Marina service
Point Samson Johns Creek Boat Harbour
About
Point Samson Johns Creek Boat Harbour at a glance
DoT-managed harbour protected by three breakwaters at Johns Creek, with boat pens (the harbour bed can dry at low tide), a service jetty, a land-backed wharf with heavy-lift pad, a dual-lane ramp, fuel by arrangement from pens, a hardstand and a three-pile careening pad that uses the area's large tides.
Service area: Pilbara
- Marina type
- fishing boat harbour with marina
- Operator
- Department of Transport and Major Infrastructure (DTMI)
- Region
- Pilbara
- Water body
- Johns Creek
- Dry storage
- Yes (hardstand and careening pad)
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- fuel
- power & water
- hardstand
- boat ramp
- three-pile careening pad (tide-powered lift)
- special-purpose net berth for trawlers
- heavy-lift pad (20t crane with outriggers) on land-backed wharf
- fuel from pens 2, 3 and 7 by Baileys fuel card
- multi-level catwalk at dual-lane ramp
- cyclone refuge role
- basin dredged to 2.0m below chart datum
About Point Samson Johns Creek Boat Harbour
Point Samson Johns Creek Boat Harbour is the working harbour of a Pilbara town with a longer maritime memory than most. Point Samson served from the 1880s as the port for Roebourne and the surrounding pastoral and pearling country, with a tramway running goods down to the jetty, and while the big ships long ago moved to the deep-water terminals at Cape Lambert and Dampier, the harbour on Johns Creek keeps the town's seagoing economy alive. The present facility is the product of a 6.2 million dollar redevelopment opened in July 2000, planned jointly by the Department of Transport and the Nickol Bay Professional Fishermen's Association after the local trawl fleet outgrew the original single-breakwater harbour with its shallow basin and small slipway. Three breakwaters now enclose an enlarged and deepened basin that keeps vessels afloat through most tides, and the harbour operates as the home port for prawn trawlers, licensed fishing boats and a growing recreational fleet from Point Samson, Wickham and Roebourne. Management rests with the Department of Transport and Major Infrastructure, with the City of Karratha operating the public ramp. The harbour's character is unselfconsciously practical: pens that can dry out at low tide, a land-backed wharf built for heavy lifts, a careening pad that exploits the enormous Pilbara tides, and a net berth where trawlers mend gear. It also doubles as a cyclone refuge, a role designed into the 2000 redevelopment, when boats from Wickham to Dampier tuck in behind the breakwaters ahead of a blow. For recreational visitors the harbour offers something rare on this coast: a serviced, sheltered haven within sight of the iron-ore jetties, in a small town that still smells of bait and diesel rather than sunscreen.
Marina facilities
The harbour's berthing and servicing infrastructure is published in unusual detail by the department. Boat pens line the basin, with the honest caveat that the harbour bed at the pens can be exposed at low tide; keeled vessels and fin-keel trawlers live with the mud, while the basin and entrance channel are dredged to 2.0 metres below chart datum. A service jetty provides single-phase and three-phase power, water and lighting, rated for berthing vessels up to 75 tonnes displacement at 0.25 metres per second approach, with a 5-tonne crane load capacity. The land-backed wharf is the heavy-duty element: 250-tonne berth load, stack loads of 2,000 kilograms per square metre, crane lifts to 20 tonnes with outriggers on a heavy-lift pad, T44 vehicle loading, and a special-purpose net berth at its southern end for fishing vessel net removal and maintenance. Fuel is available from pens 2, 3 and 7 by arrangement, supplied by Baileys Marine Fuels Australia on a fuel-card system (phone 1300 224 539). Out of the water, a hardstand east of the basin includes its own heavy-lift pad for crane lifts, and the harbour's signature device is a three-pile careening pad, described at its opening as a natural boat lifter: vessels are positioned against the piles on a rising tide and left high as the water falls away, allowing hull work powered by the six-metre tidal range. The public side is covered by a dual-lane concrete launching ramp with a multi-level catwalk and sealed car and trailer parking operated by the City of Karratha, plus a universal-access toilet near the ramp car park. There is no chandlery, showers block or fuel bowser walk-up service; arrangements for pens and services run through the department's Karratha office, and transient visitors should call ahead.
Local sailing knowledge
Tide rules everything at Johns Creek. The tidal range runs from about minus 0.4 metres to 5.9 metres, among the largest on the west coast, so arrival, berthing, ramp use and even walking the mudflats are all timed exercises; the careening pad exists precisely because the water can be made to do the work of a travel lift. The entrance channel is dredged to 2.0 metres below chart datum but shoals between campaigns, and strangers should seek the latest depth advice, come in on a rising tide and expect the pens to dry at low water. Once inside, the three breakwaters give genuine all-weather shelter, which is why the harbour fills when a cyclone threat is declared for the Wickham-Roebourne coast. The surrounding cruising is frontier-grade: the Dampier Archipelago lies within range for capable boats, the inshore grounds fish well for bluebone, spangled emperor, threadfin and crabs, and Honeymoon Cove beside the town is the local swimming and picnic spot. Ashore, Point Samson is a small settlement with a tavern, holiday units and basic supplies; Wickham, ten minutes away, adds a supermarket, and Karratha, about 50 kilometres southwest, is the regional centre for chandlery, engineering and serious provisioning. History is close to the surface: the old jetty and tramway remnants mark the 1880s port era, and the town's heritage trail covers the pearling and pastoral shipping days. Shipping traffic is a consideration outside the creek: the Cape Lambert and Dampier terminals generate constant bulk-carrier and tug movements, so keep clear of the port channels and fairways, and give the iron-ore jetties their gazetted exclusion zones.