About
St Kilda Marina at a glance
Large city marina on Marine Parade, St Kilda, accommodating boats from 6.7m to 22.8m with wet and dry berthing, trailer and jet-ski storage, boat repairs, marine trimming and fuel. Berths include 24-hour private security access, water and shore power.
Service area: Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne)
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Region
- Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne)
- Water body
- Port Phillip Bay
- Wet berths
- 165
- Dry storage
- Dry berthing; trailer & jet-ski storage
- Maximum vessel
- 22.8 m
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- fuel
- repairs & maintenance
- 24/7 security
- power & water
- showers & laundry
- restaurant/cafe
- dry stack storage
- public boat ramp launch & retrieval
- jet-ski storage
- undercover dry berthing
- marine trimming
- shipwright
- boat sales
- 24/7 on-water fuel dock
- foreshore precinct renewal works underway
About St Kilda Marina
St Kilda Marina on Marine Parade claims a founding place in Australian recreational boating: built in 1969 on land reclaimed from the bay, it is regarded as the country's first large-scale marina and became the model for the boat harbours that followed. Today it operates as a full-service city marina of 165 wet berths for boats from 6.7 to 22.8 metres, with dry berthing, trailer and jet-ski storage stacked into its distinctive zig-zag-roofed storage buildings along the foreshore. Its signature convenience is immediate water access: it is the only marina in metropolitan Melbourne where owners can park a few metres from their boat, load family and provisions straight aboard, and be on the bay without a ramp queue or a long walk, which has kept it popular with powerboat and fishing crews for five decades. The marina sits within the St Kilda tourism strip, with Donovan's, the Stokehouse, the Espy and Elwood Bathers within a ten-minute stroll and the CBD six kilometres away, and its restaurants and marine businesses trade to the public as well as berth holders. The site is Crown land leased to private operators, and the City of Port Phillip has been working through a long-planned renewal of the precinct, with a multi-million-dollar improvement program to open up pedestrian connections, add restaurants and refresh the ageing 1969 fabric, so the marina is mid-way between its practical past and a more public-facing future. Generations of Melbourne boaties learned the ropes here, and many of the peninsula's later marinas borrowed their layouts and dry-storage ideas from what St Kilda proved would work on reclaimed bay land.
Marina facilities
Wet berthing covers 165 berths for boats from 6.7 to 22.8 metres (22 to 75 feet), each with 24-hour water and shore power included in the berthing fee, private security access around the clock and walk-on access from secure parking. Casual and permanent berthing are both offered through the marina office on (03) 9534 0448. Dry berthing stores boats under cover or in the open on rack systems, with trailer and jet-ski storage in dedicated compounds, all inside the gated site. The on-water fuel dock operates 24/7, one of the few round-the-clock refuelling points on the eastern bay, and the marina also runs a public boat ramp with launch and retrieval services for trailer boats. Marine services on site cover boat repairs and maintenance, marine trimming and shipwright work, with boat sales among the commercial tenancies, so routine mechanical and upholstery jobs happen without moving the boat. Amenity-wise the marina provides toilets and showers, laundry access and food from its waterfront restaurants, long anchored by the Riva venue; the precinct's tenancy mix has historically included two restaurant/cafe operations plus offices for tourism businesses. Security is comprehensive: 24-hour private security across berths and storage, CCTV and gated entry, with staff on site through business hours seven days. What the marina does not have is a travel lift or hardstand of its own; heavy hauling is organised through nearby facilities, with the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron's yard and Sandringham's 40-tonne lift both a short run down the coast. Berth fees are quoted on application, and the operator's renewal works are progressively upgrading public promenades and tenancies around the working marina core.
Local sailing knowledge
The marina fronts the open bay on St Kilda's southern edge, and access is uncomplicated: no bars, bridges or locks, workable depths at all tides for the 22.8-metre maximum the berths allow, and shelter behind the marina's own breakwaters from the prevailing sea breezes. Out front, the northern bay cruising ground is at its most convenient: the city and Williamstown across the water for lunch runs, St Kilda Pier and its breakwater a few hundred metres north, and the string of foreshore anchorages from Elwood to Brighton and the Cerberus wreck at Black Rock for easy afternoons. Fishing crews head for the snapper grounds that fire off this shore each spring and the whiting banks further out. The location's real luxury is land-based: Acland Street, the Esplanade's pubs and live music, Luna Park and the St Kilda Sea Baths are all within walking distance, trams run to the CBD, and crews can genuinely finish a bay day with dinner at the Stokehouse without touching a car. Provisioning runs from the Fitzroy Street supermarkets to the Acland Street delis. The boat ramp makes the marina one of the busiest trailering points on the northern bay, and summer weekend mornings see a queue; locals launch early or use the marina's launch service. With the foreshore renewal works staged by the City of Port Phillip continuing around the site, expect changing pedestrian routes and new food tenancies; the marina office keeps berth holders posted. Winter brings a quieter rhythm, the dry-berth racks full and the fuel dock serving the diehards chasing cold-water snapper.