Marina service
Ulladulla Harbour
About
Ulladulla Harbour at a glance
All-weather breakwater harbour 24nm south of Jervis Bay, primarily a fishing port that also caters for recreational and visiting boats; visiting vessels berth alongside No 1 wharf or raft to trawlers with berthing fees collected by the Co-op lessee. Listed as a Transport for NSW regional harbour berthing location.
Service area: Shoalhaven
- Marina type
- government/transport wharf-marina
- Operator
- NSW Crown Lands / Ulladulla Fisherman's Co-operative (lessee)
- Region
- Shoalhaven
- Water body
- Ulladulla Harbour (Tasman Sea)
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- fuel
- slipway
- power & water
- courtesy mooring (24h)
- 30-40 swing moorings
- Coastal Patrol fuel concession (cash only)
- tide-dependent slipway via Small Craft Owners Assoc
- two public boat ramps
- diver contact for hull work
About Ulladulla Harbour
Ulladulla Harbour is the Shoalhaven's working refuge, an all-weather breakwater harbour 24 nautical miles south of Jervis Bay that has balanced a commercial fishing fleet against recreational and storm-sheltering traffic for the better part of a century. The port's modern form dates from 1960, when the Public Works Department began building two breakwaters off the northern and southern headlands; the design was model-tested at the department's Manly hydraulics laboratory, and when the work finished in 1964 at a cost of $188,040 it more than doubled the sheltered water inside. The fishermen's co-operative had already built a timber jetty in 1957 for unloading, fuel and ice, and between 1971 and 1978 a further $2.2 million replaced it with a concrete jetty on steel piles and added a steel sheet-pile wharf against the southern breakwater. Today the wharves sit under lease to the Ulladulla Fisherman's Co-operative, with parts sublet to individual trawler owners, which gives the port its particular etiquette: visitors are welcome but everyone knows the trawlers come first. The harbour remains a genuine fishing port, with the co-op's daily unloading visible from the public wharf precinct opposite the visitor centre, and it doubles as the coast's reliable bolt-hole, the place yachts run for when the southerly buster arrives between Jervis Bay and Batemans Bay. Transport for NSW lists it as a regional harbour with berthing, and the town behind it, a full-service coastal centre straddling the Princes Highway with supermarkets, banks, pubs and marine-capable engineering shops, means crews can provision, repair and rest without leaving the foreshore. The breakwater arms, the co-op wharves and the lighthouse on Warden Head together give the port a settled, purposeful air.
Marina facilities
Berthing arrangements are informal but well established. Visiting vessels aim for a spot alongside No 1 wharf, where water and electricity are laid on, though outlets are spaced widely and crews should carry a long hose and a long lead; barge boards are advisable because the wharf piles are unprotected and swell working into the harbour can set a boat ranging fore and aft. Where only a trawler-side berth is free, rafting alongside a trawler is accepted practice, with plenty of fenders, care around rubbing strakes and live-bait tank outfalls, and the courtesy of asking first and being ready to let the trawler out for its early departure. The co-op collects wharf fees, recorded at around $25 a day, and visiting boats may be shifted to accommodate commercial vessels. Fuel is sold at the co-op fuel wharf through the office during work hours, or through the Coastal Patrol, which holds a fuel concession and takes cash only. The southern slipway is tide-dependent and operated through the Small Craft Owners Association, with bookings and hull details arranged in advance and a local diver contactable through the same channel. Transport for NSW's South Coast Boating Network Plan records around 20 leased berths spread across the T-Jetty, Stonewall Wharf and Tuna Wharf, plus 30 to 40 swing moorings in the northern harbour and a courtesy mooring available for up to 24 hours. Two public boat ramps serve the harbour, the southern ramp fully reopened in January 2025 after structural repairs. There is no marina amenities block; showers, laundry and provisions are all found in town, a short walk up the hill, where Coles, IGA, banks, chemists, engineering workshops capable of yacht repairs, and spare-parts outlets including Repco cover most cruising needs.
Local sailing knowledge
The approach is straightforward but has its traps. Coming from the south, give Warden Head a wide berth because shoals extend well seaward of the headland; from the north, use the Warden Head light and stand off Ulladulla Head until the entrance leads come into view. The leads, orange triangles with orange flashing lights now backed by blue panels for night work, keep you clear of Sullivan Reef on the southern side, and the breakwater heads carry port and starboard flashing lights. The Coastal Patrol acts as port control on VHF 16 and can advise on conditions and berth availability before you commit. Tides match Sydney. Inside, most of the harbour is filled with moored boats and a keep-clear fairway marked by large buoys running roughly north to south; anchoring is possible but tight, the accepted spot being in about 5 metres over fine mud on a rock shelf between the northernmost moorings and the northern boat ramp, keeping the ramp access clear. The small northern jetty is too shallow to come alongside, and dinghies are best left on the southern beach, hauled well up. Everything a crew needs sits within an easy walk: supermarkets, banks, a post office, pubs and clubs, a cinema, takeaway strips and engineering shops used to dealing with marine breakdowns, with taxis outside the Marlin Hotel. The harbour's position makes it a natural passage stop, 24 miles south of Jervis Bay and 30 north of Batemans Bay, and the foreshore precinct, with its picnic lawns, fish-and-chip fare and views of the co-op unloading the day's catch, rewards a lay day. Watch weather forecasts closely in spring, when southerly changes arrive fast on this stretch of coast.