Our fast cat bid’s a goer

Tourism sector labels Bass Strait plan ‘extraordinary’ but Incat says

INCAT’S plan to build a ferry to carry passengers and freight between King Island, Victoria and mainland Tasmania has been labelled by the tourism sector as a “rather extraordinary and far-reaching idea to address the island’s freight challenges”.

The Tasmanian shipbuilder said this week it wanted to build a 112m, high-speed vessel to boost the freight and tourism industries on King Island by the 2019-2020 summer.

The Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania said the industry would want to have absolute confidence any future catamaran service on Bass Strait was reliable and delivered an outstanding visitor experience.

“Obviously catamarans have a very checkered history on Bass Strait,” the Tourism Industry Council’s chief execu- tive Luke Martin said.

The shipbuilder said the vessel it wanted to build to service a new passenger and freight run between Burnie and King Island would be nothing like the catamarans which once plied the George Town to Welshpool crossing. “You cannot compare those little ships to the sort of size we are talking about for the King Island proposal,” Incat said yesterday.

“Negativity towards cata- marans, or multi-hulled ships, is based on old technology.”

The shipbuilder is hoping either industry or government will do a feasibility study into the King Island proposal to see which Victorian port would work best and how many sailings a week would be supported as King Island’s acclaim as a golfing destination continues to grow.

Incat would build the ship but not operate any new service. However, it said there was already an operator interested in taking it on.

Independent Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, who has been calling for a new Bass Strait service out of Burnie for some time, has thrown her support behind Incat’s proposal.

“Incat’s King Island proposal is an excellent solution to King Island’s shipping problems,” Senator Lambie said.

“I have been pushing for this and the Government has made a commitment to me to look into this option and a number of other routes on Bass Strait.”

“I am in conversations with private operators, but I invite the Tasmanian State Government to consider Incat’s proposal as well.”

Mr Martin said serious independent market research would need to be conducted to gauge the demand for such a service.

“That would include what implications it might have on the existing Devonport to Melbourne service before [the tourism sector] supported any Government investment into such a solution,” he said.

“But if Incat wanted to have a go at doing it privately, then good luck to them.

“The current passenger and freight subsidies for Bass Strait are open to all players — not just the current operators.”