 to 10 metre keelboat or wide-beam hull, with boats over 10 metres charged at $345 per metre per year. Casual arrangements are equally explicit: a $55 daily or overnight rate includes a launch and showers for two people, power adds $5 a night, extra crew staying aboard pay $5 each, and shower-only use is $5 with a refundable $100 key deposit. An annual launch pass costs $175. The yard is fully fenced with controlled access, and there is a launching ramp on site. Ashore there are toilets and showers for berth holders. Out on the foreshore, the public jetties follow the Gippsland Lakes colour-coded rail system, with blue zones allowing short-term and overnight berthing at no charge, including the popular stop near the hotel. Sewage pump-out and hopper services operate in the area, and fuel, mechanical help and chandlery needs are met by mobile trades or by cruising east to Paynesville, about an hour away by water, where full boatyard services exist. Bookings and enquiries run directly through the marina rather than an online platform, keeping the operation personal.
Local sailing knowledge
Approaching Loch Sport is straightforward in calm weather but rewards attention to depth. The entrance channel into the marina and foreshore area carries around 1.6 metres, so deeper keelboats should time arrival near high water and proceed slowly; trailer sailers and shoal-draught powerboats have no such concerns. From the east, the run across Lake Victoria from Paynesville is open water that can kick up a short chop in a fresh south-westerly, while from the west the route through McLennan Strait from Lake Wellington is narrower and marked. Once berthed, the town's attractions are compact: the hotel sits almost opposite the main jetty, and the shops are a few minutes on foot. A local ritual is the trip to The Grange wharf further east, where you tie up, climb the dune and stand on the Ninety Mile Beach with ocean surf on one side and lake water behind you. Fishing is a year-round draw, with bream, flathead and tailor in the lake and salmon off the beach when they run. Day cruising options radiate in every direction: Paynesville and Metung to the east, the Bunga Arm and Ocean Grange to the south, and the shallow expanse of Lake Wellington to the west. Sale, the nearest large town for serious provisioning, is about 45 minutes by car. Summer weekends and the Christmas period bring the crowds; outside school holidays a visiting boat can usually find a jetty berth without competition. Visiting crews should also note that mobile phone coverage is reasonable in town but patchy on the more remote arms, and that the lakes' colour-coded jetty system makes it easy to see at a glance where an overnight stay is permitted.