By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A LENGTHY offshore port terminal could overcome shallow water issues for a proposed Bay West container facility in Corio Bay’s outer-harbour, according to the Victorian state opposition.
ALP shadow treasurer Tim Pallas floated the concept during a briefing to the Committee for Geelong in June.
Mr Pallas told the briefing Bay West was “likely to have an island offshore berthline”, with a pier stretching as much as three kilometres into the bay.
He said the design would enable Bay West to handle bulk trade as well as containers, an advantage over State Government’s plan to develop the facility at Hastings.
“Hastings is limited as a long-term option because of this capacity constraint.”
Mr Pallas said Bay West could handle at least 10 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent) containers, compared to a capacity of nine million at Hastings.
Bay West also offered construction savings of as much as $2 billion.
Mr Pallas said the offshore berths offered advantages for transport and dredging.
Providing Hastings with access to standard-gauge rail would cost “in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars” because of its greater distance from key freight and warehousing locations.
Mr Pallas said Bay West had access to the Princes Fwy, standard-gauge and interstate rail links and was “potentially less complex to connect rail to dock with an island terminal at Bay West”.
Mr Pallas said the overall impact on the supply chain was positive for Bay West and negative for Hastings, increasing the cost per container up to $400.
Bay West would be a “nationally significant investment” for Geelong, he said.
“A Bay West port has the potential to provide a massive economic and jobs benefit for the Geelong region.”
Ports Minister David Hodgett called the idea “ludicrous”, saying it demonstrated the hopelessness of Labor’s plan.
Bay West would need “monumental dredging” because it was earmarked for a shallow part of the bay.
“To build a port anywhere in the bay the heads would need to be blasted to widen and deepen the entrance to fit ships through. This could cause untold impact to the local environment.
“Hastings is an already-working, deep-water port and is the only realistic option for Victoria’s next international container port.”
