Brisbane City Council's all-stops CityCat runs from Northshore Hamilton, the last terminal downstream, to the University of Queensland at St Lucia. Allow about 83 minutes for the full run; for most of the day a boat leaves each end every quarter of an hour.
Translink F1 timetable, identical in the Journey Planner and in the official GTFS feed valid 13 October to 12 December 2026; departure times do not change on 9 November, the stop list does. Read 13 October 2026 Translink – F1 Northshore Hamilton / UQ St Lucia timetable · 2026-10-13
Start with the direction rather than the route number. Terminal screens and the Translink app label each F1 by where it is heading, either upstream to UQ St Lucia or downstream to Northshore Hamilton, and every boat in both directions is the same all-stops service. Then pick the right day: Translink publishes four different F1 timetables, for Monday to Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and they differ mostly in when service starts and stops.
Next, match your trip to the rhythm. On a weekday the first boats leave both ends at 05:30; departures firm up to every 15 minutes from 06:45 at Hamilton and from 07:30 at St Lucia, and that frequency holds until 20:15. After that a boat leaves every half hour until 22:15, or 23:15 on a Friday. At weekends the service opens at 06:00 with half-hourly boats, goes quarter-hourly from 08:30 at Hamilton and from 10:00 at St Lucia, and drops back to every 30 minutes in the early evening; Saturday runs until 23:15 and Sunday until 22:15.
Finally, if Bulimba is part of your plan, check the date. Translink's timetable from Monday 9 November 2026 sends every F1 past it, with the same departure times at both termini, while the KittyCat route F21 that crosses there changes its name to Hawthorne–Teneriffe. The fare stays at 50 cents throughout.
Distance makes no difference to the price. A ride of one stop, South Bank to QUT Gardens Point, costs the same as the 83-minute haul from St Lucia to Hamilton, because Translink currently charges one flat amount for every trip on its Queensland network, ferries included. Payment methods, the tap-off rule and free travel for children are covered on our Bulimba to Teneriffe ferry page, which charges exactly the same.
| Adult or concession, any distance | $ 0.50 |
| Child 5–14 at weekends, with an orange child go card | Free |
| Child aged 4 or under | Free |
Translink flat fare, read on 13 October 2026; Translink publishes no end date Translink – 50 cent fares · 2026-10-13
Upstream from Northshore Hamilton the boat calls at Apollo Road and Bretts Wharf, then works through the inner-east river suburbs at Teneriffe, Bulimba (until 8 November 2026), Hawthorne, New Farm Park, Mowbray Park and Sydney Street before reaching the CBD side at Howard Smith Wharves and Riverside. QUT Gardens Point, South Bank and North Quay follow, and the last stretch west runs via Milton, Regatta, Guyatt Park and West End to the university. Leaving Hamilton at 09:00 on a weekday, you reach Riverside at 09:47, South Bank at 10:00 and St Lucia at 10:23.
The council's four cross-river KittyCat routes use some of the same terminals, among them Teneriffe, Sydney Street, Riverside and QUT Gardens Point, and a peak-hour express, the F11, runs between Apollo Road and Riverside on weekdays. Further up the coast, a much smaller private boat links the Sunshine Coast canals; see the Mooloolaba ferry for a Queensland river service with a very different timetable and ticket.
The downstream end of the line, on the north bank of the river at Hamilton. The next stop upstream is Apollo Road, which only every second boat serves. Two very early short trips also finish here on weekdays, having started at Hawthorne at 05:32 and 06:02.
The western terminus sits on the university's river frontage, so most of the people stepping off here are students and staff heading for the St Lucia campus. West End, on the opposite bank, is the previous call, four or five minutes away, and Guyatt Park comes just before it.
Each F1 leaves out one of these two terminals, and the two patterns alternate through the day. If either is your stop, open the trip in the Translink Journey Planner, where a dash marks a terminal the boat passes without calling.
Translink's F1 timetable from Monday 9 November 2026 does not include Bulimba, and the cross-river F21 is relabelled Hawthorne–Teneriffe from the same date. Neither Translink nor the council explains the change on the pages we read, so check service updates before planning around Oxford Street.
End to end the timetable allows 83 minutes in either direction. From St Lucia the boat reaches South Bank in about 25 minutes and Riverside in about 38; from Hamilton, Riverside is roughly 47 minutes away.
On weekdays dogs are kept off the boats during the commuter rush: they are welcome between 8.30 and 15.30, and again once it is seven o'clock in the evening. Saturdays and Sundays have no such limit. The council wants each dog leashed with a muzzle, or else carried in a closed box, and kept out of the cabin. Bikes and assistance animals ride free.
The council says the CityCat fleet has wheelchair and pram access, toilets on board and open decks, which makes a full end-to-end ride more comfortable than it sounds.
The council operates the boats, a fleet it currently puts at 24 CityCats and 5 KittyCats serving 22 terminals between St Lucia and Hamilton, and it has said it plans to retire two first-generation CityCats. Translink, the state's public transport agency, decides what passengers pay and issues the timetable, so the F1 sits in the same journey planner as Brisbane's buses and trains.
Those published times are consistent with each other. We compared the Journey Planner's departures for a Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday in October and for Tuesday 10 November with Translink's own timetable data file, and every departure from both termini matched; the only difference after 9 November is the missing Bulimba call.
At 05:30 from Monday to Friday and at 06:00 on Saturday and Sunday. The first boat from UQ St Lucia leaves at the same times. On weekdays two extra short trips start at Hawthorne at 05:32 and 06:02 and run down to Hamilton.
Boats leave Northshore Hamilton every 15 minutes until 16:15 and St Lucia until 17:45, then half-hourly until the last boats at 23:15. Sunday follows the same pattern but finishes at 22:15.
Not according to Translink's current timetable, which drops Bulimba from every F1 trip from Monday 9 November. Until Sunday 8 November it remains a stop between Teneriffe and Hawthorne. Brisbane City Council puts it down to peninsula works that keep Bulimba's pontoon shut until the middle of December.
About 25 minutes: the 09:00 from St Lucia on a weekday reaches South Bank at 09:25 after stops at West End, Guyatt Park, Regatta and North Quay. Riverside is about 38 minutes from St Lucia.
No. Each trip skips one of the two, alternating through the day, so Apollo Road and Milton each get roughly every second boat. The Translink timetable shows which is which.
22:15 from Monday to Thursday and 23:15 on Friday. On Saturday the last boat also leaves at 23:15, on Sunday at 22:15.
Not at present. Every trip costs a flat 50 cents under Translink's current fare, whatever the distance and whenever you travel, and children aged four or under always ride free.