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Boat liftsThe waterfront, read like a tide gauge

A guide published by Dotto

Boat lifts, jetties and the water they stand in

A boat lift, a jetty or a pontoon is built where private land meets public water. In New South Wales and Queensland that means asking the owner of the waterway’s bed, usually the state, as well as the council. In New South Wales, the Crown Lands guidelines go further and list boat lifts among the structures the department will not approve on Crown waterways, with one exception: where someone with a disability genuinely needs a lifting device to board and leave a boat safely.

This is a guide to those rules, and to the water itself, in plain words. It is published by Dotto and written from the official sources named on each page.

A tide board on a timber pile A painted tide board fixed to a timber pile, with the water level part way up. Dashed lines mark the highest astronomical tide near the top, mean sea level at the water line, and the lowest astronomical tide, which is chart datum, near the foot. 3 2 1 0 Highest astronomical tide Mean sea level Lowest astronomical tide chart datum, in Queensland
A drawing of a tide board on a timber pile, marked with three of the levels in Queensland’s storm tide glossary. It is an illustration, not a copy of any real gauge.

Guides

Six marks on the board

The six guides

Read them from the top, where the paperwork starts, down to the water at its highest.

  1. 1

    Approvals for waterfront structures

    The permissions NSW and Queensland ask for, how Victoria handles its coast, and how to check what is already approved.

  2. 2

    Boat lifts and jetties in NSW

    Domestic waterfront licences, the structures Crown Lands will not approve, and the five steps from consent to construction.

  3. 3

    Queensland tidal works

    What a prescribed tidal work is, who assesses it, the code it must meet, and what counts as maintenance.

  4. 4

    Electrical safety near the water

    Shore power, equipment by the water, overhead powerlines over a ramp, and why the wiring is a licensed job.

  5. 5

    Antifouling and the water

    Why antifouling paint is treated as a pesticide, and where the cleaning and scraping should happen.

  6. 6

    Storm tide and flooding

    Storm surge and storm tide explained, the warnings, and what floods have done to pontoons.

Datum

Reading the board

Reading a tide gauge

Every height on a tide chart is measured from a level that is fixed on purpose. In Queensland that level is the lowest astronomical tide, and Maritime Safety Queensland says it has been used as port and chart datum since 1994. The Queensland Government’s storm tide glossary describes the levels in the drawing above like this:

Highest astronomical tide
The highest level that can be predicted under average weather and any combination of astronomical conditions. It may not be reached every year, and a storm tide above it is more likely to flood coastal areas.
Mean sea level
Hourly tide heights averaged over a long period, preferably 18.6 years: the level the water would sit at without tides.
Lowest astronomical tide
The lowest level that can be predicted under average conditions. For Australian waters, the glossary says, chart datum is defined as the lowest astronomical tide.
King tide
A popular name with “no scientific definition”, used for the highest tide at a place each year.

Not the ceiling

Maritime Safety Queensland adds that the highest and lowest astronomical tides are not the extreme levels the water can reach, because storm surges can push it considerably higher or lower. That is the subject of storm tide and flooding.

High

As at October 2026

This summer’s highest tides at four Queensland ports

Maritime Safety Queensland publishes the year’s highest predicted tides for each standard port. Four of them are below, a selection from its table: the port’s highest astronomical tide, and its highest predicted summer tide in MSQ’s table for 2026. Heights are in metres above the port’s datum (the lowest astronomical tide), and MSQ gives its predicted times in Australian Eastern Standard Time.

A selection of four ports from Maritime Safety Queensland’s king tides page, read on 8 October 2026. Predictions assume average weather.
PortHighest astronomical tideHighest predicted summer tide, 2026 table
Gold Coast Seaway2.03 m1.99 m, 25 December 2026 at 9:02 am
Brisbane Bar2.78 m2.78 m, 25 December 2026 at 10:29 am
Mooloolaba2.21 m2.20 m, 25 December 2026 at 8:59 am
Gladstone4.87 m4.75 m, 25 December 2026 at 10:00 am

MSQ explains that the year’s two highest spring tides, one in summer and one in winter, are the ones called king tides, and that the winter ones fall at night, which is why they are noticed less. On a waterfront, these are the days a pontoon rides highest on its piles and a ramp or a cradle sits furthest under water.

About

Who wrote this

About this guide

boatlifts.com.au is a concept website: a guide to boat lifts and the waterfront published by Dotto. It describes rules and official advice; it is general information, not legal, planning or engineering advice about any property.

The rules differ by state, so every rule here is named for the state whose own page sets it out. Where a state is not covered, check that state’s lands or coastal authority and your local council.

Each guide lists its sources at the foot of the page, with the date they were read.