A ferry service used to be in place at Yarrabah, back in the days when there were no sealed roads to reach Cairns. Locals used to call this ferry a 'flatty'. It used to carry school children back and forth from Yarrabah to the city of Cairns. A project to build a new wharf at Yarrabah is in place, after the Queensland Government allocated 7 million dollars to this purpose. It is expected when this new wharf becomes operational, regular and reliable water transport will be resumed for Yarrabah, which lies only 11 kilometres by sea from the Cairns waterfront.