About Trade-A-Boat

Trade-A-Boat

Overview

Trade-A-Boat is one of Australia's longest-running boating titles, launched as a print magazine in 1977 and operating today as a digital boat marketplace with an editorial news and reviews arm at tradeaboat.com.au. The classified marketplace is now the centre of the brand: the site's homepage is a search engine for new and used boats for sale across Australia, organised by category, make, location, price and condition, with featured listings and facilities for private sellers and dealers. The magazine that carried the brand for more than four decades no longer appears in print — its final printed edition was issue 554 — but the title itself is live and trading, published by Adventures Group Holdings (AGH), part of the Emprise Group.

One point of record should be stated openly. This directory lists Trade-A-Boat against the Gold Coast, but the sources consulted document a Melbourne origin for the magazine and give no Gold Coast base for the brand; readers should treat the city listing as unverified against the publisher's own material.

History

Trade-A-Boat was founded in July 1977 by Max Morton and Alex Morrison, who pooled $8,200 to start it. A 25th-anniversary history published by boatsales recounts that the first issues were put together at the Mortons' home in Gruyere, on Melbourne's fringe, built on a simple concept the founders described as a marvellous way to sell a boat — with a photo. The classified-with-photographs formula turned the magazine into the standard place to buy and sell boats in Australia, and the digital edition service Zinio likewise bills the title as established in 1977. The magazine later sat within ACP's Trader International Group and Pacific Marine Media stable, alongside sister titles Trailer Boat and BlueWater, and passed with that stable to Bauer, where it was published by Bauer Trader Media: the group's 2015–16 media kit shows a monthly magazine, with issues 466 to 470 dated through mid-2015.

In 2016 Bauer sold its Trader titles to Adventures Group Holdings. Trade reporting by AdNews and Mediaweek records that the deal was finalised at the end of November 2016 and that AGH took control from 1 December, with Rob Gallagher — himself a former Bauer employee — becoming chief executive of AGH. Under AGH the magazine continued in print alongside its website. Trailerboat magazine had been merged into Trade a Boat in 2014, a step recorded in AGH's own later announcements. AGH has also described the brand, in its own words, as in constant circulation since 1972; that claim sits oddly with the documented July 1977 founding reported by boatsales and Zinio, and the 1977 date is the one supported by the anniversary history.

The print era ended with issue 554. In that final edition, editor-at-large Tim Simpson's editorial, "End of an Era", told readers it was the last printed issue of the magazine and that the brand would continue online — a change he framed around how boat buyers' habits had moved to digital marketplaces. The exact cover date of issue 554 is not stated in the sources consulted here and is not asserted; the magazine had been monthly in the Bauer period, and Simpson had joined the title in September 2021, so the final issue falls after that appointment.

Content and Coverage

In its print years Trade-A-Boat mixed its classified listings with substantial editorial: boat tests and reviews with detailed specification panels — issue 534, for example, tested craft from the Whitehaven Harbour Classic 40 to the Fleming 65 — fishing-oriented features, boat show coverage including show guides for events such as the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show, and long-form pieces such as the "400 NOT OUT" feature marking the 400th issue under editor David Lockwood, who described building a contributor team of boat owners who wrote from their own experience on the water. Fishing was central to the editorial identity: Tim van Duyl, editor and AGH content director before Simpson's appointment, observed that the vast majority of boat owners primarily use their vessels for fishing, and the magazine pitched its reviews accordingly.

That editorial content now lives in the site's News & Reviews section, which carries the magazine's tests, reviews and features online, while the classified marketplace — the function the magazine was founded to perform in 1977 — operates as searchable digital listings rather than printed pages. The brand also ran reader-facing programmes in its print years, including its "Australia's Greatest Boats" judging, and its editors were public figures within the sportfishing and boating community: Simpson, for instance, came to the editor-at-large role after decades in the fishing industry as an enthusiast, retailer, journalist, educator and government adviser, and as the man behind the BlueWater brand, as AGH content director Tim van Duyl noted when the appointment was announced.

Audience and Reach

Trade-A-Boat addresses Australian boat buyers, sellers and owners, from trailer-boat fishers to buyers of large cruisers, together with the dealers and brokers who list through it. Its publisher's historical marketing claims should be read as such: Bauer Trader Media's 2015–16 media kit claimed a monthly audience of 160,000 for the brand, a figure from the publisher itself and from the print era. No current audited audience or listing volume figure was found in the sources consulted, and none is claimed here; the brand's present reach is best evidenced by the live marketplace itself, which carried current featured listings across its powerboat, sailboat, trailer boat and other categories when reviewed in October 2026.

Digital Presence

The website, tradeaboat.com.au, is today the whole of the publication. Its homepage presents the marketplace first — "New & Used Boats For Sale in Australia" — with search by category (including marine accessories, marine engines, motorsailers, powerboats, power trailer boats, sailboats and trailer boats), subcategory, make, location, keyword, price range and condition, plus prompts for owners selling their boat. Featured listings are promoted on the homepage, and the marketplace serves both private sellers and the dealer trade, which lists stock through the site. Alongside the listings, the News & Reviews section preserves and extends the magazine's editorial output of boat tests, reviews, features and boat show coverage. The brand's print distribution has ended, so the site, rather than newsagents or subscriptions, is where Trade-A-Boat is now read and used.

Ownership and Organisation

Trade-A-Boat is published by Adventures Group Holdings, which acquired the title from Bauer Media as part of the Trader portfolio at the end of November 2016 and has operated it since 1 December that year. AGH sits within the Emprise Group: AGH's September 2021 announcement of Tim Simpson's appointment as editor at large described the changes as part of broader structural changes carried out by the Emprise Group, and made Simpson responsible for the content direction of AGH's marine assets, namely the Trade a Boat magazine and its digital assets, succeeding Tim van Duyl, who remained involved in reviews and major projects as the group's former editor and content director. Earlier, the magazine was published within ACP's and then Bauer's Trader groups, and before that grew from its founders' independent start in 1977.

Contact and Availability

Trade-A-Boat operates online at tradeaboat.com.au, where boats can be searched and listed and the News & Reviews archive read. The boot Düsseldorf international media list gives the brand's contact email as hello@tradeaboat.com.au. The print magazine is no longer published — its final edition was issue 554 — so the website is the current point of contact for both readers and advertisers.