Landsborough is the only suburb in its group whose nearest recorded boat ramp is on fresh water. That is Lake Baroon, where Seqwater prohibits fuel powered boats and permits electric powered, sail and paddle craft only, operated from the designated ramp. The large storage nearest the township, Ewen Maddock Dam, goes further: Seqwater records non-powered yes, electric no, fuel no, permitting only non-motorised craft from the designated recreation area at Maddock Park, with no boat ramp recorded there in either the council layer or the MSQ database.
If you are thinking about buying a boat around Landsborough, one fact is worth having early. No public boat ramp or water access point is recorded in the locality, and the nearest recorded ramp is on fresh water at Lake Baroon, where Seqwater permits electric powered, sail and paddle craft only and prohibits fuel powered boats. Which means an outboard boat is a trailer boat here, and the licence is exactly what unlocks it.
Landsborough is the only suburb in its group whose nearest recorded boat ramp is fresh water rather than tidal. Lake Baroon has a designated ramp, and Seqwater's rule for it is specific: electric powered watercraft, sail craft and paddle craft only, no fuel powered boats. So the ramp is real, and it is genuinely useful, but not for a petrol outboard.
The large storage nearest the township is Ewen Maddock Dam, and it is stricter again. Seqwater records it non-powered yes, electric no, fuel no, and states that only non-motorised craft are permitted, launched from the designated recreation area at Maddock Park. No boat ramp is recorded at Ewen Maddock in either the council register or the MSQ database. That is worth knowing before you buy a boat, not after you have one in the driveway.
None of that puts inland water outside the rules. Seqwater states plainly that the laws on all inland waterways are the same and are set by Maritime Safety Queensland, and that craft requiring registration must be operated by an appropriately licensed person. The Queensland threshold of more than 4.5 kilowatts therefore applies on inland water exactly as it does on the coast. Seqwater's storages differ sharply among themselves as well: Lake Baroon permits non-powered and electric craft, Ewen Maddock non-powered only, Wappa Dam and Cooloolabin Dam none at all.
Which is why, for a trailer boat with a motor on the back, the water you are heading for is tidal. Roys Road at Coochin Creek is the ramp on the Pumicestone Passage in this part of the hinterland, recorded by Maritime Safety Queensland with a slope of 8 and Low Tide Restricted No, state owned and council managed. That Passage is a long shallow tidal waterway, roughly 80% of it less than two metres deep, and it is where our Caloundra course trains.
So the licence does something concrete for a Landsborough address. It is the thing that turns a boat sitting on a trailer at the foot of the Glass House Mountains into a boat that can go somewhere. The theory goes online first and must be within three months of your practical day; then you spend the day on the Passage learning to handle the boat on the water you will actually use it on.
The course itself is the same wherever you sit it: the theory online first, in your own time, then a day on the water with a trainer before the assessment. You need a licence for any boat with an engine over 4.5 kilowatts, which is nearly every tinny, runabout and cruiser. Pass, and the Queensland licence never expires. Pick the date that suits you and book online.