Dredge claims divide island
A VOCAL minority of environmentalists are hampering efforts to gain community support to widen the Port of Townsville channel.
If the channel isn’t widened some ships will have to bypass Townsville, resulting in goods being sent by road or rail and money from cruise ship passengers being spent elsewhere.
The Port of Townsville has hired Annie Ilet as their community engagement officer for Magnetic Island as the eastern side of the island runs parallel to the channel.
Ms Ilet, who has lived on the island for nine years, said most people understood the need for the expansion.
“There is ... a silent majority of people who are happy for it to go ahead,” she said.
“If things don’t come in by ship, they have to come in by road or rail and, apart from being expensive, it also increases the carbon footprint.”
She said opponents to the project were spreading misinformation such as claiming sea dredging would take 10 years when it is expected to take only about six months.
As larger ships continue to be built, the port’s channel is becoming increasingly inadequate with the 92m entrance half the length of most other major cargo ports.
The channel widening is stage one of the Port Expansion Project. It is hoped work can start late this year costing $ 520 million over five years and creating around 175 jobs.
Dredge material will not be dumped at sea but will be reused for the port’s new reclamation area.
Ms Ilet said she was keen to meet with anyone concerned about the project.
“We are genuinely trying to engage with the community to find out what those concerns are and address them,” she said.
The channel widening will take about four- and- a- half years, with 80 per cent of work to be done at the harbour entrance and Platypus Channel closed to the port. The remaining 20 per cent will be done in the sea channel.
An excavator mounted onto a pontoon will be used to dig material from the sea and put it onto a waiting barge.
The Port of Townsville’s Community Liaison Group plans to meet monthly from this month.