Eighty kilometres north of Darwin, Bathurst and Melville Islands sit close enough to the mainland to be a day trip and far enough to run on their own rules. The boat takes two and a half hours. The land at the far end is privately owned, and that is the part worth reading twice.
Read on 22 September 2026 from SeaLink Northern Territory's own live timetable, and checked against the operator's published sailings for six separate weeks between September and December 2026 SeaLink Northern Territory – Ferry timetables for Tiwi Islands · 2026-09-22
The Tiwi Islands are two — Bathurst and Melville — lying off the top of the Northern Territory with about 2,500 people between them, and the ferry touches one point on one of them: Wurrumiyanga, on Bathurst's southeastern shore, the community closest to Darwin. SeaLink Northern Territory works the route from Cullen Bay, and the crossing is two and a half hours each way through water that can and does change the timings.
Three days a week, and only three: Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The shape of the day differs on each. The Thursday and Friday boat leaves at 08:00, lands at 10:30 and sails again at 15:15 — four hours forty-five ashore. The Sunday boat leaves later and returns earlier, leaving ninety minutes between the pontoon and the gangway, and it is also the day the service continues to Paru on Melville Island.
What makes this crossing unlike any other on this site is what waits at the top of the ramp. The Tiwi Islands are not Crown land and not public land; they are privately owned Aboriginal freehold held under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, and access is regulated by permit. The good news for anyone reading a ferry page is that the ferry itself is the exemption.
The adult return is exactly double the single; the family return and the ten-trip multi-ticket are where the discounts live. Concession means a Healthcare card or a Seniors card; child means five to fourteen inclusive.
The second table is not a fare at all. It is what the Tiwi Land Council charges for the two kinds of visitor permit, and it is here because people assume the ferry ticket buys the access. It does not — it buys the crossing.
| Adult, one way | $ 64 |
| Adult, return | $ 128 |
| Concession, one way | $ 49 |
| Concession, return | $ 96 |
| Child 5–14, one way | $ 36 |
| Child 5–14, return | $ 70 |
| Family return, 2 adults and 3 children | $ 340 |
| Multi-ticket, 10 trips | $ 478 |
| Day pass, ferry day visitor to Wurrumiyanga | Free |
| Visitor permit, staying inside community boundaries | Free |
| Visitor permit, travel outside community boundaries | $ 100 |
Fares as published by SeaLink Northern Territory and read on 22 September 2026; permit costs as published by the Tiwi Land Council the same day SeaLink Northern Territory – Tiwi Islands ferry fares · 2026-09-22
Cullen Bay to the Wurrumiyanga pontoon is eighty kilometres, measured landing to landing — the same figure SeaLink quotes in prose, arrived at independently from the two sets of official coordinates. Bathurst and Melville together make up the Tiwi Islands, separated by the narrow Apsley Strait; Wurrumiyanga sits on Bathurst's southeastern corner, the point closest to the mainland. Nothing else in the Northern Territory appears on this site, and the nearest cousin anywhere on it is the Torres Strait run to Horn Island — another boat that is the only practical link between a remote northern community and everything else.
A short drive west of the Darwin CBD, and the only mainland end this service has. Check-in is a real process rather than a formality: SeaLink asks for 30 minutes so staff can issue boarding passes and security can screen luggage, and it closes about five minutes before departure. Biosecurity officers are regularly on the wharf before boarding as well.
You step off onto a pontoon with the foreshore and welcome centre at the top of it. The Commonwealth ferry register still files this landing under Nguiu, the community's former name; SeaLink notes the change itself. There is no public transport in Wurrumiyanga, but the art centre, museum, mission precinct and WWII radio shed are all within walking distance of the pontoon.
The Council draws its line at the community boundary. Arriving by ferry for the day, or with a hosted tour, sits inside it: you are handed a day pass rather than asked to apply for anything. Step past Wurrumiyanga's edge and the position reverses — that needs a permit, applied for well in advance.
If you do need a permit, the Council asks for a minimum of 30 working days to process most applications — seven days for organisations already registered with it. Every permit needs a host or resident organisation and is granted at the Council's discretion.
Alcohol is not permitted on the Tiwi Islands, visitors included. Luggage is screened at Cullen Bay, NT Police conduct bag checks on arrival, and passengers found carrying it cannot travel and are not refunded.
There are no cafés or restaurants in Wurrumiyanga, so SeaLink tells independent visitors to carry their own food and water for the day. Food and drink are sold on board the ferry, which for a 2.5-hour crossing is just as well.
Officers work the wharf at Cullen Bay before departure and again on arrival. Check clothes and shoes for seeds and soil, and read the Council's biosecurity policy before you pack anything living. Feral cats and weeds are the specific worry.
Read the Tiwi Land Council's permit page and the rule is precise rather than forbidding. If you arrive on the SeaLink boat for the day, or with a hosted tour, no application is asked of you at all: a day pass is issued to you instead. What needs a permit is leaving the community. A free Visitor Permit covers staying inside community boundaries and driving the main road between communities, and a $100 permit, valid three months, covers travelling outside them for recreation.
The Council is open about why the system exists: to protect the privacy of Tiwi landowners, to safeguard sacred sites and the environment, and to keep visitor behaviour accountable. It also warns that a permit can be cancelled at short notice for weather, ceremony or a funeral — a reminder that the calendar here is not the tourist calendar. For Melville Island, the council barge crosses the Apsley Strait from Wurrumiyanga to Paru in about five minutes, with buses onward to Pirlangimpi and Milikapiti when the roads allow.
Not for the ferry, and not for Wurrumiyanga itself. The Tiwi Land Council exempts two groups by name — people coming over on the SeaLink boat for the day, and people on a hosted tour — and issues them a day pass rather than asking for an application.
As soon as you want to leave the community. A Visitor Permit for staying inside community boundaries is free and lasts up to three months; one that lets you travel outside them for recreation costs $100 and lasts three months. Allow a minimum of 30 working days for the Council to process it.
Four hours forty-five on a Thursday or Friday — in at 10:30, out at 15:15. On a Sunday it is an hour and a half, arriving 12:45 and leaving 14:15. If you want a proper day, avoid the Sunday boat.
$64.00 one way for an adult and $128.00 return. Concession, on a Healthcare or Seniors card, is $49.00 and $96.00. A child aged five to fourteen is $36.00 and $70.00. Two adults and three children travel return for $340.00, and a ten-trip multi-ticket is $478.00.
On Sundays, yes — the service also runs to Paru on Melville Island. On other days you cross the Apsley Strait from Wurrumiyanga on the Tiwi Islands Council barge, about five minutes, with buses onward to Pirlangimpi and Milikapiti subject to road conditions.
Several things, all on foot from the pontoon: the Tiwi Design art centre, the Patakijiyali Museum at $10 entry, the mission precinct with its old church, a statue of Matthias Ulungura, and a WWII radio shed. Inside the church is tour-only, there is no public transport, and there are no cafés — bring food and water.
The dog yes, the wine no. Dogs travel free muzzled or crated with proof of vaccination, and stay on the stern deck with their owner. Alcohol is not permitted on the Tiwi Islands at all; bags are screened, NT Police check arrivals, and there is no refund if you are turned back.