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.
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:
Kerkin Road Weir
- Length
- 12.2 km
- Type
- Return
- Time
- 1 day
- Technical difficulty
- Grade I
- Elevation Change
- N/A (tidal)
- Rating
Woogoompah Island
- Length
- 15.2 km
- Type
- Circumnavigation
- Time
- 1 day
- Technical difficulty
- Grade I
- Elevation Change
- N/A (tidal)
- Rating
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:
- 6.1 km
- Coleman Road Reserve Boat Ramp
- 9.7 km
- Jacobs Well, direct via creeks
- 12.4 km
- Colman Family Park via Nth Branch
- 15.2 km
- Boat Harbour via The Broadwater
- 16.8 km
- Jacobs Well, via The Broadwater
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
Tides for selected locations on the lower Pimpama River for Sunday, 8th September
Please refer to the Bureau of Meteorology and Australian National Tide Tables for official tidal information.
© Commonwealth of Australia
Distances
Some key locations up until Kerkin Road Weir, are listed below.
Location * | Features † | Distance (km) § | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Leg | Total | ||||
R | Coleman Road Reserve Boat Ramp, Coomera | 2.6 | |||
Kerkin Road Weir, Pimpama River | 6.1 | 8.7 |
* 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.
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
Quick Stats
- Length
- 34.5 km
- Navigable
- 15 km
- Catchment
- 161 sq km
- Elevation Loss
- Council Areas
- First Nations
- Bundjalung
05:58am
11:35am
NNE at 17 kph, gusts to 19 kph
Strongest Gust: 24 kph N at 11:43am
Sun and Twilight Times
Civil: 05:28—17:59 / 12hr 30m
Nautical: 05:01—18:27 / 13hr 25m
Moon Info
▲ 8:20am ▼ 10:03pm