By Luke Voogt
Former Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons has re-floated a Yarra Street pier as the city’s best convention centre option while politicians squabble over its location.
“We need it on the waterfront,” he said.
“It’s got to be iconic – like the Sydney Opera House.”
The centre would double as a “desperately-need” pier for docking visiting ships, Mr Lyons said after the biggest cruise liner ever scheduled for Geelong docked at Portarlington instead last month.
“The cruise ship industry is the fastest growing tourism economy in the world today. We want more of them and we want more of them (staying) overnight.”
The Norwegian Jewel, which can accommodate up to 2376 passengers, docked in Portarlington on 23 January due to their being no safe berth in Corio Bay.
The State and Federal governments could build the centre and pier, and redevelop the Royal Geelong Yacht Club in the same project, Mr Lyons said.
“I have said from day one you would kill all three birds with one stone.”
Mr Lyons first pitched the concept of a convention centre on Corio Bay to then-Prime Minister Tony Abbot in 2014.
Coalition MPs last week proposed western beach as alternative location to the State Government’s preferred site at a Deakin University car park.
Mr Lyons was “not against” a convention centre at Western Beach but described the Deakin site as “ridiculous”.
“If we’re not careful we’ll end up destroying our city,” he said.
“I’m pretty sure Deakin (put out) an expression of interest for five-star hotel at that site.”
Victorian Regional Channels Authority chief Michael Harvey warned that dredging to make a Yarra Street pier a viable cruise ship anchorage could be expensive.
“We did a small bit of dredging on the channel that goes up to the sales wharf,” he said.
“We moved approximately 160,000 cubic metres of material and that cost just over $4 million.”
The authority ordered the Norwegian Jewel to dock off Portarlington due to Corio Bay lackign anywhere for it to anchor, Mr Harvey said.
“At the moment there’s no safe berth for cruise ships in Geelong.”
The bay’s southern anchorage had a depth of 8.5m, which was too shallow for the ship’s 8.23m draft, he explained.
“You need to keep her well clear of the bottom.”
Mr Harvey said the Norwegian Jewel could have sailed the Cunningham Pier channel, which has a depth of 9m.
But the pier lacked the infrastructure to dock such ships, he said.
The same channel could be extended to a potential Yarra Street pier, Mr Harvey said.
