Marina service
Martin Street Boat Harbour
About
Martin Street Boat Harbour at a glance
Working trawler harbour on the Richmond River run by the Ballina Fishermen's Co-op under State Government lease, providing about 17 trawler berths and 17 yacht berths; at capacity since Ballina's former marina closed in 2002.
Service area: Far North Coast
- Marina type
- government/transport wharf-marina
- Operator
- NSW Crown Lands (Regatta Avenue Boatharbour Association lessee)
- Region
- Far North Coast
- Water body
- Richmond River
- Wet berths
- 18
- Berth types
- permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- showers & laundry
- public toilets
- boat sheds
- day-use mooring pontoon (planned)
- adjacent maritime museum
- public car parking
- Fishery Creek boat ramp adjacent
About Martin Street Boat Harbour
Ballina's boating heart is a small artificial harbour cut into reclaimed foreshore on the Richmond River, a short walk from the town centre. Martin Street Boat Harbour is Crown land managed by Transport for NSW Maritime and leased to the Regatta Avenue Boatharbour Association, and it provides around 18 berths for recreational boats, government vessels and a surf rescue organisation. Next door, and functionally part of the same precinct, the Trawler Harbour is run by the Ballina Fishermen's Co-op under State Government lease with 17 trawler berths and 17 yacht berths, so the whole frontage works: prawn trawlers unload within sight of boat sheds, the Ballina Naval and Maritime Museum, and the Las Balsas Plaza memorial to the 1973 trans-Pacific raft expedition that landed here. The harbours have been full since Ballina's former 50-berth private marina closed in 2002, and every council study since has recorded demand well beyond supply. The precinct is also the subject of Ballina's most ambitious marine project: a master plan adopted in 2016 and a 2024 concept design, costed at close to 25 million dollars, that would expand the harbour to 49 berths, dredge the basin and rebuild the foreshore. What draws people is the unvarnished character - this is a working river port where the fleet still lands prawns and the co-op sells the catch, rather than a polished leisure marina. Berth holders get a town-centre location, the museum and riverside park at their doorstep, and the Richmond River bar and its fishing grounds a few minutes downstream.
Marina facilities
Services are basic and honestly so, reflecting the harbour's Crown-land, association-run model. The 18 berths suit smaller vessels - the basin is shallow and the 2024 engineering work describes it as suitable only for small craft until dredged - and a mooring area in the harbour has held five to ten boats for many years. A public toilet and shower block stands beside the NSW Maritime shed, and boat sheds line the northern side of the harbour for storage and maintenance. There is no fuel wharf, no pump-out and no organised berthing power or water at present; the adjacent Trawler Harbour has no amenities at all. Short-stay options elsewhere in Ballina include jetties at Fawcett Park and two short-stay moorings at Mobbs Bay, while haul-out and industrial marine work is concentrated upstream at Smith Drive and the York Marine facility at Swan Bay. The adopted upgrade concept would transform service levels: 49 berths (25 at 12 metres, 24 at 16 metres) with washing facilities, water and electricity supply and waste management, a tender and dinghy mooring area, a public day-use pontoon for boats under 4 metres, a harbour services and amenity building, dredging of the inner harbour to minus 3.0 metres AHD and the outer fairway and berths to at least minus 4.0 metres, formalised parking and refurbished revetments. The earlier master plan also canvassed future refuelling, pump-out and laundry facilities. For now, berth holders rely on the association lease, the amenities block and the town over the road. The harbour also accommodates government and emergency-service vessels alongside the recreational berths, and the boat sheds on the northern side provide the only covered storage in the precinct.
Local sailing knowledge
The Richmond River entrance at Ballina is a trained breakwater bar that demands respect: leads mark the approach, the channel shifts, easterly swell can stand up on the bar, and flood debris is a real hazard after rain, so visiting skippers should check conditions with Marine Rescue Ballina before crossing. Inside, the river runs tide-affected well upstream, and the harbour entrance faces the river so flood flow and floating logs are considerations when berthing. Once secure, everything is on foot: the co-op fish shop sells prawns and catch straight off the trawlers, cafes and the Ramada hotel front the plaza, and the CBD is a five-minute walk. The Ballina Naval and Maritime Museum, home to one of the original Las Balsas expedition rafts, sits in the same precinct and is worth an hour. Downstream, the break walls are a popular spot to watch dolphins and, in season, whales; upstream the river winds through cane country towards Coraki and Lismore, with depths limiting larger craft. Fishing is the district obsession - the Richmond holds flathead, bream and jewfish, and offshore grounds are reached quickly across the bar on the right day. Boat ramp users have the Fishery Creek ramp adjacent to the precinct. The harbour's berth holders are a settled mix of locals, some in place for decades, and the mood is cooperative rather than commercial: this is the last surviving piece of old working Ballina, and the community consultation record shows locals intend to keep it that way even as the upgrade proceeds.