Darwin Harbour · live
Darwin Harbour tides, right now
Today
Today's tide
Next seven days
The week ahead
Move across the curve to read any moment. Shaded bands are night.
Tide table
High and low water, seven days
Times are Darwin time (ACST, UTC+9:30). Heights in metres above the lowest astronomical tide.
| Day | High and low water | Sunrise · sunset | Moon |
|---|
The month's rhythm
Springs and neaps
Each bar is one day's range between its highest and lowest water. The biggest tides come a day or two after a full or new moon.
Why eight metres
A harbour that breathes
Twice a day the harbour fills and drains. The Moon does most of the pulling and the Sun adds to it: when they line up, at full and new moon, the tides are biggest (springs); at the half moons they work against each other and the range shrinks (neaps).
The shallow seas off northern Australia and the long, branching shape of the harbour pile the water higher still. On the biggest tides the water climbs close to eight metres in about six hours.
Not for navigation and not for swimming. Saltwater crocodiles live in the harbour all year and box jellyfish are most common from about October to May. These predictions usually fall within about 20 minutes and 30 cm of official tables; for boating use the Bureau of Meteorology tide tables.