About
Nowra Public Wharf at a glance
Council-managed public wharf on the Shoalhaven River at River Road, Nowra, with 24-hour toilets and pump-out facilities by arrangement with council officers.
Service area: Shoalhaven
- Marina type
- government/transport wharf-marina
- Operator
- Shoalhaven City Council
- Region
- Shoalhaven
- Water body
- Shoalhaven River
Facilities and services
- pump-out
- free public pump-out (council-operated, key by arrangement)
- 24-hour public toilets
- adjacent single-lane concrete boat ramp with pontoon
- wharf lighting
- short-term public tie-up
About Nowra Public Wharf
Nowra Public Wharf is the Shoalhaven's civic landing: a council-managed timber wharf on River Road on the northern bank of the Shoalhaven River, right where the river bends past the Nowra township. It is not a marina in the commercial sense. There are no berths for hire, no fuel and no yard; instead it functions as the district's public tie-up, a place where river boats, visiting cruisers working up from the coast and local tinnies can come alongside a government wharf in the middle of town. The wharf stands on ground saturated with river history. The Shoalhaven was the South Coast's first highway: cedar getters floated logs down from the 1810s, the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company ran coasting steamers upriver once a rock barrier at Bomaderry Creek was blasted away in 1904, and the company's Nowra office survives as today's Nowra Sailing Club clubhouse just downstream, a heritage-listed inter-war weatherboard building with its own timber wharf. Before the first Nowra Bridge opened in 1881, the river here was crossed by the Bomaderry ferry, a half-hour battle against strong currents. Today the wharf's neighbours tell the modern story: twin Princes Highway bridges, the 1881 Whipple truss now carrying pedestrians and cyclists beside a four-lane crossing opened in 2023, the fisherman's co-op site on the northern shore, and a single-lane public boat ramp beside the wharf that feeds a steady stream of trailer boats onto the river. Recreational use now dominates: waterskiers and wakeboarders work the wide reach upstream, tinnies fish the bends, and the foreshore reserve beside the wharf gives families a landing point in the centre of town.
Marina facilities
Facilities are basic and publicly oriented, which is precisely their value on this stretch of coast. Shoalhaven City Council manages the wharf, and its listing with Transport for NSW confirms a toilet block open 24 hours, seven days, and a sewage pump-out facility available free of charge to the boating public, operated by arrangement with council officers who hold the keys; bookings and access go through council on 02 4429 3111. That free pump-out makes Nowra one of the few spots on the northern Shoalhaven where a cruising boat can legally empty a holding tank, the alternative public options being at Huskisson on Jervis Bay and Batemans Bay further south. There is no berth booking system, no power or water laid on for vessels, no fuel, and no chandlery; boats tie up short-term at their own risk and should treat the wharf as a convenience stop rather than an overnight marina. Beside the wharf, the Nowra Wharf boat ramp is a single-lane concrete ramp registered with Transport for NSW, listed in fair condition with an adjacent pontoon, lighting, toilets and a waste bin, usable at all tides. Trailer parking near the ramp is limited. Ashore, Nowra's CBD is a short walk, providing supermarkets, marine and auto parts stores, pubs and takeaways, the full provisioning spread of a regional city. For serious vessel work, the nearest haulout options are the council-managed Greenwell Point slipway about 1.2 kilometres up Shaw's Creek near the river mouth and boatyards around Jervis Bay. Marine Rescue Shoalhaven, based at Crookhaven Heads, monitors VHF channels 16, 73 and 81.
Local sailing knowledge
The Shoalhaven River is tidal well past Nowra, up to Burrier, and the reach past the wharf is wide and easy, but getting here from the sea is the real seamanship exercise. The river entrance at Shoalhaven Heads, where George Bass in 1797 found shallows he named 'Shoals Haven', shifts constantly and is regarded as a bar for experienced local operators only; most visiting keelboats bound for Nowra instead enter through the Crookhaven Heads entrance near Greenwell Point, itself a bar crossing best attempted at slack high water in settled weather, then work up the dredged channel past Greenwell Point's trawler fleet. Inside, depths in the lower river are good, tides run hard on the bends, and after heavy rain the current and debris demand respect. Range is modest, roughly a metre and a half at the coast. Once tied up, the rewards are practical and local: fish-and-chip shops and pubs in town, the Nowra Museum in the old police station, weekend markets, and the Bundanon art precinct a short drive away. Upstream, the river narrows into bass and estuary country popular with kayakers and small tinnies; downstream, Comerong Island and the Crookhaven flats hold flathead and whiting. The town's naval connection shows up overhead, with aircraft from HMAS Albatross, the navy's air station just south of the river, a common sight. Locals use the wharf for jetty fishing at dusk, and the foreshore reserve beside it hosts community events through the year. Courtesy dictates slow speed past the wharf and ramp on summer weekends, when the single-lane ramp queues and swimmers use the nearby bank.