A forecast jobs boom at Geelong’s port faces challenges from unrelated businesses taking up land next door.
The port could create more than 3000 jobs within 20 years on the back of a 50 per cent surge in trade, chief executive Brett Winter announced on Wednesday.
But his forecast followed council administrators approving the night before potential expansion of shops and offices on a former industrial site abutting the port.
The amendment sets up a clash of land uses as the port eyes growth while unrelated operators take over potential expansion sites.
The trade forecast could make the port one of Geelong’s industrial success stories, Mr Winter said while launching new branding and a “renewed strategy”.
“By 2035, the Port of Geelong is predicted to handle more than 18 million tonnes of imports and exports, generating 3100 jobs and strengthening its position as a leading employer in the local region,” he said.
The port, which handles imports and exports of bulk goods such as oil, grain and woodchips, has recorded booming trade over the past few years. Significant harvests after the millennium drought have driven much of the increased business.
Mr Winter expected the “unprecedented growth” over the next two decades to boost confidence in industry, promote investment in infrastructure, and “contribute significantly to the region’s prosperity”.
Geelong was already Victoria’s “largest and most important bulk-cargo port”, he said.
“The port already handles a quarter of Victoria’s exports, contributing almost $450 million dollars to the state’s economy.”
The port was also crucial to helping rural regions ship goods “without having to bear the brunt of costs associated with a capital city port”, Mr Winter said.
He touched on the importance of maintaining industrial-zoned sites around the port, saying it “currently” had land available for “growth opportunities”.
“We have capacity at Corio Quay and Lascelles Wharf that would give port users the excellent connectivity Geelong offers, including excellent access via road, rail, sea or air and a well-developed transport network with fast and efficient connectivity between Victoria’s two largest cities and beyond.”
The previous night Geelong’s council administrators adopted a land-use amendment potentially allowing expansion of “offices and other compatible uses” on the former Federal Mills industrial site at 13-35 Mackey St, North Geelong.
A report to the council noted that the former mills’ heritage values represented “difficulties with using the site for industrial purposes”.
Part of the site already has tenants ranging from a cafe and a gym to an adult-products store and offices.
City Hall remained “keenly aware of the need to protect the Port of Geelong” while adopting the amended master plan for the mills land, a council statement said.
Administrator Peter Dorling called the amendment an “adaptive re-use of a significant heritage place” that would “support the growth of new business and employment”.
“The master plan will help to ensure a fair and orderly planning outcome for the Mackey Street site without prejudicing the operation of the Port of Geelong,” he said.
