Frances Bay Mooring Basin (Duck Pond) marina in Frances Bay (Darwin)

LOCATION & WATERWAY

Frances Bay Mooring Basin (Duck Pond) location and waterway

Frances Bay Mooring Basin (Duck Pond) is listed by YouSail in Frances Bay (Darwin), NT, in the Darwin region, on Darwin Harbour. This helps you place it on a shortlist, but it does not confirm a suitable berth or a safe approach for your vessel.

Use the Darwin marina guide for local waterway context, or compare all marinas in Northern Territory. Ask the operator for berth-specific dimensions and arrival advice.

YOUSAIL SOURCE PROFILE

Verified source notes for Frances Bay Mooring Basin (Duck Pond)

Government-managed Darwin locked mooring basin known as the Duck Pond, with about 85 berths for vessels up to 30 m, showers/toilets and cyclone procedures.

Frances Bay Mooring Basin is a tide-free locked basin used by fishing, commercial and other vessels. It is included in Darwin Port cyclone procedure planning and has about 85 berths for vessels up to 30 m, showers and toilets, with no fuel verified.

This is the factual YouSail directory layer used as the primary reference for the Find Marinas review above.

WHAT YOUSAIL RECORDS

Frances Bay Mooring Basin (Duck Pond) berth dimensions and facilities

YouSail classification?The category published on the source profile; confirm what services are operating today.

government/transport wharf-marina

Water body

Darwin Harbour

YouSail region

Darwin

Berth types?A source-level summary, not confirmation that a particular berth type is currently available.

locked basin berths

Wet berths?A marina-wide figure where supplied; it does not indicate vacancies.

85

Maximum vessel length?A marina-wide limit where supplied, not the dimensions of an available berth.

30 m

Fuel

Unavailable

A marina-wide maximum is not an available-berth offer. Unlisted facts are unknown, not absent. Values and services can change.

Y O U S A I L / PUBLIC PROFILE

Facilities recorded for Frances Bay Mooring Basin (Duck Pond)

YouSail’s public profile lists the following items. Some may be rules or arrangements rather than services; ask the operator what applies today.

• 85 berths
• 35m x 16m lock
• vessels up to 30m
• showers
• toilets
• cyclone procedure plan
• commercial/fishing vessel basin

These are YouSail-sourced notes, not a live availability feed or a Find Marinas endorsement.

SERVICES IN DEPTH

Berthing and marina services

Services reflect a government-run commercial boat harbour rather than a leisure marina. The 85 pens take vessels to 30 metres in the tide-free basin, accessed through the 35 by 16-metre lock on VHF channel 6 under the lockmaster's instruction, with at least an hour's notice the norm and call-out fees for after-hours work. Berthing is arranged through Darwin Port's small ships scheduler (08 8922 0617, smallships.scheduler@nt.gov.au), and published NT Government pen rates run on a daily basis for permanent tenants, with 20-metre and 25-metre pens listed at $16.95 and $21.69 per day respectively in recent schedules, plus charges for lock movements, electricity and water. Power is available at pens, and there are showers and toilets for tenants; the batch records laundry among the amenities, but beyond that there is deliberately little: no fuel facility inside the basin, no chandlery, no wifi, no cafe strip. Fuel is next door at the Fishermans Wharf fuel jetty, operated by Baileys Marine Fuels, which serves the fishing fleet in all tides. What the Duck Pond offers instead is heavy-duty practicality: drive-on dock access for cars, trucks, cranes and forklifts, hard-standing working room beside the basin, and a tolerance for grinding, welding and slipping-adjacent maintenance that private marinas refuse. During the recent lock upgrade, temporary barge facilities operated from Fishermans Wharf to keep industry moving through lock closures. The basin also figures in the NT's cyclone planning for commercial vessels, its locked, tide-free water making it a designated heavy-weather refuge for the fleet. Berth holders are allocated pens by the scheduler and vessel placement can shift as the commercial fleet's needs change; cruising yachts accepted on short stays should expect to move pens or raft alongside fishing boats if asked.

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Planning a visit to Darwin Harbour

For a visiting yacht the Duck Pond's value is location and tolerance. It sits on Frances Bay between Stokes Hill Wharf and Tipperary Waters, an easy dinghy ride from the Frances Bay anchorage and a 15 to 20-minute walk to the Smith Street Mall, so crews can live aboard within sight of the CBD without paying leisure-marina rates. Access is through the same Frances Bay approach used by Tipperary Waters and Bayview traffic, with the usual Darwin caveats: an eight-metre tidal range outside the lock, powerful water movement inside the chamber, and lines tended constantly on both sides as the level changes, with heavy ropes on the lock wall to tie to at low water. The lockmaster directs where you tie up; stay on channel 6. Chandleries and marine trades cluster within a kilometre: Darwin Ship Stores near Fishermans Wharf and Nautical Supplies toward Tipperary Waters cover most needs, and the Fishermans Wharf precinct handles fuel and ice. Historically the basin grew with Darwin's pearling industry, and on any given day the pens still tell that story, from pearl farm motherships working the Arafura to prawn trawlers between Gulf seasons. Recreational boats should ring the small ships scheduler before assuming a berth; when the fleet is home for the wet, the basin fills and visitors are turned toward Cullen Bay or Tipperary Waters. Crocodiles turn up in Frances Bay often enough that trap floats are a routine sight, and the working harbour's etiquette is simple: commercial traffic has right of way in practice if not in law.

Use current charts, forecasts, warnings and the operator’s latest arrival instructions before navigating.

YOUSAIL MEDIA

Frances Bay Mooring Basin (Duck Pond) gallery

Images are supplied through the YouSail record. Satellite views are orientation aids only and must not be used for navigation.

BEFORE YOU BOOK

Questions to ask Frances Bay Mooring Basin (Duck Pond) before booking

1. Is a berth currently available for my vessel’s exact length, beam and loaded draft at Frances Bay Mooring Basin (Duck Pond)?
2. What are the current approach and depth conditions for Darwin Harbour?
3. Which of the listed berth arrangements (locked basin berths) is available for my stay?
4. Which services are actually available on my planned dates?
5. What is the full cost, including utilities, deposits and cancellation terms?

PLAN WITH CURRENT INFORMATION

Navigation and arrival checks for Frances Bay Mooring Basin (Duck Pond)

Directory details are for discovery. For a passage, use current official charts, weather, warnings and Notices to Mariners for the exact waterway. Confirm the marina’s latest entry procedure directly; advice here can be wrong.