Brisbane Container Terminal, Australia

The Australian port authorities are investing in their port facilities. The multi million dollar investments cover facilities in three ports. Among these is the Fisherman Islands Container Terminal in Brisbane.

PROJECT RATIONALE

P&O Ports Australia is demonstrating its commitment to the Australian container terminal sector through a multi million dollar programme of investment. The investment is motivated by the need to make its Australian port facilities more competitive. The Australian government's Productivity Commission produced a report concluding that Australia's ports were amongst the slowest, most expensive and least productive in the world; crane rates were found to be around half those being achieved at similar ports around the world. As a result of this report a significant amount of investment, both private and public, has been put towards expanding and modernising port facilities. This is particularly evident in the container terminal sector.

The investments saw, among other improvements, the introduction of two Electruck Pacific 2000 ship-to-shore container gantry cranes, which were delivered in 2000. One was deployed at the company's Container Terminals Australia Limited (CTAL) facility in Port Botany, Sydney, whilst the other went to the Fisherman Islands Container Terminal in Brisbane.

Brisbane is the third largest container and general cargo port in the eastern part of Australia and, a new Terminal Seven within the port's Fisherman Islands facility has become operational. With the introduction of Sea-Land, which started operations last August, Brisbane has become the first Australian port to attract a third major container terminal operator. The Brisbane port Authorities have plans for further developments of its facilities.

LEAD CONTRACTORS

Around 100 metres of the quay has been leased to P&O Ports, while 210 metres is being used by Sea-Land (Australia) Terminal Services.

FISHERMAN ISLAND COMPLEX EXPANSION

The Port of Brisbane Corporation (PBC) announced plans for a further 270ha expansion of the Fisherman Islands complex. This would allow for the construction of additional berths for larger vessels for which present upstream sites are too shallow. The extension would be created by reclaiming land with dredged material from maintenance dredging in the river and commercial channel, as well as additional dredging for the extra berths at Fisherman Islands. The PBC is not only concentrating on developing container handling facilities, however, and over the past year has been involved in the setting up of two major fertiliser handling facilities on Fisherman Islands.

STORAGE FACILITIES

The BPC has also identified storage as a crucial problem for the cotton industry. To address this issue, the Corporation and Island Packing and Storage are building three cotton storage and packing sheds behind the container terminals on Fisherman Island in a bid to attract more cotton trade through the port. These sheds will provide a total of 12,000m² of capacity. With the opening of the new facilities, cotton will be trucked direct to the wharf, reducing the need for double handling. By storing cotton alongside the wharf, traders should also be able to meet their ship loading deadlines more easily.

BERTH 8

The Fisherman's Island complex will have a new common user berth and associated facilities. The 205 metre wharf, to be known as Berth 8, will be a continuation of existing quayline at Fisherman Islands and will be immediately adjacent to Sea-Land's container terminal. Construction of the berth and associated infrastructure will cost $34.5 million. Detailed design work is currently under way, with foreshore stabilisation and the awarding of the contract for pile supply to occur in the near future. Construction of the wharf will begin in the first half of 2001, for completion in early 2002.

Click here for printable version