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Media
AUSTRALIAN stevedoring company Asciano has made a submission to the local government that the Port of Melbourne be closed by 2040 and the container trade to be moved to Geelong and Hastings.
The benefits are said to include more residential land in Melbourne, and a regional development bonus for Geelong and Hastings where container handling capacity could be increased, causing fewer congestion problems than in Melbourne.
But the Sydney Morning Herald citing the Melbourne Age said "the proposal is not as simple as it sounds. Relocating the port would involve channel widening in Corio Bay, something Greens opposed after their protest of channel dredging in Port Phillip Bay".
It said there would be more truck traffic in the Geelong and Hastings regions, with the ports handling a projected eight million containers by 2030, up from 2.2 million at present, with 40 shipping lines calling and 3,500 ship movements.
"There would be more trucks through suburban Melbourne to get to Geelong and Hastings, leading to more truck movements, not fewer, not to mention the harmful impact on Melbourne's air quality," the report said.
Furthermore, the national rail freight hub would have to be moved from the Dynon railyards now behind the existing port. There is also the environmental issue at stake of potential harm to the RAMSAR-listed wetlands, if the Port of Hastings is expanded.
"Finally, relocating the port would put a question mark over the billions of dollars that have been poured into the Swanson/Dynon precinct, not only by the stevedores, but by exporters and importers that have built container hubs within a convenient distance of the port," it said.
The industry consensus, said the report, points towards the Port of Melbourne remaining where it is, with Geelong continuing to specialise as a bulk port, Webb Dock taking up excess container capacity at Melbourne around 2015, and Hastings coming on stream as a supplementary container port around 2030.
(Source:www.schednet.com)
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