HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-11-13 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

Port of Thevenard

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:32): First of all, I congratulate the member for Giles on bringing to the house a couple of issues that are particularly pertinent to regional communities. If I may pick up on one, the price differential we see in Port Lincoln is particularly galling, given that the product is unloaded at the wharf facility there. It is a mystery to me.

I rise to pick up on a couple of things the Premier mentioned a few times during question time, and that is the importance of productive infrastructure around this state and its importance in developing economic activity and providing jobs. I want to talk particularly about the port and wharf facility at Thevenard. Thevenard, of course, is the port for the Far West Coast of South Australia. It is, in fact, the second busiest port in the state, second only to Port Adelaide. Many people are surprised to discover this but, over a 52-week period, there are, on average, 2½ ships per week berthing and loading at Thevenard.

A range of products are loaded at the wharf at Thevenard. Gypsum is the biggest tonnage by far. That gypsum is mined out of Penong, trained into Thevenard, loaded onto the boats and taken mostly to the eastern seaboard. Interestingly and importantly, Genesee & Wyoming, which operate the track there, are about to invest $15 million in upgrading the track from Thevenard to Kevin railway siding near Penong, so congratulations to them. They obviously have confidence in the long-term viability of that industry. The gypsum deposit at Penong is quite extraordinary in both its quality and size.

Mineral sands, of course, are mined by Iluka out at Jacinth-Ambrosia, road trained into Thevenard and loaded onto ships that mostly go the other way, around to Western Australia, where it is processed and used in a whole range of high-quality products. Salt is mined out towards Penong as well and is loaded at Thevy and, of course, there is the grain industry. The grain farmers are harvesting at the moment. It is drawing to a close, I understand, in the far west, and it looks like being quite a good, solid harvest once again. The grain from the far west is mostly loaded onto ships at Thevenard.

It has been highlighted in the last couple of weeks that there is a significant disparity between the price that producers achieve in Thevenard as against those further south on the peninsula at Port Lincoln. There has always been a port differential in wheat, usually between $7 and $9 a tonne. That, in essence, is a two-port loading facility. Just to explain, because the channel at Thevenard is relatively shallow the growers are charged an extra few dollars a tonne so that the boats can load fully at a deeper port and it is known as two-port loading. But barley this year was $25 a tonne difference and I can see that that quite simply is the road freight to Port Lincoln.

The wharf at Thevenard also provides for fish unloading. Unfortunately when the berthing is fully booked by the bigger ships, the fishing boats have to make other arrangements. Sometimes it means travelling all the way south to Port Lincoln and, of course, this is at great cost and great frustration to the fishing industry.

A couple of years ago we almost got to the point where we had federal government funding, along with state government funding, to inject into a fish unloading facility to be built on another site. I urge the government now to pursue this once again. The opportunity is there, particularly when the cabinet is in the far west in just a few days' time. I urge them to visit both the wharf at Thevenard and the fish unloading facility to see how inadequate these particular structures are for current demands and certainly for any future demands.

It is important that this investment in productive infrastructure is maintained for the long-term viability of all the businesses on the West Coast that are reliant upon it. The opportunity is there now to address this situation once again, and for the benefit of the far west and the whole state, I urge all those involved to work together, work on a submission, and get some development going in the port of Thevenard.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT