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waypoints / 🇦🇺 AU / Adelaide – Cairns Timings are not live · Documented
Route · AU

Adelaide to Cairns

1 operator run this water, from 3 h 10.

Every way across

One row per operator and speed. Where a service is sold as fast and its average does not clear 45 km/h, the word appears in quotation marks — the boat is fast craft, the crossing is not.

Jetstar Airways ADL → CNS 2132 km non-stop 320 in the air 4 h 40 est. rate not held 674 km/h average

Other ways to reach Cairns

If this crossing does not suit, these quays also reach Cairns without a change. It is the question a single-route page cannot answer about itself and an atlas can.

Townsville – Cairns 51 min Qantas
Coen – Cairns 1 h 04 Aero Condor Peru
Kowanyama – Cairns 1 h 04 Aero Condor Peru
Pormpuraaw – Cairns 1 h 07 Aero Condor Peru
Normanton – Cairns 1 h 08 Aero Condor Peru
Lockhart River – Cairns 1 h 09 Aero Condor Peru
Aurukun – Cairns 1 h 14 Aero Condor Peru
Weipa – Cairns 1 h 17 Aero Condor Peru
Bamaga – Cairns 1 h 26 Aero Condor Peru
Mount Isa – Cairns 1 h 29 Aero Condor Peru

And other ways to reach Adelaide

Kingscote – Adelaide 39 min Regional Express
Whyalla – Adelaide 47 min Regional Express
Port Lincoln – Adelaide 48 min Qantas
Mount Gambier – Adelaide 58 min Regional Express
Broken Hill – Adelaide 1 h 02 Regional Express
Olympic Dam – Adelaide 1 h 09 Qantas
Ceduna – Adelaide 1 h 11 Regional Express
Melbourne – Adelaide 1 h 18 American Airlines, Carnival Cruise Line
Coober Pedy – Adelaide 1 h 26 Regional Express
Canberra – Adelaide 1 h 43 Qantas

Where else these quays go

Also from Adelaide

Alice Springs · Auckland · Brisbane · Broken Hill · Canberra · Ceduna · Coober Pedy · Darwin · Dubai · Gold Coast · Hong Kong · Kingscote · Kuta, Badung · Melbourne

Also from Cairns

Alice Springs · Auckland · Aurukun · Bamaga · Benoa · Brisbane · Coen · Darwin · Dunedin · Fitzroy Island · Gold Coast · Green Island · Horn · Kowanyama

Which months this runs

Season not heldwe can say when we looked, not which months run

Our records for the Adelaide–Cairns crossing were read on 11 August 2026 and describe the network as it ran that week. We hold no month-by-month variation, so this page cannot tell you whether a crossing runs in February.

If you are travelling well outside August 2026, confirm with the operator before you plan around it.

What we do not know

No fares. Not for this crossing, not for any crossing, not for any mode.

No departure times. No rate is held for this pair either, so we cannot say how often it runs.