Sunset over the Clontarf boat ramp, 2009. Sheba_Also, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Pelican Park is the foreshore park at Clontarf, on the south-western corner of the Redcliffe peninsula at the Brisbane end of the Hornibrook and Ted Smout bridges. The ramp is four concrete lanes with a floating walkway, toilets, water and about 60 bays, and it is the peninsula's main launch on the sheltered side. The state register flags it as tide-limited: the water off Clontarf is the northern edge of the Hays Inlet and Pine River flats, and a big low leaves mud a long way out. Work the top half of the tide and keep to the marked channel.

The reward is shelter. When the south-easterly makes Scarborough's harbour entrance and the eastern beaches uncomfortable, Clontarf is flat, and it is a short run under the bridges to Bramble Bay, the Pine River mouth and Nudgee. Six knots applies near the bridges, the ramp and the moorings. The park has barbecues, a playground and the famous pelican feeding.

Scarborough's two harbour ramps are the all-tide alternatives. Marine Rescue Queensland Redcliffe monitors VHF 16.

Pelicans waiting for scraps at the ramp, 2007. Sheba_Also, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Dredging off the Clontarf ramp, 2015. Sheba_Also, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A note on these photographs

The photographs above are from Wikimedia Commons and are used under their Creative Commons licences; each caption gives the year, because the facility may have changed since.

Further reading