About
Marina Adelaide at a glance
World-class marine precinct at Snowdens Beach, Largs North, 20 minutes from Adelaide CBD, with 175 fully serviced berths for vessels up to 40 m and a 75-tonne travel lift (150 t expansion proposed). Deep-water access (min 4.5 m LAT) with 24/7 CCTV security, public boat ramp and on-site refit and repair coordination.
Service area: Adelaide metro - Port River
- Marina type
- boatyard with berths
- Operator
- Marina Adelaide
- Region
- Adelaide metro - Port River
- Water body
- Port River
- Wet berths
- 175
- Maximum vessel
- 40 m
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- fuel
- pump-out
- travel lift
- dry stack storage
- repairs & maintenance
- 24/7 security
- power & water
- boat ramp
- 150-tonne travel lift added
- DIY hardstand
- marine trades tenants
- shipwright training program
- CCTV with person-of-interest tracking
- 3-phase power up to 100A
About Marina Adelaide
Marina Adelaide began life as the Snowdens Beach marina development at Largs North, on the Port River about twenty minutes from the Adelaide CBD, and was conceived from the outset as a working boatyard with berths rather than a lifestyle estate. That identity sharpened in 2019 when the facility was acquired by DockYard Co, and the sixteen-hectare precinct now trades as the DockYard Marine Services Precinct, though the Marina Adelaide name persists across directories and the berthing side of the business. The site shares a dredged basin entrance with the Port Adelaide Sailing Club, which has raced from this shore since 1897 and owns 98 of the 175 berths, but the two operations are entirely separate and share no land facilities. The clientele is mixed in a way few South Australian marinas match. Trailerboats and family cruisers occupy berths alongside medium and large motor yachts, while the yard services commercial craft - charter boats, tourism operators and work boats - and has handled Defence vessels. The scale of the lifting operation sets the tone: the yard hauls around thirteen vessels a week, roughly seven hundred a year, which makes this the busiest haul-out facility on the metropolitan coast. On-site tenants span shipwrights, project managers and boat builders, and the current management has tied the precinct's future to industry training, working with the Boating Industry Association to rebuild a shipwright apprenticeship pipeline. That training focus, and the mixed commercial-recreational client base, gives the precinct a yard atmosphere closer to a small shipyard than to a recreational marina, and it has become the default haul-out address for Adelaide boats too large for the club slipways.
Marina facilities
The marina holds 175 fully serviced berths for vessels up to around thirty metres, with deep-water access; published minimum depths vary between 3.5 and 4.5 metres LAT depending on source and dredging stage, so keelboats drawing over two metres should confirm the current figure. Shore power runs from standard 15-amp outlets up to three-phase 100-amp supply for larger motor yachts, and water is laid on at berth. A fuel berth just inside the basin entrance sells diesel and petrol around the clock, and pump-out facilities are provided. The whole site is monitored 24/7 by CCTV with motion detection and person-of-interest tracking, and there is a public boat ramp on the Snowdens Beach side. Haul-out is the core trade. A 75-tonne travel lift handles vessels to a 6.7-metre beam, and a 150-tonne lift has been added, with management publicly flagging a longer-term ambition for an 800 or 1,000-tonne machine that would open the yard to serious commercial tonnage. The purpose-built hardstand offers DIY space for owners who want to do their own antifouling and fit-out, alongside maintenance sheds and a tenant mix covering most marine trades: engineering, electrical, shipwright work, painting and project management for refits. The office coordinates refit and repair work across tenants, so an owner can book a lift, hardstand and trades in one conversation. Casual and permanent berthing are both offered; enquiries go through info@marinaadelaide.com.au or (08) 8169 0000. The yard's position inside the Port River, minutes from Gulf St Vincent, keeps delivery trips short. Diesel and petrol are both dispensed, and the fuel berth's position just inside the entrance means a vessel can top up on the way in or out without penetrating the basin.
Local sailing knowledge
The approach is up the Port River from the Outer Harbor entrance, a well-marked commercial channel that shares water with container ships and the cruise ship terminal, so keeping a listening watch and staying clear of shipping is routine. The basin entrance sits off Snowdens Beach on the Largs North shore; the sailing club occupies the eastern side and the marina the western, and first-time visitors should identify the right entrance before committing. Depths in the river are dependable, and the Port Adelaide dolphin sanctuary, with its resident pod, lies further upriver toward Garden Island. By road the site is reached via Willochra Street off the Port River Expressway corridor, with George Robertson Drive leading into the yard. Port Adelaide's revived waterfront - pubs, the maritime museum, weekend markets - is ten minutes south, and Semaphore's beachfront cafes are a short drive north. For cruising, Gulf St Vincent opens immediately west: the metropolitan beaches, the Port River estuary and the run across to Kangaroo Island all start here. The concentration of marinas along this coast - the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron at Outer Harbor, the CYCSA and the North Haven basin marinas to the north - means a full day's maintenance stop can be combined with a berth change without ever leaving sight of land. Provisioning is straightforward, with supermarkets at Port Adelaide and West Lakes within fifteen minutes. For visiting crews the yard is also a practical winter address: hardstand rates and the tenant trades make it the natural place to lay up for a refit season, with the CBD close enough for parts runs and the airport twenty minutes away for crew changes.