Most vehicle ferries in New South Wales are free and never close. The Hibbard ferry in Port Macquarie is neither: Port Macquarie-Hastings Council charges $9 a car, and in school terms the boat pauses for four hours around lunch on every weekday.
Operating hours as published by Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, read on 13 October 2026 and unchanged from the council's page of November 2025 Port Macquarie-Hastings Council – Ferries · 2026-10-13
Set the Hibbard ferry beside almost any other vehicle crossing in New South Wales and two differences jump out. The first is cost. Transport for NSW runs most of the state's river punts free, but this one belongs to Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, which owns and maintains both of its Hastings River ferries and sets a fare for each trip: $9 for a car, $3 for a motorcycle and $33 for a semi-trailer in the 2026/27 financial year.
The second is hours. Where the big state ferries work around the clock, Hibbard keeps something closer to commuter hours. School-term weekdays have two spells, 6am until 9.50am and 2pm until 6.50pm, leaving a four-hour hole around lunchtime; weekend and public-holiday service is 8am to 6.50pm; and during NSW school holidays the weekday service fills in to an unbroken 6am to 6.50pm.
What you get in return is a short, sheltered crossing of the Hastings River, about 440 metres from the foot of Boundary Street in Port Macquarie to where Riverside Drive meets the water on the North Shore, on a ferry that takes 15 cars and is crewed for the council by its contractor, Ferrymen.
Fares are set in the council's annual fees schedule and are the same on both of its ferries. They rose on 1 July 2026: a car single went from $8 to $9 and a semi-trailer from $26 to $33. You pay on board with cash or a card; walkers and cyclists ride free.
Locals do much better. Ratepayers and residents of the council area can buy a $66 windscreen sticker good until 30 June, which unlocks books of 25 tickets for $26 and cheap weekly and monthly passes; the resident annual pass for a car is bought at the council office in Burrawan Street.
| Car | $ 9 |
| Motorcycle | $ 3 |
| Caravan or trailer, on top of the car fare | $ 9 |
| Truck over 4 t GVM | $ 18 |
| Semi-trailer or articulated truck | $ 33 |
| Pedestrian or cyclist | Free |
| Weekly pass, Monday to Sunday | $ 49 |
| Monthly pass, calendar month | $ 122 |
| Resident concession sticker, per financial year | $ 66 |
| Book of 25 tickets (car 1 ticket, motorcycle ½, truck 3, semi 4) | $ 26 |
| Resident weekly pass, car | $ 16 |
| Resident monthly pass, car | $ 38 |
| Resident annual pass, car (sticker included) | $ 415 |
Council fees for the 2026/27 financial year (1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027), read on 13 October 2026 on the ferry page and in the adopted Fees and Charges schedule Port Macquarie-Hastings Council – Ferries, standard fares and resident passes · 2026-10-13
Hibbard is the western of Port Macquarie's two vehicle crossings to the North Shore, the strip of land between the Hastings River and the sea. The council's other crossing, at Settlement Point, runs around the clock with room for 21 cars, and it is the one closed for IRONMAN from 8am on Sunday 18 October 2026 until 1am the next day. Elsewhere on this site, New South Wales's free river punts follow a different model altogether: the Clarence River's Lawrence ferry or the Hawkesbury's Lower Portland punt are run by Transport for NSW and cost nothing.
On the town side, follow Boundary Street to its end on the Hastings River. The council's ferry page names this boarding point simply as the end of Boundary Street.
The northern ramp is at the bottom of Riverside Drive. From there the North Shore road network leads on towards Maria River Road; residents along it south of Connections Creek, though in Kempsey Shire, qualify for the council's concession fares.
From 9.50am to 2pm on school-term weekdays the ferry does not run. In NSW school holidays the same weekdays run straight through from 6am.
Saturday, Sunday and public-holiday service begins at 8am, two hours after the weekday start, and finishes at 6.50pm like every other day.
The deck holds 15 cars. The council suggests budgeting about 15 minutes' wait, with five to ten minutes spent crossing.
The council runs a free SMS service for Hibbard and Settlement Point outages. Sign up on its ferries page; there is no subscription fee.
With the $66 resident sticker a car trip from a 25-ticket book works out at just over a dollar, against $9 for a visitor.
Compared with a bridge, a council ferry is a running cost that never goes away, and the fee schedule shows how Port Macquarie-Hastings spreads it. Visitors pay the full single fare, regular users can buy weekly or monthly passes, and anyone living or paying rates in the council area can buy a resident sticker that makes each trip a fraction of the visitor price. The concession reaches beyond the council boundary too: Kempsey Shire residents living on Maria River Road south of Connections Creek, who depend on the same North Shore roads, are eligible. Charitable organisations working on the North Shore can apply for an annual pass.
Safety work has also come to the ramps. After a statewide SafeWork NSW audit of ferry services, the council announced new pavement markings, extensive signage, pedestrian fencing and boom gates at all four of its ferry approaches, with the boom gates scheduled for late August or early September 2025. The council's notice stressed that the audit had found it operating within best-practice guidelines.
On weekdays in NSW school terms it stops at 9.50am and restarts at 2pm, then runs until 6.50pm. There is no midday gap at weekends, on public holidays or on weekdays in the school holidays.
$9 one way in the 2026/27 financial year, payable to the crew in cash or electronically. A trailer or caravan adds another $9; pedestrians and cyclists cross free.
Yes: 8am until 6.50pm every Saturday and Sunday, and on public holidays, all year round. Christmas Day is the exception.
Yes: the fourth Thursday, when the boat is off the river between 10am and 2pm.
Yes. Once you hold the $66 resident sticker (renewed each July), you can buy books of 25 tickets for $26 (one ticket per car trip), weekly passes for $16 and monthly passes for $38; a resident annual pass for a car is $415 including the sticker.
It will if you sign up for its free text-message alerts, which cover outages on both of its ferries; otherwise ring the council on 6581 8111.
About 440 metres of river. The council says its ferries take five to ten minutes to cross, and suggests allowing around 15 minutes' wait.