The F4 is the only Sydney Ferries line that ends at Pyrmont Bay, on the western shore of Darling Harbour. It takes the long way from Circular Quay, across to Milsons Point and McMahons Point, over to Balmain East and back through Barangaroo, and the whole trip takes 26 to 28 minutes.
Transport for NSW F4 timetable valid from 14 June 2026 (PDF created 11 October 2026), checked against the Transport for NSW departures data for Wednesday 14 and Saturday 17 October 2026. Read 13 October 2026 Transport for NSW – F4 Pyrmont Bay timetable (PDF) · 2026-10-13
Compared with walking, the F4 is not a shortcut. Pyrmont Bay lies across the city from Circular Quay, and the Transport for NSW trip planner puts the walk at about 2.3 kilometres and 34 minutes; the ferry takes 28 minutes from the Quay because it first swings across to the north shore and Balmain East. What the boat offers instead is a seat on the water, step-free wharves at both ends, and direct links that the streets cannot match, such as Balmain East or McMahons Point to Darling Harbour.
Compared with the weekday service, the weekend one is the better of the two. From Monday to Friday a boat leaves the Quay every 20 minutes until about nine, then every half hour, with a short burst of extra sailings in the evening peak. The Saturday, Sunday and holiday timetable starts later, at 08:12 from the Quay, but between late morning and about six o'clock the F4 runs every 15 minutes in both directions.
Compared with other Sydney Ferries lines, the fare holds no surprises. The F4 sits entirely inside the shortest Opal ferry band, so an adult pays $7.35 for any trip on it and a child $3.67, with the usual daily and weekly caps.
Every pair of stops on the F4 sits in the cheapest of the two Sydney Ferries distance bands, under nine kilometres, so the price is the same whether you ride one stop from Barangaroo or the full loop from the Quay. Pay with an Opal card or a contactless bank card, tapping on and off; how the caps and transfers work is explained on our Circular Quay to Taronga Zoo ferry page, and nothing about it is different here.
| Adult | $ 7.35 |
| Child/Youth, 4–15 | $ 3.67 |
| Per day, Monday to Thursday | $ 19.30 |
| Per day, Friday to Sunday and public holidays | $ 9.65 |
| Per week | $ 50 |
Transport for NSW Opal fares, read on 13 October 2026; the authority publishes no start or end date with the table Transport for NSW – Adult Opal fares · 2026-10-13
Leaving the Quay, the F4 heads across to the North Sydney shore beside the Harbour Bridge, calling at Milsons Point and McMahons Point, crosses to Balmain East at the eastern tip of the Balmain peninsula, then turns south-east into Darling Harbour, calling at Barangaroo before it ties up at Pyrmont Bay. Balmain East is also one of the wharves on Captain Cook Cruises' private Lane Cove River ferry, which runs on its own fares rather than Opal; the F4 is the Opal option for that wharf.
Measured directly, Pyrmont Bay is under one and a half kilometres from Circular Quay. That is why the boat makes most sense for the intermediate legs, from Balmain East or the north shore into Darling Harbour, rather than for the Quay-to-Pyrmont trip as a whole.
Transport for NSW lists both sides of Wharf 5 as the F4's departure point at the Quay. Inbound boats are not tied to it: on the trip planner, arrivals from Pyrmont Bay are shown at Wharves 2, 4 and 5, and the authority's standard warning that a Quay berth can change at short notice applies here too.
A single-berth wharf on the Pyrmont side of Darling Harbour, flagged as wheelchair accessible on the route page, and the end of the line: no other Sydney Ferries route calls here. Barangaroo's Wharf 2 is the stop before it, six minutes away across the mouth of the harbour.
For the 10:00 start on a Wednesday, the Transport for NSW trip planner offered a 2.3 km walk from Circular Quay to Pyrmont Bay Wharf taking about 34 minutes, against 28 minutes on the boat plus any wait. Outside the 15-minute weekend window, walking often wins.
On weekdays the 22:42 from the Quay is followed by the 23:42, and from Pyrmont Bay the boats after 21:11 run hourly at 22:11 and 23:11. Weekends end the same way.
Departures are scheduled from Wharf 5, but Transport for NSW can move a sailing to another Quay berth without much warning. Look at the departure screens before walking to the end of the pontoon.
Transport for NSW marks all six F4 stops as wheelchair accessible. Its timetable adds that ramp gradients increase at low tide, when some passengers may need help.
The current F4 timetable PDF ends with a map of bus routes 423, L23 and 426 instead of the ferry network. The times on pages two and three are correct; we checked them against the authority's departures data.
Transport for NSW's route page now lists six stops for the F4: Circular Quay, Milsons Point, McMahons Point, Balmain East, Barangaroo and Pyrmont Bay. The timetable in force has been valid since 14 June 2026, and the version we downloaded was generated on 11 October. Because the Sydney network's line numbers and stopping patterns have been reshuffled more than once, we checked the PDF against the authority's live departures data for a weekday and a Saturday in October; every departure from both ends agreed.
The boats are run by Sydney Ferries, so this is a regular Opal service like the F2 to Taronga Zoo, not a private harbour operator. Transport for NSW's list of lines serving Pyrmont Bay Wharf contains the F4 and nothing else.
The Sydney Ferries F4, which leaves from Wharf 5 at the Quay and calls at Milsons Point, McMahons Point, Balmain East and Barangaroo on the way. No other line serves Pyrmont Bay Wharf.
Not by much, if at all. The boat takes 28 minutes from the Quay, while the Transport for NSW trip planner estimates the walk at about 34 minutes for 2.3 km. The F4 is quicker from Balmain East or the north shore wharves.
Four an hour through the middle part of the day: the Quay has 15-minute departures from 11:12 to 17:42 and Pyrmont Bay from 10:41 to 18:11, with half-hourly boats before and after. Sunday, Saturday and public holidays share one timetable.
Adults pay $7.35 and children or youths $3.67, since every F4 journey falls inside the 0 to 9 km ferry band. An adult never pays more than $19.30 in a day from Monday to Thursday, or $9.65 a day from Friday.
23:11, every day of the week; it reaches the Quay at 23:37. Before it, the evening boats leave Pyrmont Bay at 21:11 and 22:11.
Six minutes towards Pyrmont Bay and five minutes back. The 06:34 from Barangaroo, for example, reaches Pyrmont Bay at 06:40.
Wharf 5, on either side of the pontoon, for departures to Pyrmont Bay. Boats coming back can tie up at Wharf 2, 4 or 5, and the authority may change berths at short notice, so follow the screens.