Can you live on a boat in a marina in Australia?

Sometimes, and it depends entirely on the individual marina rather than on any national rule. Australian marinas set their own liveaboard policies, and the differences are stark: some permit long-term living aboard, some allow it only by written application, some cap you at a set number of nights per year, and some prohibit it outright.

The bigger problem is that most marinas do not publish a policy at all. Of the 277 marinas in our directory, 249 have no liveaboard rule we can find in published form. That is not an oversight on their part so much as an industry habit — the rule often lives in a berthing licence you only see after you apply.

We record what we can verify on a five-point scale, from L4 (long-term living aboard permitted) down to L0 (prohibited), and mark the rest NV for not verified. Currently 9 marinas have a confirmed permission at L3 or L4.

If you are planning to live aboard, treat the marina's own written berthing licence as the only authority, and get the answer in writing before you commit to a berth. Marketing copy about a "liveaboard community" is not a policy.