Circular Quay to Taronga Zoo ferry
Passenger ferryNew South Wales · Sydney Ferries
the twelve-minute F2
12 minutesCrossing time
$7.35 each wayAdult Opal fare
every 20 minutesWeekend frequency
Each crossing gets its own page: the sailings the operator publishes, the fares that apply, and how to reach both wharves. The date each table was checked sits beside it.
Australia runs three kinds of ferry that have almost nothing to do with each other. Sydney Harbour has a metropolitan network with Opal fares and a service every few minutes. The Murray River has free government punts that cross on a cable and answer to the state's transport department. And scattered around the coast are island runs, from the Torres Strait to Rottnest, operated commercially and priced for visitors.
Because of that, a page here cannot treat them alike. A harbour service publishes exact departure times and a fare capped by the state ticketing system. A river punt publishes a cadence and a phone number, and stops when the river runs high. An island operator publishes a seasonal timetable and sells a return ticket that may or may not include the national park fee. Each page follows the shape of its own service.
Fares carry the same warning. A Sydney crossing is priced by the Opal system and changes when the state says so; an island return is priced by the company and moves with the season. Every fare table here shows the date it was read and links to the operator's own page, because a stale figure is worse than none.
Wharves and landings are marked individually, linked by the run between them. Choose a crossing to open its departure times, its fares and the approach to each side.
the twelve-minute F2
the F9 and its weekday gap
fifteen minutes between the Heads
the Pittwater run, not the Patonga one
Darwin to Wurrumiyanga, and the permit line
two tickets, one boat
the boat that meets the plane
free, around the clock, and at the river's mercy
the Dotterel, and the weather that stops it
ninety minutes from Barrack Street Jetty
Crossing time and departures as each operator states them. They are not always comparable: a harbour route counts the sailings of a single weekday, a river punt quotes a headway, and a tidal or seasonal run quotes neither. A dash means the operator does not publish that figure.
| Crossing | State | Service | Crossing time | Departures | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circular Quay to Taronga Zoo ferry | New South Wales | Passenger ferry | – | – | Sydney Ferries |
| Circular Quay to Watsons Bay ferry | New South Wales | Passenger ferry | – | – | Sydney Ferries |
| Manly to Watsons Bay ferry | New South Wales | Sightseeing service | – | – | Captain Cook Cruises |
| Palm Beach to The Basin and Coasters Retreat ferry | New South Wales | Passenger ferry | – | – | Palm Beach Ferries |
| Tiwi Islands ferry | Northern Territory | Island service | – | – | SeaLink Northern Territory |
| Daydream Island ferry from Airlie Beach | Queensland | Island service | – | – | Cruise Whitsundays |
| Thursday Island – Horn Island ferry | Queensland | Passenger ferry | – | – | Rebel Marine |
| Purnong ferry | South Australia | Cable ferry | – | – | Little Ferry Services |
| Tailem Bend ferry | South Australia | Cable ferry | – | – | Murrundi Ferry Services |
| Perth to Rottnest ferry | Western Australia | Island service | – | – | SeaLink Rottnest Island and Rottnest Express |
Because South Australia treats them as part of the road, not as a transport service. The punts sit where a bridge would be too expensive for the traffic, they run on a cable across the stream, and the state pays for them out of the roads budget. There is no ticket and no booking; you drive on when the gate opens.
On the Transport for NSW network, yes, and the daily and weekly caps apply as they do on trains. But several harbour and Hawkesbury crossings are run by private operators outside that network, where Opal is not accepted and you pay the operator directly. The page for each crossing states which of the two applies.
Often not. Island destinations frequently add an admission or park fee on top of the boat — a national park entry, an island admission fee, a bike or locker hire — and the operator may bundle them into a package that looks like a fare. Each page here separates the crossing itself from whatever is sold alongside it.
Different things in different places. River punts stop when the Murray floods or during maintenance. Coastal and island runs stop for swell and wind, and in the north for the cyclone season. Harbour services keep going through most weather but divert when the swell reaches the heads.
The day each table was read appears alongside it, together with the link to whatever the operator or the agency actually published, and every crossing has a review date it gets revisited before. Same-day changes are a different matter — a punt shut by river level, a sailing dropped for swell — and those live only in the operator's own service updates.