Keeping Cairns on the Water | 50 Years of Bill’s Marine

From Used Cars to Yamaha Elite 20 Dealer, The Five Decade Journey

The Bill’s Marine story actually began with used cars, not boats. In 1975, Cairns local and second-hand car dealer Bill Woodbridge was approached by an outboard motor brand looking for a local distributor. Living in a town built around a reef and river, Bill didn’t need much convincing. He knew boating was at the heart of the community and quickly took the plunge.

From day one, Bill’s formula for success was simple: straight talking, good service, value for money, and a genuine desire to look after every customer so they would return. It didn’t take long for Cairns locals to discover that if you wanted honest advice and the right boat for local conditions, you went to Bill’s.

By the early 1980s, Bill was already a Yamaha outboard dealer, one of the first in Australia. As a Yamaha dealer, Bill’s Marine pre-dates Yamaha Motor Australia (YMA) by almost four years. When YMA took over Australian distribution in the mid-1980s, the dealership was already a well-established Yamaha specialist and a trusted name in Cairns.

As the customer base grew, Bill surrounded himself with people he knew would become the future of the business. They were passionate boaters who had grown up fishing the local waters. Spare parts specialist Paul Comino became a director in 1984, while former insurance salesman Neil Heinemann joined the sales team in 1980 and worked his way into a director’s position. In 2000, Neil’s son Scott joined the business as an apprentice marine mechanic. He worked hard to learn the ropes in the workshop before stepping into a management role. By 2017, Scott had taken over as sole director.

Today, Bill’s Marine is a second-generation Heinemann family business, owned and operated by Scott and his wife, Kiah. Scott sets the direction of the dealership, while Kiah looks after stock control and finance and helps shape a modern, data-driven operation. Yet for all the modern systems and conveniences, Bill’s Marine remains closely connected to the soul of the Cairns boating community. “This 50-year milestone is not just about our history,” explains Scott. “It is about the passion and hard work that have driven Bill’s Marine forward for five decades. Kiah and I are honoured to be carrying that tradition into the future.”

Over the past 50 years, the brand mix at Bill’s Marine has evolved with the market, starting with Stessl before moving quickly to Quintrex, a partnership that has become central to the business.

The focus is now tight and deliberate: Quintrex boats powered by Yamaha outboards. It’s a combination Scott credits as a key ingredient in the long-term success of Bill’s Marine and its reputation for reliable, FNQ-ready boats.

That same thinking drove a significant shift on the service side of the business. Bill’s Marine now runs a Yamaha-only service model. “We service what we sell” is more than a slogan at Bill’s. By concentrating solely on Yamaha outboards, the workshop can carry an extensive parts inventory, turn jobs around faster and build processes tailored specifically to Yamaha products. The result is one of the most efficient Yamaha service centres in the region, with highly trained Yamaha technicians who are experts in their field.

Another ingredient in Bill’s Marine’s success is the belief that there is no hierarchy of importance when it comes to customers. Everyone who walks through the door is treated as the most important person in the dealership that day. A walk through the yard at Bill’s Marine reflects this in its huge cross section of FNQ boating life: first-time family tinnies, serious offshore fishing rigs and hard-working commercial boats all take pride of place.

Inside the dealership, a 22-strong team covers mechanics, sales, spare parts, fit out, detailing and admin. Several staff have been with Bill’s Marine for more than 30 years. They carry not just technical expertise but decades of local knowledge, the kind that comes from helping generations of families launch, repower and upgrade their boats.

“Experience, trust, and a customer-first mindset have always set us apart,” Kiah says. “We are incredibly grateful for our team and the support of the Cairns community.”

The customer base at Bill’s Marine spans both recreational and commercial. At its peak, commercial work accounted for around one third of the business and today still sits at about 20 per cent. Clients range from crayfish and coral trout operators to barramundi fishers and tourism businesses, from croc spotting tours to glass-bottom boats and tenders.

While the heart of the business is still very much local, the way Bill’s Marine operates day-to-day has changed dramatically over five decades. Scott has led an operational overhaul, restructuring roles, tightening workflows and investing in IT to make the dealership more efficient. Driveway check-ins, modern workshop software and digital signing are steadily replacing paper, reducing friction for customers and freeing staff to spend more time doing what they are best at, getting boats on the water.

The results show up in the awards cabinet. In Scott and Kiah’s first year as sole directors, Bill’s Marine was named Quintrex Australian Dealer of the Year and one of Yamaha’s top three dealers in Australia. They have stayed at the pointy end ever since, ranking as the number two Yamaha dealer in Australia in 2024. That performance earned Bill’s Marine a place in the Yamaha Elite 20 group, the top 20 Yamaha marine dealers in Australia. It took Scott to Japan to tour Yamaha’s head office and outboard factory.

For all the awards and national recognition, Bill’s Marine has never stopped thinking local. The business has long supported organisations such as the Cairns Area Fish Stocking Group and various volunteer groups, helping to sustain the waterways and communities their customers rely on. This direction aligns with Yamaha Motor’s Environmental Plan 2050, Long Term Vision and commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. Community support is treated not as marketing, but as a core value and a way of giving back to the region that has supported them for half a century.

Looking ahead, Scott and Kiah see the future in smarter systems and deeper partnerships with Yamaha and Quintrex. They will continue to focus on the customer experience, whether that customer is a first-time boater or a seasoned commercial skipper.

“We love what we do, always have and always will, and we are excited for what is next,” Scott says. “Boating is not just a business for us; it is our way of life.”

Fifty years after Bill Woodbridge first swapped used cars for outboards, Bill’s Marine is still doing what it has done from day one, keeping Cairns’ boating community on the water while shaping the next chapter of boating in Far North Queensland.