Translink Magnetic Island Ferry Schedules 2026

This is not a ferry company. TransLink is the public transport authority for Queensland, and the Magnetic Island crossing appears in its network as a numbered route — 1F — alongside the buses. The vessels are run by SeaLink Queensland.

A ferry with a route number

Treating the crossing as route 1F rather than as a boat trip is the useful frame. It runs between Breakwater Ferry Terminal in Townsville and Nelly Bay on the south-east corner of Magnetic Island, and it is scheduled and published the way a bus route is, not the way a cruise is.

Seventeen crossings each way, from before dawn to late

Our data holds 17 departures in each direction. From Townsville they run 05:30 to 22:30; from Nelly Bay 06:00 to 23:00. The operator describes up to 18 daily return crossings on a fleet of three high-speed catamarans carrying up to 300 passengers each. The first and last sailings are the giveaway: a service that starts at half past five in the morning is carrying people to work, not to the beach.

Twenty minutes or twenty-five

SeaLink states the crossing at about 20 minutes. Our schedule data records it at 25. The difference is small but worth knowing if you are cutting a connection fine at either end — take 25 as the planning figure and treat 20 as the good-conditions case.

Different days, different service

The departures do not all run every day. Our data carries four distinct day patterns across the 34 sailings: a core that runs all week, a group that runs Monday to Friday, another Monday to Saturday, and a further weekday set. The commuter layer sits on top of a base service, so a weekend timetable is visibly thinner than a Tuesday one.

Passengers only on this route

The 1F service is a passenger ferry. Vehicles reach Magnetic Island on a separate barge operation, from a different terminal, on its own schedule — that is not this route and it is not in our data. If you intend to bring a car, this page is not the one you need.

Fares move on their own calendar

Because the crossing sits inside a public transport network, fares are set and revised administratively rather than commercially — the most recent increase on the Townsville–Magnetic Island service took effect on 1 February 2026. Check the current fare against the authority rather than against a third-party listing, this one included.