Fifteen minutes there, twelve minutes back, and not the same wharves in between. The F5 is a loop, so the boat that takes you to Neutral Bay comes home a different way, and the timetable only makes sense once you know that.
Transport for NSW F5 timetable valid from 27 January 2026 (PDF created 20 September 2026), transcribed on 25 September 2026 and checked against the Trip Planner for 26, 27 and 29 September 2026 Transport for NSW – F5 Circular Quay to Neutral Bay (Loop service) timetable (PDF) · 2026-09-25
Thirty-two boats leave Circular Quay for Neutral Bay on a weekday, and each of them comes back without turning round. The F5 is a loop: out via Kirribilli and North Sydney, into Neutral Bay, then home via Kurraba Point and Kirribilli again. Transport for NSW prints it as a single timetable titled Circular Quay to Neutral Bay (Loop service), with the Quay at both the top and the bottom.
In practice that gives the route a lopsided shape. Going out takes 13 minutes early and late in the day and 15 minutes between 06:55 and 18:55. Coming back from Neutral Bay takes 12 minutes most of the time. On weekdays there is a loop every half hour from 05:57 until 19:25, then one an hour until 23:25. At weekends it is hourly at 25 past: from 06:25 to 23:25 on Saturday, from 08:25 to 20:25 on Sunday.
The departure times in the grid above appear identically in the Transport for NSW PDF and in its live Trip Planner, with one small exception on Saturday mornings that we explain below the table rather than guess at.
At 2.8 kilometres, Neutral Bay is one of the shortest trips on the Sydney Ferries network, but the fare does not reflect that: every ferry journey under 9 kilometres costs the same. Tapping on and off works as described on our Taronga Zoo ferry page.
| Adult | $ 7.35 |
| Child or Youth | $ 3.67 |
| Concession | $ 3.67 |
| Gold Senior or Pensioner (the whole day) | $ 2.50 |
| Monday to Thursday, per day | $ 19.30 |
| Friday to Sunday and public holidays, per day | $ 9.65 |
| Per week | $ 50 |
Opal fares published by Transport for NSW, read on 25 September 2026 and matched against the fares its Trip Planner returned for F5 loops Transport for NSW – Opal ferry fares · 2026-09-25
The loop crosses from Sydney Cove to Kirribilli, runs along to North Sydney, turns into Neutral Bay and comes back out past Kurraba Point, calling at Kirribilli a second time before recrossing to the Quay. The planner measures the outbound leg at 2,811 metres and the return at 2,844. The rest of our New South Wales crossings are collected on the state page.
The planner puts most F5 departures on Wharf 4, with a few midday boats on Wharf 5, and brings returning loops into whichever of Wharves 2, 4 and 5 is free. Like every Quay timetable, this route's carries a caveat that berths can move without much warning, so let the indicator board have the final word.
At the bottom of Hayes Street. The authority classes it as Independent Access, with help available on the ramp, but also lists stairs among its structures, and adds its network-wide warning that ramps get steeper at low tide. Facilities run to a card-only Opal machine, a next-service display, a kiss-and-ride bay and racks for bikes. Bus 225 runs from here to Cremorne Point Wharf.
From Neutral Bay the boat carries on to Kurraba Point and Kirribilli before the Quay, and does it in 12 minutes. From the Quay, the same boat takes 13 to 15 minutes to reach you, because it goes round by North Sydney first.
Until 19:25 the Quay has a Neutral Bay loop every half hour. After that it is hourly, with the last at 23:25 and the last departure from Neutral Bay at 23:38.
The first Sunday loop leaves the Quay at 08:25, two hours after Saturday's first. The last Sunday boat away from Neutral Bay is 20:38.
Bus 225 runs from Neutral Bay Wharf to Cremorne Point Wharf. With Cremorne Point Wharf closed to ferries until 30 October 2026, Transport for NSW points F6 passengers towards it.
Officially the wharf is Independent Access, with help on the ramp, yet stairs appear among its listed structures too, and a low tide tilts every ramp on the network more steeply. Bring a pram or chair with some margin.
Neutral Bay sits between two better-known neighbours on the ferry map: North Sydney, one stop earlier on the same loop, and Cremorne Point, a little further east, which is a stop on the Mosman Bay route instead. The F5 therefore matters to more people than its name suggests: Kirribilli and North Sydney ride the same boats, and at the moment Neutral Bay is also the nearest working wharf for some Cremorne Point residents, whose own wharf is shut for maintenance, with bus 225 linking the two.
For anyone arriving from the city, the useful comparison is with the loop itself rather than with the road. A boat that leaves the Quay at 08:25 is at Neutral Bay at 08:40 and back at the Quay at 08:53, which makes a return trip for a meeting in Neutral Bay quite workable inside an hour and a half, provided you remember that the evening frequency halves after 19:25.
Because the F5 is a loop. Outbound it calls at Kirribilli and North Sydney before Neutral Bay, taking 13 to 15 minutes; inbound it goes via Kurraba Point and Kirribilli and reaches the Quay in about 12.
Every 30 minutes from 05:57 to 19:25 from Circular Quay, then hourly until 23:25. From Neutral Bay the boats leave at 10 and 40 past until 19:10, then at 38 past until 23:38.
20:38, reaching Circular Quay at 20:50. Sunday and public-holiday loops leave the Quay hourly from 08:25 to 20:25 and leave Neutral Bay 13 minutes after each.
Yes. The return leg is simply the second half of the loop, and the Transport for NSW planner prices Neutral Bay to Circular Quay at $7.35 for an adult, exactly as for the trip out.
An adult is charged $7.35, and Child/Youth and Concession cards half as much, $3.67; Gold Senior/Pensioner holders pay nothing beyond $2.50 in a day. None of it moves with the clock: the loop is priced exactly like the zoo boat.
They run, but the two official sources give different minutes for their Neutral Bay call: the PDF says 06:35 and 07:35, the planner 06:38 and 07:38. Be at the wharf by 06:35 or 07:35 and you are covered either way.
Not directly: Cremorne Point is on the F6, a different route, and its wharf is closed until 30 October 2026. Bus 225 runs between Neutral Bay Wharf and Cremorne Point Wharf.