Marina service
North Harbour Marina (planned)
About
North Harbour Marina (planned) at a glance
Planned marina and marine industry precinct within the North Harbour masterplanned community on the Caboolture River. The PDA declared in 2025 provides for 400 wet berths, a 500-boat dry stack facility, 511 private pontoons and retail/tourism uses; developer Port Binnli previously delivered Mackay Marina and Raby Bay Marina. Proposed marina precinct within $2.74bn North Harbour masterplan on Caboolture River, Burpengary East: 400 wet berths, 500-boat dry stack, 511 private pontoons, fuel facilities, shipyard and marine industry/training precinct plus marina village; Queensland PDA declared 30 Jul 2025; marina not yet constructed (Development Scheme expected late 2026)
Service area: Moreton Bay
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- North Harbour (Port Binnli)
- Region
- Moreton Bay
- Water body
- Caboolture River
- Wet berths
- 400
Facilities and services
- 500-boat dry stack (planned)
- 511 private pontoons (planned)
- fuel facilities (planned)
- shipyard & marine industry precinct (planned)
- marina village (planned)
About North Harbour Marina (planned)
North Harbour Marina is the most ambitious unbuilt marina in Queensland: a 400-berth harbour, 500-boat dry stack and marine industry precinct planned for the Caboolture River at Burpengary East, within the 2.74 billion dollar North Harbour masterplanned community in the City of Moreton Bay. The site is extraordinary by metropolitan standards: more than 570 hectares of riverfront land assembled and held for nearly two decades by developer Port Binnli, whose thirty-year track record includes delivering Mackay Marina and Raby Bay Marina, two of the state's better-known harbour projects. The river frontage totals some twelve kilometres once a neighbouring parcel is counted, a reach compared by the project team to the stretch of the Brisbane River from St Lucia to New Farm Park, and the plan converts it from private farmland into public riverfront parkland of about 319 hectares with wetland conservation and riparian rehabilitation. After years of anticipation, the Queensland Government declared the North Harbour Priority Development Area in mid-2025, putting the marina precinct on a formal planning track with an interim land use plan and a development scheme to follow, while Economic Development Queensland coordinates with the council, Port Binnli and adjoining landholder Trask Land. The first sod has been turned, but on housing: construction started on the first 249 of around 3,700 homes, with the roads, water, sewer and electrical trunk infrastructure that will eventually serve the marina being built out in parallel. Modelling for the PDA projects more than 6,500 ongoing jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the regional economy once the marina precinct matures.
Marina facilities
Everything at North Harbour is planned rather than operating, but the planning is unusually detailed. The marina component provides for around 400 wet berths, a dry stack facility for 500 boats, and 511 private pontoons attached to waterfront homes, with fuel facilities, a shipyard and a dedicated marine industry and training precinct intended to seed a specialised employment cluster the region currently lacks. A marina village adds retail, dining and tourism uses, with yacht charters, fishing and diving tours and a waterfront entertainment village in the mix, and the economic modelling commissioned for the project estimates the marina precinct alone would deliver a 1.24 billion dollar uplift to construction activity within the broader 2.74 billion dollar masterplan. The scale positions it deliberately as the only significant new marina opportunity between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, filling a berthing gap that has tightened as Moreton Bay's boat population has grown. Delivery sequencing matters for boaters watching the project: the PDA declaration came first, the development scheme is being finalised through Economic Development Queensland with community consultation, and only then will detailed marina design and staged construction follow, so no berths, dry stack spaces or fuel services are yet available and no rates have been published. In the meantime the developer's message is that the housing-stage infrastructure, including road access and water, sewer and electrical trunk lines, is being pushed down toward the river specifically to bring the marina closer to delivery. The business park along the Bruce Highway is already filling, and the marina village and marine industry lots are the commercial centrepiece of later stages. Prospective berth holders can register interest through northharbour.com.au and should expect a multi-year runway before the first pile is driven.
Local sailing knowledge
The Caboolture River is an under-appreciated waterway, tidal and mangrove-fringed for most of its lower reach, entering the southern end of the Pumicestone Passage area near the top of Deception Bay. Navigating it today means a shallow, winding channel that demands local knowledge and tide planning; the marina project would bring dredged, marked access to a proper harbour, which is precisely why Moreton Bay boaties are watching it. Once the river mouth is cleared, the cruising options open in both directions: south across Deception Bay to Redcliffe and the Brisbane-side anchorages, or north inside Bribie Island through the Pumicestone Passage toward Caloundra, with Moreton Bay's islands, Tangalooma, Peel and Coochiemudlo all within easy range. Fishing and crabbing in the river and the bay's southern shallows already draw weekenders, and the 319-hectare riverfront parkland planned alongside the marina would add walking, cycling and picnic space the district has never had. Ashore, North Harbour sits between Brisbane, about 40 kilometres south, and the Sunshine Coast, with direct Bruce Highway access and the Caboolture and Morayfield shopping and hospital services a few minutes inland; the existing North Harbour estate is already known locally for its free riverside water park and weekend markets. Bribie Island's surf and calm beaches lie just across the bridge. For anyone assessing the marina's future catchment, note that the corridor between Brisbane and Caloundra holds one of the fastest-growing boat-owning populations in the state and some of its longest marina waitlists, which is the commercial logic behind 400 wet berths and 500 dry stack spaces on this particular river.