Townsville Boat Ramps - Rollingstone Creek
I was told the other day that Rollingstone Creek now has a pontoon at its boat ramp, and that I should be able to get my boat out of the mouth on a 1.5m tide and better. So today I went for a drive to have a look and take some photographs. No I have NEVER used this ramp before, nor have I ever been out of the mouth. So my comments here are purely from an observational point. All photographs were taken at the bottom of a lowish tide. Probably about 1m or so.
The ramp is easy to find, drive about 40min (50km) North of Townsville toward Rollingstone. Then take a right turn into Balgal Beach. Signs to the ramp point the direction.
The ramp is single lane, but excellent quality. It widens out toward the bottom. I could see the end of the ramp in the clear water of low tide, and have tried to show this in the photo's. But most people would not be attempting to use the ramp at this point anyway. There simply isn't enough water to get out the front. But for those who would be launching to head up the creek, it was still usable for small boats.
The ramp does indeed now have a pontoon. And a good one at that. Way better than the one at the Coast Guard in town. As the sign shows, this was a joint venture between several stakeholder groups. The photos do not do the pontoon justice, the tide was simply too low. But I could easily imagine how nice it would be when floating properly.
The main advantage of using this ramp is easy access to the Palm Island group. And it may provide ok access to Rattlesnake as well. Distance to Palm Island is about 20nm, Rattlesnake approximately 13nm and Acheron about 12nm.
