20/06/2026
Importance of ALL TIDE ACCESS at Molongle Facility
2026
As Members of the Molongle Creek Boat Club Inc and Custodians of the Molongle Boating Facility we offer the following information to identify the safety needs of the whole community who use Molongle Facilities. Even though the Boating Facility is under the responsibility of MSQ, state government, under the current situation of regular infilling and damage to the boating channel, this community are constantly suffering.
SAFETY – Molongle facility is the only boating facility that has the potential of servicing the whole Cape Upstart regional community. It is one of the highest used facilities in North Queensland with over 15,000 to 20,000 vessel movements annually. There is high potential of an incident or need for medical assistance at any time, day or night, high tide or low tide. Heart attacks, marine stings and other accidents don’t wait for high tide. A permanent all tide facility will go a long way to meeting the SAFETY need. Molongle Facility is only a few nautical miles from Cape Upstart making it the closest to allow a quick response for medical emergencies. During holiday periods Cape Upstart swells to over 2,000 people. There is no medical facility on Cape Upstart. On many occasions, medical emergencies have occurred during low tide periods. This situation instantly stops the use of private vessel transportation back to a waiting ambulance or the use of Marine Rescue Burdekin to provide any assistance. This only leaves high-cost emergency helicopter deployment from Townsville or Mackay.
Hazardous conditions and inconsistent channel depth also creates dangerous potential groundings by boaters in the damaged channel.
MARINE RESCUE BURDEKIN ACCESS - There is no ALL TIDE ACCESS anywhere between Townsville and Bowen. About 180km of coast line. Marine Rescue can’t help boaties or the Cape Upstart community during low tide. Marine Rescue needs access to perform their primary role of saving lives at sea, including medical evacuations from numerous ships at Abbot Point.
TRANSIT TERMINAL - Molongle Facility has provided sea access to over 240 properties on Cape Upstart and it is the closest boating facility. It allows smaller vessels to access Cape Upstart because of its proximity within the sheltered waters of Upstart Bay. At holiday times, counts of nearly 500 cars and trailers are parked at Molongle boating facility.
Even though Molongle boating facility is not deemed a commercial port, it provides access for many commercial activities. A local barge and commercial fishers operate from Molongle; Ergon and Telstra service their infrastructure on the Cape from Molongle; and MSQ, Whitsunday Regional Council, National Parks and Aboriginal rangers also utilise the facility, which makes it a very busy port. It currently has major tidal limitations, which impacts these services negatively. How much better would it be with a constant all tide access?
TOURIST POTENTIAL - Servicing the northern end of the Whitsunday Region, Molongle already has a caravan park and licenced café which attracts many grey nomads and back packers who bring new money into the region. A more constant all tide access will only increase that potential. It will allow more facilities to be provided to service the increased needs of this community and public.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS - Each year since an all tide channel has been provided, flooding of Molongle Creek has damaged and infilled the dredged channel. Repairs were carried out, however the very next flow filled it in again. Constant disturbance of this channel area could be creating unknown environmental issues. During the original approval process, the design had numerous negative comments from the whole local community that needed to be reconsidered. This was ignored by approval agencies. Nature has proven local knowledge was right.
LONG HISTORY - The Molongle area has been utilized since early last century by local fisherman. The community established the Molongle Creek Boat Club in 1962 to improve boating facilities and access. Over that time thousands of hours of voluntary work have been done with ultimate aim to improve safety for our community. In spite of all this human intervention nature has continued to thrive. Mangroves have engulfed the area and are still continuing to expand, large volumes of fish have continued to inhabit the local area including in the dredged channel. Numerous sightings of turtles and dugongs have been constantly reported. Nature has continued to thrive.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE - Over decades of observation by locals we offer the following suggestions. Due to annual flooding of Molongle Creek which flows onto the foreshore directly across the direction of the current channel alignment, natural sand movement infills the dredge channel on each and every occasion, thus reducing tidal depth of the dredged channel.
Numerous comments from local community constantly state the current channel alignment needs be CHANGED, or a BARRIER needs to be placed between Molongle Creek and the boating channel.
There is evidence showing that a barrier has saved the inner 300 metres from the ramps to the first markers. The depth of this section has been reasonably constant since it was first dredged in 2022. The geotextile bag barrier was first placed in 1998 which makes it 28 years old and still intact.
As Custodians of the Molongle Boating facilities we respectfully request that human safety factors is a high priority when the next approval phase occurs in the near future.
For Further Information please contact the Molongle Creek Boat Club Inc
Joe Linton Ph 0409 635 434
Email – J.linton3@ Bigpond.com
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