Queensland co-funds low-emission catamaran for Great Barrier Reef tourism

Queensland’s $4 million backing for Reef Magic IV puts the catamaran to work where multihulls prove their value most clearly: moving people efficiently to a sensitive reef site without sacrificing stability, comfort or access. The 32-metre high-speed vessel will expand access to the Reef Magic Pontoon at Moore Reef, about 45 kilometres offshore from Cairns, and it arrives with low-emission technology and bio-fuel capability built into the brief.

The investment sits inside the state’s $80 million Tourism Icons Investment Fund and is aimed at strengthening one of the Great Barrier Reef’s best-known visitor experiences. Queensland says the new floating platform is designed to carry up to 700 passengers a day in two departures, with a maximum of 350 passengers on the pontoon at any one time. For Reef Magic, that means more throughput at a site where passenger flow, shallow-draft operations and a steady ride matter just as much as speed.

The project also reflects a broader shift in commercial multihull buying. Experience Co has long marketed Reef Magic around fast, stable catamarans, and its Reef Magic Pontoon is powered by renewable energy. Reef Magic IV extends that formula into cleaner operation, with fuel efficiency and lower emissions now part of the selling point rather than an afterthought. In a market where operators are under pressure to show growth without a bigger environmental footprint, the catamaran hull form keeps winning on practical grounds.

Queensland’s tourism statement described the project as a way to bring more visitors to one of the world’s greatest natural wonders, while also supporting the delivery of a new high-speed catamaran to expand access to the Reef Magic Pontoon. The government said the grant would help build the first new pontoon product out of Cairns on the Great Barrier Reef in over ten years. That builds on the earlier Reef Magic pontoon, which Queensland described in 2022 as a $6.6 million project with a $3 million state contribution and a contribution of up to $50 million to Tropical North Queensland’s tourism-led recovery.

Experience Co chief executive John O’Sullivan has now tied the new vessel to that same expansion path, with more daily visitor capacity and a stronger sustainability pitch. For catamaran watchers, Reef Magic IV is a useful reminder that the twin-hull formula is not just a private-yacht story. In places like Moore Reef, it remains one of the most credible ways to move more people, more cleanly, in waters where the boat itself is part of the destination.