Newport is better known for waterfront homes and canals than wildlife tourism. But tucked inside its marina is a business that has been taking people into Moreton Bay in search of dolphins and other marine life for years.
Dolphin Wild Island Cruises operates from Newport Marina, where its 22-metre catamaran Supercat heads across the bay towards Mulgumpin (Moreton Island) and the Tangalooma Wrecks.
David Boon and Hayley Creamer have owned the operation since 2023. Dolphin Wild says the business itself has been operating for more than 30 years, although the exact year it established its Newport base is difficult to pin down from publicly available records.
It is an unusual operation to find in the middle of a suburban canal development. Within about an hour of leaving Newport, Supercat can be in waters used by some of Moreton Bay’s best-known marine residents.
Read: Newport Marina Plan Adds 17 Homes, Dining Hubs Beside Working Berths
Dolphins Aren’t the Only Regulars
Two dolphin species live in Moreton Bay year-round: Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins and Australian humpback dolphins.
Dolphin Research Australia has previously estimated there are about 554 bottlenose dolphins in the bay. Australian humpback dolphins are far less numerous, with an estimated population of about 128, although that figure dates from 2016.
Dolphin Wild also lists dugongs and turtles among the wildlife encountered on its trips. What turns up on any particular day is another matter. These are wild animals moving through a large bay, and sightings are never certain.
For crews covering the same waters over and over again, that uncertainty is part of the job. It also raises some interesting questions about what becomes familiar over time — whether individual dolphins are recognised, whether animals keep turning up in the same places and whether those patterns change from one year to the next.
Read: Major Dredging Project Targets Newport Waterways
Years on the Same Waters
This year, researchers added another piece to the picture.
New research into Moreton Bay’s Australian humpback dolphins identified 12 threats linked to human activity. Pathogens, pollution, habitat degradation and climate change ranked highest for their potential consequences, while vessel traffic and illegal feeding were considered particularly likely threats.
Researchers also found more than 70 per cent of areas with high exposure to threats were in sections of the marine park carrying its lowest level of protection. Their findings drew partly on 1,717 hours of vessel observations collected between 2014 and 2022.
That doesn’t turn the observations of a cruise crew into scientific evidence. But people who spend much of their working lives on Moreton Bay can notice things occasional visitors would miss.
It is one reason Dolphin Wild’s history in Newport is worth documenting more closely: when did it begin operating from the marina, what have its crews seen over those years, and has anything noticeably changed?
The marina’s history reaches back to the original Newport Estate and Marina masterplan drawn up in 1977. Today, it remains a working marina surrounded by a suburb that has grown substantially around it.
Among the boats based there is one regularly heading into Moreton Bay looking for wildlife.
For a suburb built around the water, it is a connection that has largely gone unnoticed.
Published 1-September-2026
