The Australian Government has greenlighted the Cairns Shipping Development Project, signing off on the environmental impact statement. The project, comprising a $120 million investment from the Queensland Government, seeks to upgrade the Port of Cairns to improve access for larger ships, including cruise ships.
The project namely foresees dredging to widen and deepen the existing outer shipping channel (Trinity Inlet), widening and deepening of the existing inner harbour channel and Crystal swing basin, establishment of a new shipping swing basin (Smith’s Creek swing basin) to enable future expansion of the HMAS Cairns Navy base, placement of material from capital dredging on land
upgrade of the existing cruise shipping wharves (Trinity wharves 1 to 5), partial demolition of wharf 6 to allow for extension to wharf 5, and finally, relocation and installation of new navigational aids.
Federal Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch said the Cairns Shipping Development Project represented a key economic driver for not only Cairns and Far North Queensland, but also for Northern Australia. He said the project would support thousands of jobs and create new jobs into the future.
This is quite literally a game-changer for Cairns and Far North Queensland. The comprehensive EIS will allow for restricted dredging of one million cubic metres and will also allow for the widening and deepening the existing outer shipping channel and inner harbour channel.
However, Mr. Entsch added, the EIS allows for dredging up to four million cubic metres should it be required in the future.
It will also see the establishment of a new shipping swing basin to enable future expansion of the HMAS Cairns Navy and see upgrade to existing wharves infrastructure. This means more, and larger, cruise ships (up to 100 by 2031) will be able to come to Cairns along with larger defence and commercial vessels.
The project is expected to support 195 fulltime jobs during construction and create 1,535 ongoing support jobs.
Economic modelling suggests the project will deliver an $850 million boost to Far North Queensland tourism. The region will see the greatest benefit from passenger expenditure, port charges and associated supplies and servicing activity as the Cairns Shipping Development Project will allow for over 100 additional cruise ships to berth annually in the Port of Cairns by 2031. This will potentially result in a tripling of the number of passenger days spent in Cairns each year due to cruise ship tourism, being an increase of 225,000 passenger days each year by 2031.
…said Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick commenting on the project earlier in 2018.
Once underway, the dredging project should take no longer than 12 weeks to complete and visual impacts will be minimal.
