About
Margate Marina at a glance
Redeveloped marina at 40 Marina Drive, Barretta, 20 minutes south of Hobart at the gateway to the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, with 140 floating berths from 10m to 40m and expansion toward about 300. 24/7 dual-fuel pontoon, pump-out, slipyard to 18m/23t, hardstand and trailer storage, CCTV and a courtesy car.
Service area: D'Entrecasteaux Channel
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- Margate Marina
- Region
- D'Entrecasteaux Channel
- Water body
- Northwest Bay, D'Entrecasteaux Channel
- Wet berths
- 140
- Dry storage
- Hardstand dry storage; trailer boat storage
- Maximum vessel
- 40 m
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing, superyacht berths
Facilities and services
- fuel
- pump-out
- slipway
- hardstand
- 24/7 security
- power & water
- showers & laundry
- boat ramp
- courtesy car
- daily boat checks
- gated berth access
- trailer boat storage compound
- catamaran-capable Roodberg slipway trailer
- live-aboard laundry
- 3-phase power to larger berths
- free pump-out
About Margate Marina
Twenty minutes south of Hobart by road, in the quiet upper reaches of North West Bay at Barretta, Margate Marina has risen from what was, less than a decade ago, a derelict tangle of dilapidated piers and jetties. Redevelopment began in April 2018 and the first fifty floating berths opened that October; construction has continued in stages ever since, and the marina now operates about 140 berths against an approved master plan of roughly 300, making it one of the largest private recreational boating investments Tasmania has seen. The site faces the entrance to the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, the sheltered forty-kilometre waterway between Bruny Island and the mainland that draws cruising yachts from across the country, and that position defines the marina's character: it functions less as a suburban parking lot for boats and more as a staging base for people who actually go cruising. Berth sizes run from 10 metres right through to dedicated 30, 35 and 40-metre superyacht pens, the widest range of any Tasmanian marina, so the pontoons carry everything from trailerable half-cabin cruisers to serious offshore yachts, some owned by interstate skippers who fly in and out to cruise the Channel. A custom-engineered 300-metre wave attenuator, extended in stages and including a right-angled western arm with deep baffles, keeps the basin calm in strong winds. Snug and Margate villages supply day-to-day needs a few minutes away, and the marina office is staffed seven days a week, which gives the place a working, lived-in feel rather than that of an unattended boat park.
Marina facilities
All berths are floating pontoons with metered power and water. Every berth carries a 15-amp supply, while the 20, 25 and 40-metre pens add 32-amp three-phase outlets and the 30 and 35-metre pens carry 63-amp three-phase; boats from 10 to 18 metres share a tap with their neighbour, while larger berths have their own. Fairway widths of 18 and 23 metres between berth arms are noticeably generous. A floating dual-fuel pontoon dispenses diesel and 91-octane unleaded petrol by self-serve card payment around the clock, priced only a small margin above service-station retail, and the sewerage pump-out alongside it is free to all recreational vessels with holding tanks during office hours, seven days a week. That pump-out was the first installed anywhere outside the Derwent estuary, part-funded by Marine and Safety Tasmania, and a 2022 dredging campaign shifted about 5,500 cubic metres so deep-draft boats now reach the fuel and pump-out dock with a minimum of two metres at low tide. Ashore, the slipyard uses a Roodberg hydraulic trailer with height-adjustable padded supports, handling vessels to 18 metres overall, 7-metre beam and 23 tonnes, catamarans included, and owners are welcome to do their own sandblasting, pressure washing and general maintenance in a purpose-built yard area. Hardstand storage is available monthly or long term, a gated trailer-boat compound holds around 70 craft with ramp access, and the whole site is covered by CCTV with after-hours gate-tag entry. Berth customers get a courtesy car, daily boat checks, showers, toilets and a dedicated live-aboard laundry, while the office runs 8.30am to 5pm weekdays and 10am to 4pm on weekends, closing only on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Good Friday. Casual berthing is charged by the day, week or month with discounts beyond six months.
Local sailing knowledge
Approaching from Hobart is an easy fifteen nautical miles down the western shore of the Derwent and across North West Bay, with the marina lying behind its attenuator at the head of the bay; watch for salmon-farm leases and moored boats on the way in, and note the two-metre low-water minimum on the dredged approaches to the fuel dock. What draws most berth holders, though, is what lies to the south. Within a day's sail are the anchorages of the D'Entrecasteaux Channel: Conningham, Oyster Cove, Kettering, Peppermint Bay at Woodbridge, and then the whole western coast of Bruny Island, with Quarantine Bay, Great Taylors Bay and the caves and cliffs beyond. Compared with the Derwent there is markedly less commercial traffic, and summer sea breezes are reliable without the fetch of Storm Bay. North-westerlies are the prevailing winter pattern in North West Bay, while summer afternoons can bring a brisk easterly sea breeze up the Channel; the attenuator earns its keep in both. Ashore, Margate's small shopping strip has a supermarket, bakery and chemist, Snug adds a general store and a well-used public boat ramp, and the Channel Highway runs straight into Hobart for serious provisioning or chandlery runs. Fishing around the Channel is a staple for berth holders, with flathead over the sand patches and calamari over the weed, and the marina's trailer storage plus ramp makes it equally practical for the day-tripper as for the long-range cruiser heading for Port Davey. For those wintering their boat in Tasmania, the combination of hardstand space, slipping on site and an office that answers the phone seven days a week makes Barretta a practical lay-up address, and the steady demand for berths since 2018 reflects how thin marina space has been across greater Hobart.