Port Options to be seen in Context
Thu, Jan 24 2008

Statement from Dr Pieter Nagel, Director of Victoria University’s Institute for Logistics and Supply Chain Management on recent news reports that expanding Western Port was a better option than dredging Port Phillip Bay.

Dr Nagel says:

Dredging the entry to the Port of Melbourne will address real issues that are relevant for the immediate future – larger ships are a fact of life and the port needs to accommodate them.

However immediate plans to dredge the entry to the Port of Melbourne and future proposals to relocate Melbourne’s port facilities to Western Port are two separate issues.

It is not a matter of either or, rather these are better seen as complimentary developments as has happened in many ports throughout the world. We are looking at an expanding economy which will require expanding port services. These services currently have a significant hinterland in the western region of Melbourne and they will need to be constantly expanded to adequately service this rapidly growing area.

Any plan to relocate port activities to Hastings is a long term plan. This process would take more than ten years to achieve and would have to be a gradual transition. It is a matter of detailed infrastructure development and literally billions of dollars of investment.
With either of these plans the associated increase in road traffic generated by increased port traffic reintroduces the need for connectivity of road, rail and air services across Melbourne, as well as consolidation of freight and optimisation of infrastructure.

The key to addressing the connectivity issues in Melbourne is to connect the Eastern Freeway to Footscray (Ballarat Rd and Geelong Rd intersection).

This solution will enhance entry to the Port of Melbourne, present a solution to the currently congested Monash Freeway and the Westgate Bridge bottleneck, and also be a major economic stimulus for the economic development of the inner west.

The inner west needs a serious strategic commitment which will sustain its future economic development. Strategies that address the Westgate Bridge issue, Monash Freeway issue, and entry to the grid via the Eastern Freeway - once Eastlink is complete - simply cannot be ignored.

The Institute for Logistics and Supply Chain Management has developed a proposal for the development of a National Logistics City, capitalising on the logistics related infrastructure in the western region of Melbourne, creating jobs, stimulating the economic activity and bringing significant levels of efficiencies to the supply chain for industries in Victoria.