Sydney Harbour Bottleneck !

It is not unusual to see up to a dozen ships at anchor off Port Kembla, waiting their turn to use the coal or the grain loading facilities.  It is now becoming a common sight to see giant cruise ships standing idle in Sydney Harbour, moored at the Athol buoy in mid harbour because there simply is no available space at the Overseas Passenger terminal or other points suitable to load and discharge passengers.

The cruise industry has been growing at the rate of at least twenty percent a year and new ships are getting bigger.  The obvious solution would be to open up new facilities on the western side of the Harbour bridge - but the ships likely to come on line in the near future will be too big to fit under our famous bridge.  It looks like we will need to extend the accommodation available in the harbour east of the bridge.

A logical solution would be to allow cruise ships to dock at Garden Island, and in fact there is a two year agreement in place that permits three cruise ships a year to use that facility.   Garden Island is the home port for the Royal Australian navy - and a mix of warships and cruise ships poses obvious security problems. The navy is adamant that Garden Island is essential to our security needs.

There is every indication that the cruise industry will continue to expand. It's popularity seems ever increasing and Sydney is a popular Pacific ocean destination for ships serving world travel needs. The entire planning process of setting itineraries and matching that to ships is at least two years in advance and there is a real danger that if we allow this docking bottleneck to remain unfixed we may lose Sydney as the Australian port of call - to another Australian city.

That would be a financial disaster.  When a cruise ships is in port for a day it disgorges thousands of cashed up passengers eager to see the sights - and spend some money.  The tour operators, restaurants, bars, cab companies - not to mention the vast retailers of the city - make a bonanza, and a huge network of ship providores swings into action to replenish the cruise ship's needs.  The cruise industry is big business to Sydney.

The answer to this problem would seem to be obvious.   For some time the government has been encouraging industry to transfer from harbourside land in Sydney to either Botany Bay or Port Kembla.  Numerous sites are vacant - or about to become vacant - and there is an opportunity to create a new shipping hub to accommodate cruise ships and this will probably involve the creation of new wharfs jutting into the harbour.  Unfortunately, any form of building activity these days seems to stir the public ire and bring forth an army of ecological naysayers !

Sydney has a beautiful harbour, but it must serve the interests of the people and a harbour is the ideal place for a shipping industry.  In the distant past, Sydney served as the hub for our imports and exports, but now that these have been placed elsewhere it is taking on a new role as the home for a fast developing tourist industry.  If cruise ships breathe new life into Sydney harbour, the harbour must make change to allow that to happen.

Immediately this state election is concluded the incoming government needs to bite the bullet and make decisions on how the cruise industry is to be accommodated - and where the required wharf space will be sited.   If we allow this question to get bogged down in party politics or ambushed by special interest groups there is a very good chance that this city will be bypassed as the Pacific port of choice by the growing cruise industry.