Pimpama River

The Pimpama River is situated between Brisbane and the Gold Coast and the catchment provides a green belt connecting Moreton Bay with hinterland areas.

What to expect

A tidal river with some mangroves and hardly any built up areas .

Above the weir, the river is likely navigable another 8 km to around Ormeau before it becomes overgrown.

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Paddling Options

There are three main trip options from Coleman Road Reserve, the river itself, Woogoompah Island, or to explore the islands south. These can be easily extended by exploring any of the smaller side creeks. Looking at the first two options:

Logistics

There are a few put in spots along the river operated by Gold Coast City Council.

Coleman Road Reserve Boat Ramp is the main put in spot on the river itself, with options north at Jacobs Well or south on the Coomera River at Colman Family Park or Boat Harbour. Refer to the Distance Table and the Interactive Map for additional details. Parking is not an issue in general.

One-way distances to Kerkin Road Weir:

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Tides

There is likely moderate tidal influence for most trips, with enough flow to provide a noticeable current in the tidal sections but unlikely enough to be of much concern.

Tidal info for Pimpama River Mouth

HAT

2.70 m

MSL

1.33 m

MHWS

2.20 m

MHWN

1.80 m

MLWN

0.80 m

MLWS

0.40 m

September

8

Sun

00:13

1.97 m

06:39

0.49 m

12:53

2.01 m

19:07

0.78 m

September

9

Mon

00:43

1.81 m

07:08

0.55 m

13:33

1.97 m

19:52

0.88 m

September

10

Tue

01:18

1.66 m

07:42

0.62 m

14:22

1.93 m

20:51

0.97 m

September

11

Wed

02:09

1.51 m

08:31

0.70 m

15:29

1.92 m

22:19

0.99 m

Tides for selected locations on the lower Pimpama River for Sunday, 8th September

Jacobs Well

00:13

1.97 m

06:25

0.49 m

12:53

2.01 m

18:53

0.78 m

Coleman Road Reserve

00:20

1.97 m

06:52

0.49 m

13:00

2.01 m

19:20

0.78 m

Kerkin Rd Weir

00:42

1.97 m

07:34

0.49 m

13:22

2.01 m

20:02

0.78 m

Tide predictions are estimates only. The tidal datum is for Brisbane Bar. Tide predictions are calculated from Brisbane Bar with times adjusted by 32 minutes for low tide and 28 minutes for high tide. Other locations use a similar offset calculation.
Please refer to the Bureau of Meteorology and Australian National Tide Tables for official tidal information.
© Commonwealth of Australia

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Distances

Some key locations up until Kerkin Road Weir, are listed below.

^* Side represents either the left / port (L) or right / starboard (R) sides when facing downstream of the main river or the specified direction of travel for bays or lakes (usually anticlockwise).
^† Most of the features were taken from local council pages.
^§ Distances have been manually calculated from the river mouth.

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Map

Explore the key locations in the map below. Most locations will have a photograph that can be seen by clicking on the icon or number in the map itself.

The map also has markers every kilometer that start at 0 at The Broadwater all the way to the source.

You may need to zoom in to see all of these kilometer markers. These do not correlate with any existing numbering system on the river.

• Boat Ramps
• Weir or Low Head Dam

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