Magnetic Island Nature Care Association
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How Many New Berths?

Picture
ABOVE: The close-to-empty port earlier this year. Over the last 18 years, the port has achieved its own standard for “optimum berth occupancy” just 20% of the time.
With so many questions surrounding the proposed expansion of Townsville Port, there’s always room for one more…

So, here you go:
How many new berths (parking spots for vessels at the wharves) will be built?
If you’ve read the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and the Additional EIS (the AEIS), you’d probably conclude we are looking at six (6) new berths. After all that’s the number bandied about in dozens of places. Table 2.1 from the AEIS, for example, showing variations to the project between the EIS (column 2 in following screenshot) and the AEIS (column 3), shows, that there will be no change to the number of new berths – both are SIX.

Picture
So it’s six right?

Well maybe not.

At a Magnetic Island Residents and Ratepayers Association (MIRRA) community meeting on the island on Saturday March 4, 2019, the CEO of the Port of Townsville, Ranee Crosby, said it could be as low as ONE!

Yep, the number of berths will depend, it seems, on how many requests for berthing facilities the port gets down the track from shippers and shipping lines.

So all that dredging, reclamation of sea, destruction of and damage to marine habitat, fish nurseries, seagrass, beaches, water quality and lifestyle – all the 11.4 million cubic metres of capital dredging dug up over 10.5 years and the 450,000+ cubic metres of maintenance dredge spoil dumped in the ocean just off Magnetic Island every year, for ever, could be for just one extra berth – and bigger vessels to enter the existing port.*

Hands up anyone who thinks that that adds up!
* Presumably these bigger vessels won’t require a deeper channel because the deepening of the channels is (under the revised plan) minimal and wouldn’t occur until 2030. Until then it’s all about widening the channels. Odd, because the overriding issue between 2007 and 2016 was all about the need to deepen the channel.
  • Home
  • Donations
  • About
    • History of MINCA
    • Become A Member
    • Renew Your Membership
  • Resources
    • World heritage Values of Magnetic Island
    • Plants of Magnetic Island
    • Weeds of Magnetic Island
    • Favourite Trees
    • Native animals of Magnetic Island
    • Birds of Magnetic Island
    • Butterflies of Magnetic Island
    • Reptiles of Magnetic Island
    • Frogs (Amphians) of Magnetic Island
    • Spiders, Insects & Bugs of Magnetic Island
    • Life in the ocean around Magnetic Island
    • The geology of Magnetic Island
    • Library & Links
  • Projects
    • Caring for the West Point Road
    • Bolger Bay Conservation Park
    • Protection of Radical Bay
    • Townsville Port expansion >
      • Flyer
    • Clear Water Townsville >
      • The Future of Cleveland Bay >
        • Historical Impacts of Silt Pollution
      • The Story So Far
      • Cleveland Bay: Current & Impacts
      • The Impact of Dredging
      • Dolphins, Dugongs & Turtles
      • Where Have All the Fish Gone?
      • Proposed Port Expansion & Master Plan
      • Port of Townsville's Changing Plans
      • How Many New Berths?
      • Big Enough Already!
      • Jobs and the Port
      • The $1.64 Billion Quesion: WHY?
      • Contact Clear Water Townsville
    • Freecycle
  • Achievements
    • Claude's Block
    • 2011 Anti-plastic Bag Campaign
    • 2011 Short Film Competition
    • 2010 Low Carbon Diet Inter-Bay Challenge
    • 2010 'Carbon Cuts' Film Competition
    • 1996 Nelly Bay Habitat Reserve
    • ARCHIVE NEWS
  • Gallery
  • Contact
  • Activities