FAQs

A houseboat holiday is a unique experience. Choose your boat, bring your crew and then skipper your fully equipped houseboat along the waterways of the Peel Inlet and Murray River region of Western Australia. Relax, snooze, swim, canoe, stroll, read, enjoy a drink, go fishing or crabbing…there’s so much to explore and discover. We recommend you stay for a minimum of 2 nights to really relax and enjoy your holiday; there’s simply too much to see and do otherwise.

Our houseboats have all the amenities you’ll need for your trip including hot water, showers, bathrooms and kitchen with oven and stovetop as well as a fridge. Our boats can accommodate from 4 to 10 people in a range of configurations and sleeping arrangements, give us a call on (08) 9535 9898 and our friendly staff will help you choose the boat best suited to your requirements. You don’t need a Skippers Ticket as we’ll provide appropriate instruction and training before you set sail on your holiday.

A Skipper’s Ticket is not required and you don’t need to have any boating experience in order to enjoy one of our holidays.

However you must be at least 21, and have a current driver’s license (If you don’t have a current driver’s license, a Skipper’s ticket is acceptable)

All Skippers, irrespective of their marine experience, receive tuition that is specific to the boat, tailored to the Skipper’s experience and broadly covers three areas;
1) The boat.
2) The boat manual.
3) Driving instructions.

When you arrive for your holiday a member of our base team will tell (and show) you everything you need to know and will accompany you on a familiarisation trip to make sure you are completely happy with the controls.

Before you leave the dockside with your boat, a member of our team will conduct a pre-departure briefing with you. They’ll explain how the features of the boat work (like the hot water, cooking appliances etc) they’ll also show you how to handle the controls and manoeuvre the boat.

After the theory comes a short practical where you’ll take the boat for a spin and practice manoeuvres (including mooring). The full briefing takes about an hour, but our staff are more than happy to take as long as you need to feel comfortable with your new floating holiday home.

Weather and tidal conditions that the Skipper is likely to experience during their time aboard are also discussed.

There’s no limit to how many hours a day you cruise your houseboat, it’s entirely up to you.

We would however recommend that you cruise for a minimum of 3-4 hours a day to keep the boat’s batteries well charged.

Your boat must be moored up between the hours of sunset and sunrise.

You can travel as much or as little as you want.

Part of the joy of a houseboat holiday is that you plan your own travel and route to involve as much or as little cruising as you wish each day. Just bear in mind that you cannot cruise when it’s dark.

Mandurah Houseboats can arrange a skipper for you but you will need to speak to our office and the more notice you give us, especially during spring/summer, the better.

A skipper costs $100 for the first hour and then $50 per subsequent hour. Talk to us and we can arrange an itinerary for you.

All our houseboats are equipped with simple-to-use GPS systems.

The GPS gives you a track to follow that shows the safest route to get from point A to point B anywhere on our cruising grounds.

Our staff will show you how the GPS works during your tuition before you take the boat out for your holiday.

Every boat is also equipped with charts and written information about every mooring and place to visit on our cruising grounds.

A houseboat holiday is a relaxing holiday. Cruising speeds for our houseboats are around 4-5 knots (8-9 kilometres per hour).

This kind of speed is the legal limit on the Murray River and it allows you to enjoy your surroundings at a leisurely pace without causing damage to the natural habitats at the water’s edge.

4-5 knots is also the most economical speed in terms of fuel useage. Pushing your boat’s speed past 4-5 knots results in a huge increase in fuel consumption.

There must be at least two adults over the age of 18 aboard in order to hire a boat and navigate safely.

Unfortunately all our houseboats have a no pets policy.

Most people pick their boat up between 9am and 11am in the morning. When you book your holiday we will ask you what time you prefer.

Our staff may ask you to arrive slightly earlier or later, depending on the number of other departures the same day. We ask that you stick as closely to your agreed arrival time as possible.

When you arrive for your holiday a member of our base team will tell (and show) you everything you need to know and will accompany you on a familiarisation trip to make sure you are completely happy with the controls.

Before you leave the dockside with your boat, a member of our team will conduct a pre-departure briefing with you. They’ll explain how the features of the boat work (like the hot water, cooking appliances etc) they’ll also show you how to handle the controls and manoeuvre the boat.

After the theory comes a short practical where you’ll take the boat for a spin and practice manoeuvres (including mooring). The full briefing takes about an hour, but our staff are more than happy to take as long as you need to feel comfortable with your new floating holiday home.

Your boat should be returned and unoccupied by 3:00pm on the last day of your holiday.

• All kitchenware, cleaning products and tea towels.
• Cooktop and oven.
• Toilets and showers (inc. toilet paper).
• Hot water system.
• Fridge/freezer.
• 80L Esky.
• BBQ.
• Inverter (to supply 240v suitable to charge mobile phones and laptops).
• Radio/CD player.
• Swim platform with ladder.
• Shaded decks.
• Outdoor furniture settings.
• Crab nets and cooker (these are on board during the crabbing season which runs from December 1st to August 31st).
• Ctrack Safety Tracking System.
• First Aid kit.
• Crockery & cutlery.
• Life jackets.
• Fire extinguishers.

We have kayaks available for hire at a cost of $50/day.
if you let us know how many you’d like to hire we can have them ready and on your boat when you arrive for your holiday.

The closest place to our Mandurah office to buy groceries is the IGA at Greenfields which is a 4 minute drive away.

There’s a liquor store less than a minute away on foot.

Mandurah Forum is less than a 10 minute drive and there’s a Woolworths and a Coles there.

Spudshed on Pinjarra Road in Furnissdale is the closest supermarket to our Ravenswood base (a 7 minute drive).

Ravenswood Fresh Deli just over the bridge from our base has a small selection of food and you can also get ice and bait there.

Our Mandurah base is able to supply you with ice and bait.
Ice costs $5/bag or $20 for 5 bags.

There’s a small deli, Ravenswood Fresh, close to the Ravenswood Hotel on the other side of the river from our Ravenswood base where you can buy both ice and bait. Most of the servos on Pinjarra Road also sell both.

All boats are equipped with an 80 litre esky.

With the exception of Emily Louise, Quicksilver and Rio, our boats are not equipped with electric coffee machines and microwaves.

The boats do however have a coffee press so that you can enjoy fresh filter coffee.

• Mobile phones with chargers.
• Food.
• Drinking water.
• Music.
• Books.
• Sunscreen.
• Fishing gear (don’t forget you need a fishing licence – apply for one here.).
• Board games.
• Camera.
• Personal toiletries.
• Ice (we can supply ice at our Mandurah base but unfortunately not at Ravenswood).
• Sense of humour!

All linen is provided except flat sheets and towels.

if you don’t want to bring these with you we can supply them at a charge of $10 per person.

Please note that all linen is supplied on Emily Louise, Quicksilver and Rio.

There is parking at both of our locations (Mandurah and Ravenswood). Parking at Ravenswood is in a secured compound.

All houseboats must be moored by sunset and cannot move before first light.

You can moor at many public jetties and moorings (fixed or swing-type) overnight and for 4 hours during daylight hours. These will be identified during your tuition/safety briefing.

In addition, you may moor for any period of time (day or night) at our private jetties at Mandurah and Ravenswood and our private swing-moorings located at Dawesville near Port Bouvard.

Our staff will provide locations of some popular mooring locations during your instruction.

This map shows you places where you can moor your houseboat overnight.

The best thing to do is to make sure that you arrive on your holiday fully stocked up!

If you do need to shop for food however, then there’s an IGA close to our base at Dolphin Quay in Mandurah and all the major supermarkets are a short drive away in town.

There are also numerous small shops and licensed venues along the river where you can buy food, ice, bait etc.

All boats are fully fuelled prior to departure and fuel is charged based on the quantity that you use during your holiday.

Your boat carries a minimum of 1000 litres of water and 200 litres of fuel. This is plenty for an average 3 day houseboat holiday.

For holidays longer than 3 days we will arrange with you, around the halfway mark of your trip, to drop into one of our bases either at Dolphin Quay in Mandurah or at Ravenswood on the Murray River. At that time we will empty the sullage tank, refill the water tank and check your fuel tank for you.

Yes, give us a call on 9535 9898 to discuss first though.

Our boats currently do not have wi-fi.

All boats (except Emily Louise, Quicksilver and Rio) operate a 12v power system. On board you will find an ‘inverter’ (300 watt modified sine wave) that will supply enough 240v power to charge mobile phones and laptops.

Emily Louise, Quicksilver and Rio all have 240v power systems.

Read more about power on your houseboat here…

“Can I bring my coffee machine?” A quick guide to electricity on houseboats.

Most of our boats have Smart TVs on board. As well as being able to watch the digital channels of the major TV networks, if you have an account with a streaming platform such as Netflix, Stan, Binge, Prime etc you will be able to use your account to watch those.

Houseboat Pelican has a terrestrial TV (no reception in certain areas) and Sarah Jane uses Chromecast to receive TV and streaming platforms.

The water tanks on your boat are filled with scheme water and the water in them is fine for cooking, cleaning food and making tea and coffee. We don’t advise that you drink the water straight from the tap though.

Our advice is that to be on the safe side, you should bring your own bottled water for drinking.

Life jackets are supplied and safety rings are also attached to every boat. We also recommend that children wear their lifejackets while cruising.

You can bring a CPAP machine with you but we ask that you advise us beforehand so that we can make preparations for powering the machine on your boat.

All our boats are fully lockable.

You can use your mobile phone to contact us 24 hours a day. Contact details for all emergency services (Water Police and Water Rescue) are provided onboard our houseboats. All of our boats have a 240v inverter so that your mobile phone can stay charged at all times.

To fish or crab, at least one person aboard your houseboat will need a Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence.

If you have a licence, other people aboard can then fish or crab under your licence (if you have two licences aboard you will be able to double your crab bag limits).

You can apply for a licence here.

All bookings are subject to our Conditions of Hire. Download a copy here.

Yes, you can download a brochure here.

Gift vouchers are the perfect way to get your favourite people out on the water on a houseboat holiday.

Our gift vouchers start at $100 and can be used to pay for part (or all) of a houseboat holiday, the hire of our pontoon day boat or one of our Christmas Lights tours.

We can organise a printed version or we can email it direct to the person of your choice.

Give us a call on 08 9535 9898 or drop us a line at info@houseboatsmandurah.com.au and we’ll do our very best to help you get your favourite people out on the water for the holiday of a lifetime!

For more information about boat ownership and management opportunities contact Alan Hill on 043 893 1150 or email alan@houseboatsmandurah.com.au

If you have a question that’s not answered here then please do give us a call on 9535 9898 or drop us an email at info@houseboatsmandurah.com.au