Channel markers in Queensland: what every buoy and beacon means

Queensland uses IALA System A: colour, shape, top mark and light

Every buoy and beacon in Queensland follows one international scheme. Maritime Safety Queensland says the state's buoys, beacons, marks and lights comply with the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) Buoyage System A. Think of them as road signs for the water.

Each type of mark has its own mix of four clues: its colour, its shape, the top mark on its head, and the light it shows at night. The BoatSafe Workbook, the official guide to the marine and PWC licence qualifications, puts the job plainly. You must be able to recognise these marks and pass them safely on the correct side.

You'll meet six families on Queensland water. Lateral marks edge a channel. Cardinal marks point to safe water by compass. Isolated danger marks sit on a hazard. Safe water marks show open water. Special marks flag a feature, and emergency wreck buoys flag a new danger. Our Queensland boating rules guide has the short version for red and green. This page covers the lot.

Red and green lateral marks: the side depends on the direction of buoyage

Lateral marks show the left and right edges of a channel. In Queensland a port mark is red and shaped like a can, and a starboard mark is green and shaped like a cone, says the MSQ fact sheet. When they're lit, each flashes its own colour at night. The Workbook adds that any rhythm may be used, so read the colour of the light to tell them apart.

Where a red mark and a green mark sit opposite each other, go between them. A lone mark takes more thought, because the safe side depends on the direction of buoyage. Coming in from the sea, red stays on your left. Heading back out, it moves to your right.

When the direction isn't obvious, charts show it with a direction of buoyage symbol. The Workbook's chart example from the northern Gold Coast shows why it matters. There the Seaway to the south counts as the nearest entry from the sea, so the red port marks stay on your left while you travel north.

Cardinal marks: the name tells you where the safe water is

A cardinal mark uses the compass to show where the deepest, safest water is. Maritime Safety Queensland says it can mark the deepest water in an area, the safest side to pass a danger, or a feature in a channel such as a bend, a junction or the end of a shoal.

The rule is easy to say. A north cardinal has its safe water to the north, so go north of it. The same goes for east, south and west. The name is the direction of the safe water.

So you need to know which way is north. A compass, a chart plotter or a careful look at the chart before you leave will tell you. The Workbook's chart example shows cardinal marks doing their job: an east cardinal at the end of a shoal with the safest water on its eastern side, a north cardinal at another shoal end, and a south cardinal on a bend in the channel.

Reading a cardinal mark by day: the top cones and black bands

Every cardinal mark is banded black and yellow with two black cones on top. Which way those cones point tells you which mark you're looking at.

1. North: both cones point up. 2. South: both cones point down. 3. East: the cones point away from each other, making an egg shape. MSQ's tip is e for egg and for east. 4. West: the cones point towards each other, making a wine glass. Think w for wine glass and for west.

The bands give you a second check. The BoatSafe Workbook says the black section sits where the cones point. A north cardinal is black at the top and a south cardinal is black at the bottom. An east cardinal is black at both ends with yellow in the middle, and a west cardinal carries its black band in the middle with yellow above and below.

Using both clues helps when one is hard to make out. Once you've worked out which cardinal it is, the rule from the section above tells you where to go.

Cardinal lights at night: count the white flashes like a clock

After dark every cardinal mark shows a white flashing light, and the number of flashes tells you which one it is. Picture a clock face laid over a compass. 3 o'clock is east, 6 is south, 9 is west and 12 is north.

1. East: quick or very quick flashes in groups of 3. 2. South: groups of 6, followed by one long flash. 3. West: groups of 9. 4. North: quick or very quick flashes that keep going without a break.

That long flash after the south mark's six isn't decoration. The Workbook says it's there so nobody confuses east, south and west.

Lateral lights work another way. They're red or green, and their rhythm can be anything. White flashing lights belong to the cardinal, isolated danger and safe water marks, and the pattern of flashes tells you which of those you're looking at. Counting flashes at night takes practice, so it's worth testing yourself against a chart before your first evening run.

Isolated danger marks: water all round, but don't pass close

An isolated danger mark sits on a single hazard that has navigable water all around it. The Workbook gives rocks, a reef, a shoal or a wreck as examples. You can pass it on any side. Just don't pass close, and check the chart to see how far the danger spreads, as the Workbook advises.

By day it's black with one or more red horizontal bands, and its top mark is two spheres. At night it shows a white light flashing in groups of two.

The MSQ fact sheet and the Workbook share the memory aid: two flashes, two spheres. Pair those in your head and you'll pick the mark by night or by day.

The thing to watch is the gap between "you can go round it" and "you can go near it". The mark tells you the hazard is there. It doesn't tell you how big the hazard is. That's what the chart is for, so look before you plan a course anywhere close to one of these.

Safe water marks: red and white stripes mean open water all round

A safe water mark tells you there's navigable water all the way around it. MSQ lists fairway, mid-channel and landfall marks as examples. In Queensland, says the Workbook, they mark the seaward start of fairways into major ports.

You'll know one by its red and white vertical stripes and a single red sphere on top. At night it shows one white light with one long flash every 10 seconds. MSQ's memory aid: one light, one long flash, one sphere.

Stripe direction is the giveaway. On a safe water mark the red and white stripes run up and down. On an isolated danger mark the red bands run across a black body. Mix those two up and you could steer straight at a hazard thinking it's open water, so check the colours and the top mark every time.

The lights split them apart too. An isolated danger flashes in pairs. A safe water mark gives a single long flash, then a long wait before the next one.

Special marks are yellow: check the chart for the side to pass

Yellow means a special mark. It flags a special area or feature. MSQ's examples include a channel that divides and cables or pipelines. The Workbook adds traffic separation, spoil grounds, outfall pipes and groynes. It says special marks also turn up where two channels meet, in spots where a lateral or cardinal mark wouldn't suit.

A special mark can also show a channel within a channel. Picture a deeper route for big ships inside a wide river or bay, where the normal channel limits are already marked in red and green.

The mark may carry a yellow X on top, and it shows a yellow light at night. The Workbook says its light rhythm will differ from the white lights of cardinal, isolated danger and safe water marks. The shape varies. A special mark can be a can, cone or sphere so it can act as a lateral or safe water mark.

Which side do you pass? There's no single answer, so check the chart. Both MSQ and the Workbook say the same.

Wreck buoys, leads and bridge lights: the other aids you'll see

Emergency wreck marking buoys flag new dangers or wrecks. They have blue and yellow vertical stripes, a pillar or spar shape and a yellow cross on top. At night the light alternates 1 second of blue and 1 second of yellow, with half a second of darkness in between.

Leads help you hold the middle of a channel. They're usually triangles. The front one has its point up and the rear one has its point down. Line them up and you're travelling in the middle of the channel. Where leads mark the middle of a larger shipping channel, MSQ says small boats should keep to the starboard side, clear of big ships, especially at night. Major leads are usually lit blue after dark.

Fixed blue lights on a bridge mark the middle of the channel for boats passing underneath.

Three red lights flashing one above the other are MSQ port traffic signal lights. They tell you large commercial ships are moving, and you must not enter or leave the port or harbour area while they flash. MSQ says the same lights can also warn of a serious emergency or divert small craft, so follow any instructions given.

Learning the marks on a Sunshine Coast BoatSafe course

The BoatSafe Workbook sets out the marks in its IALA buoyage system section, and its PWC chapter says all PWC users must know and abide by the IALA buoyage system too. So they matter whichever licence you're after. Our Boat Licence course is from $329, a one-day course with all equipment provided and online theory included. If you'd rather ride, there's the Jet Ski Licence, or the Boat & Jet Ski Combo if you want both. If you're still working out the steps, see how to get a boat licence in Queensland.

Courses run from Golden Beach in Caloundra on the Pumicestone Passage, Maroochydore on the Maroochy River and Noosaville on the Noosa River. Once you're boating on your own, study the chart for your stretch of water before you go. The Workbook says a GPS runs on a battery, so always carry a chart and compass as backup. Maritime Safety Queensland's Beacon to Beacon Directory is a good place to start. Pick a date on the course dates page.

Training delivered by Australian Boating College, RTO #3399.