Cruising Guides - Australia

tdw · Sep 18, 2009

New South Wales

Cruising the NSW Coast - Alan Lucas

Eastern Queensland - Notably the Great Barrier Reef.

Cruising the Coral Coast - Alan Lucas

100 Magic Miles - David Colfett

The Curtis Coast - Noel Patrick

Going Troppo - Haynes and Mulvany

Gulf Country of Qld, Northern Territory and Western Australia

Western Australia Cruising - Fremantle Sailing Club

Northern Territory Coast Cruising Guide - John Knight

Tasmania

Tasmanian Anchorage Guide - Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania

Cruising Tasmania - J Bettingham Moore

Cruising Southern Tasmania - Cruising Yacht Club Tasmania

Victoria

South Australia

(coming soon)

Unless otherwise noted, images are from Boat Books (Australia) web site who would stock all of the guides mentioned. For overseas buyers you could also try Boat Books New Zealand. I've used them a few times and found their online mail order service to be quite efficient and being Kiwis they are a friendly mob as well.

Boat Books Australia

Boat Books NZ (SW Pacific Cruising Guides) List

This list is compiled from my library and posted suggestions. As suggestions come in I'll add them to this list. All cruising guides seem to have their limitations. You take the author's advice at your own peril.

St Anna · Sep 18, 2009

Hiya TDW.

OK, my 2 cents worth. (& they dont make 2c anymore). I dont have the latest or anywhere near the latest editions.

Patricks book is wonderful but some of the mud maps have the wrong scale or perspective.

Lucas is good - but you need the updates. Some of his bar/river crossing in far NQ are now quite wrong but you wouldnt go blindly anyway

Colfelds book is great. Some credit should be due to Harry Smith (the CO of the diggers at Long tan and a great sailor) who was a co-surveyor for the book.

NT cruising guide - by Knight is way out of date but nowhere near as poor as some of the charts. Need a good echo sounder and polarized eyeballs!

All these guides are the stuff that dreams are made of - plot and plan and then go. We did (7 years ago)

tdw · Sep 18, 2009

St Anna, Hello to you too.

Thanks for the comments. While I'm trying to avoid posting links I will to Lucas cos your are quite right.

I'm hoping that people with more local knowledge and/or experience than I have will post comments re the guides. I'm sure that world wide many guides soon lose accuracy after publication, especially in a place like Oz where shifting bars are a common problem. so the warning re Lucas Qld is apt.

Guides for places like the NT are sadly few and far between. I have a list and will update for other areas in due course. I'll also be including miscellaneous publications.

Cheers

TD.....drool ? DROOL ? well I never......though occasionally I might slobber a tad.....

St Anna · Sep 18, 2009

Yah. Lucas is the guru, but he cannot physically sail to all places to see the changes every year, so he relies on notices to mariners and other peoples second hand advice.

When my gang of friends were 'plotting' my progress, they were using Lucas' guide to see for example where Morris Island was ( when I radioed in)

Knights book has suffered a similar fate. If you look at some of the charts, they were first surveyed in 1880, and addended by aerial recon in 1945. Things are different now eg WGS84.

Ilenart · Sep 19, 2009

Hi TDW,

the Fremantle Sailing Club publishes the West Australian Cruising Guide. It was updated last year so it is pretty accurate. Covers the whole West Australian coast.

Can be purchased direct from the FSC, below is the website.

http://www.fsc.com.au/

Ilenart

tdw · Sep 20, 2009

Thanks again people. I'll try and get a more comrpehensive list together this week. WACG is on it.

Remember that the list is not meant to be gospel and I hope that it will be continually updates.

Will make it as ticky in due course.

I guess Australia will always suffer to some extent simply because of our low population and vast coastline.

Ilenart....how's the boat selling going ?

Omatako · Oct 5, 2009

As far as New Zealand goes, the one guide that most visitors and even locals will find really useful is the Coastal Cruising Handbook. This covers the east coast of the North Island pretty much north of Auckland and the out-lying islands off that part of the coast.

This handbook covers virtually every meter of the coastline and includes every possible anchorage and many that I wouldn't sleep in. It is pretty comprehensive.

Other volumes that I have used are

(courtesy Amazon.com) and

(also courtesy Amazon.com

)

Notably these covers are not the same as the ones we have (mine are on the boat and not within my immediate grasp) so I'm guessing that they're new editions. That would be good news because the copies that we have were of some use but were quite out-dated when it came to real detail (shops, chandlers, availability of stuff, some political issues, etc)

tdw · Oct 5, 2009

Andre,
Thanks for that. I get onto it this week and get it stickied.
Regards
Andrew

St Anna · Oct 30, 2009

tdw · Oct 30, 2009

St Anna said:
For TDW

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv14/saintanna/april04021.jpg

Nice, very nice. Love the kitten.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv14/saintanna/a019.jpg

Where's that ?

Did you go into Gove ? Passed through there in the late seventies. Can't begin to wonder how it's changed since then. (Transitting Thursday Island to Darwin). Same re changes applies to TI and Darwin.

St Anna · Oct 30, 2009

Hi TDW
The photo is of Digby Is (near the Percies) Sth of the Whitsundays. We had the place to ourselves until this solo canuck dropped in. It made the place crowded. A few months later, 2 yachts were dragged onto rocks and sunk in this anchorage.

Yeah I have anchored off the yacht club in Gove. I didnt go thro TI this year as quarantine need to clear you in TI, but 15nm away at Seisia you can get/do all needed with no clearances.

I just send a few photos to get you guys going

cheers
David

TrevC · Nov 9, 2009

St Anna: Thanks for posting those. Awesome pictures. I'll need to show them to Ali.

Are you guys on one of the Peterson Cutters? How have you found the draft around the broadwater etc? (you can PM if you like, since that's a bit off topic!)

Cheers

chall03 · Nov 23, 2009

St Anna, you remain an inspiration.
Sometimes I get so carried away thinking about distant shores that I forget about the varied and awesome cruising to be had within our borders.

chrism33 · Jan 18, 2011

South Australia

If anyone is sailing in and around South Australia, there are some useful cruising guides on the website of the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron.

Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron - Notes on Anchorages

Enjoy.

chall03 · Jan 18, 2011

Thanks ChrisM. The bottom of the our country has always sounded scary to me, but I think it would be great fairly unexplored part of oz.

SimonV · Jan 18, 2011

One guide I find helpful is "Going Troppo" Using all the guides together seems to work the best. One thing I have noticed with cruisers who use Lucas's book is they all want to anchor on his anchor symbol.

chall03 · Jan 18, 2011

SimonV said:
One guide I find helpful is "Going Troppo" Using all the guides together seems to work the best. One thing I have noticed with cruisers who use Lucas's book is they all want to anchor on his anchor symbol.

LOL.

That must be fairly amusing at times

f182 · Jan 18, 2011

Tasmaina

Crusing Tasmania J. Brettingham-Moore

tdw · Jan 18, 2011

f182 said:
Tasmaina

Crusing Tasmania J. Brettingham-Moore

3

Really need to get this updated don't we ? My fault. Library is at home and most of my posts come from office. Says much about my work ethic I suppose.

F182, thanks for mentioning Bettingham-Moore. There is another, Tasmanian Anchorage Guide maybe ? Will try and remember to haul it out this evening.

St Anna · Jan 18, 2011

SimonV said:
One guide I find helpful is "Going Troppo" Using all the guides together seems to work the best. One thing I have noticed with cruisers who use Lucas's book is they all want to anchor on his anchor symbol.

Aint that the truth!!

Also, they follow tracks from one of his symbols to the next. He writes in the way the old pilots used - You have to read b/w the lines a bit. Eg - if he says 'good in neaps', he means forget in springs!

However, saying this, I have used his books like a bible for decades now and could not have more respect for Alan and the others who put their boats into spots so others can follow.

Cruising Guides - Australia

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