Marina service
Port of Broome (incl. Kimberley Marine Support Base)
About
Port of Broome (incl. Kimberley Marine Support Base) at a glance
Broome has no dedicated marina; cruising vessels use the dry-season anchorage and moorings off Gantheaume Point and refuel by prior arrangement at the commercial wharf, which experiences one of the world's largest tidal ranges (about 9 m). The Kimberley Marine Support Base floating wharf provides high-flow diesel bunkering, and the Shire's Town Beach precinct offers a boat ramp and a 110 m jetty with temporary small-boat mooring.
Service area: Kimberley
- Marina type
- government/transport wharf-marina
- Operator
- Kimberley Ports Authority / KMSB
- Region
- Kimberley
- Water body
- Roebuck Bay
- Berth types
- casual berthing, swing moorings
Facilities and services
- fuel
- high-flow diesel bunkering (200,000 L/hr)
- potable water supply
- 125t mobile harbour crane
- RoRo linkspan
- quayside laydown
- port slipway and careening (permit required)
- mooring hire via TAMS Group
- Town Beach jetty small-boat mooring
About Port of Broome (incl. Kimberley Marine Support Base)
Broome is the classic Kimberley paradox for cruising skippers: an essential refuelling and restocking stop between Perth and the Kimberley coast that has never built a marina. What the town offers instead is a working deep-water port on the north-western shore of Roebuck Bay, run by the Kimberley Ports Authority, which exports mineral sands and live cattle and services fishing, pearling, cruise, charter and offshore oil and gas vessels. The port works around one of the largest tidal ranges on earth, about 9.4 metres at mean high water springs, and everything about its infrastructure reflects that fact. The big change arrived on 12 September 2025, when the privately developed Kimberley Marine Support Base opened its Terminal 2 just south of the existing wharf: an 11,500-tonne floating wharf of 9,250 square metres that rises and falls with the tide, giving the port genuine 24-hour, tide-independent berthing for the first time. For the cruising fleet the practical picture remains much as it has for decades: a recognised dry-season anchorage and mooring field off Gantheaume Point, fuelling by prior arrangement at the commercial wharf, and a long dinghy ride to shore. Broome's pearling history, its tourist economy and its role as the supply hub for the West Kimberley mean the port precinct is rarely quiet, and its user base runs from pearling luggers to cruise ships to fifty-foot yachts stocking up for months among the Kimberley's anchorages. The port precinct also tells the town's story in miniature: the same tides that stranded pearling luggers on these mudflats a century ago still dictate the working day, and the entrance channel, surveyed in 2024 with a least depth of 7.2 metres at chart datum, now handles vessels up to 300 metres overall scheduled around the tidal current. For most cruising sailors it remains a port of necessity rather than pleasure, but an unforgettable one.
Marina facilities
Port infrastructure is split between KPA's Terminal 1 and the KMSB Terminal 2. The original steel-piled wharf offers a 331-metre outer berth for vessels to 50,000 tonnes displacement, inner berths of 170 metres for 9,000-tonne vessels and a 65-metre berth for 1,500-tonne craft, lit for 24-hour operations. KMSB's floating wharf provides a 255 to 265-metre berth line with breasting and mooring dolphins rated for vessels up to 348 metres LOA, a 125-tonne mobile harbour crane, RoRo capability over an 85-metre linkspan and 400-metre causeway, about 5,400 square metres of quayside laydown, potable water and integrated diesel bunkering delivering up to 200,000 litres per hour to approved account holders, coordinated via bookings@kmsb.com.au. Recreational vessels refuel at the commercial wharf by prior arrangement: expect at least 24 hours notice, fees and procedural paperwork, and a requirement that someone aboard holds a current bowser induction certificate, with fuel distributors listed on the KPA website. A port slipway and careening area adjacent to the wharf offers a rudimentary yacht haul-out option, usable only with a work permit from the Operations department. There is no recreational pen, shower block or chandlery; the Shire's Town Beach precinct provides a boat ramp and a 110-metre jetty with temporary small-boat mooring, and the Entrance Point ramp has two lanes and trailer parking. The port maintains a 24-hour VHF watch on channels 14 and 16, and vessels over 10 metres must report movements within port waters. Bunkering arrangements and billing are handled directly with the relevant fuel provider or authorised agent, and the KMSB rate card and booking terms are available on request. Laydown and truck turnaround areas operate under port terms and conditions, and public parking sits between Customs House and Port of Pearls House. For trailer boats and locals, the Entrance Point recreational area, to which KPA redirected recreational traffic during KMSB construction, is the practical launching spot, with a roundabout planned to separate commercial and recreational traffic on Port Drive.
Local sailing knowledge
The recognised dry-season anchorage sits off Gantheaume Point at 17 degrees 57.86 south, 122 degrees 11.55 east, about 7 to 8 kilometres from the CBD; it is the only roadstead sheltered from the persistent dry-season south-easterlies, but it lies open to westerly swell and can roll badly, with indifferent holding in hard-packed sand. Moorings there are privately owned, usually booked out for the season, and hiring one goes through TAMS Group, the approved provider; using any mooring without KPA permission carries a $5,000 penalty, and overnight anchoring inside mooring zones is not permitted. The tide rules everything: at low water the beach can be 400 metres wide, so provisioning runs are timed for high tide, and hire cars are contractually banned from the sand, which turns a grocery run into genuine logistics. The fuel wharf towers above a yacht at low tide, its piles oyster-covered, with tidal streams up to 5 knots in the approaches and 3 knots near the terminals; experienced skippers fuel on the top half of the tide and keep a light throwing line handy for the pylons. Dangerous reefs dry near Gantheaume at certain tides, and an 8-knot limit applies in mooring areas. Ashore, Broome rewards the effort: full supermarkets, daily flights for parts and crew, the Broome Volunteer Sea Rescue on 9192 8202, the Staircase to the Moon over Roebuck Bay's mudflats on full-moon dates, and Cable Beach offering alternative anchorage shelter from April to September south-easterlies. Kimberley veterans offer one consistent piece of advice: if fuel is the only reason to call, price up the diesel delivered at Dog Leg Creek or other outlying points instead, because a Broome detour costs days and the bureaucracy is real. Those who do stay should watch forecasts closely, since strong south-easterlies make vessels drag toward neighbouring moorings, and should carry spare scope for the big spring ranges.