Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers seaport harbour plan ruffles feathers in Smith Bay
A neighbouring abalone farm is opposing plans for the creation of a new harbour alongside a proposed $40 million seaport at Smith Bay, saying it will increase the threat to its business.
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Plans to create a new harbour area for Kangaroo Island’s $40 million seaport have raised the ire of a neighbouring abalone farm and the local council.
Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers’ Smith Bay development is under assessment with the State Government.
In the meantime, neighbouring abalone farm Yumbah Aquaculture has written to the local council highlighting a series of concerns over a harbour planned alongside the seaport, which it says extends 1.6 nautical miles from the shore.
Details of the seaport project, which the company maintains is vital to export timber, were released publicly last year, but Yumbah director Anthony Hall said they made no mention of the harbour’s size.
“To now seek to have a … very large area declared a harbour as a secondary approval is completely contrary to the spirit and requirements of a major development process,” Mr Hall wrote to the council.
“We have asked commercial fishermen, north coast marine tourism operators and recreational fishermen and boat owners – none have been advised of this new harbour and its massive extent.”
Mr Hall claimed the harbour moved the impacts of the seaport much closer to its abalone farm and interfered with its licenses and leases.
“If the operator … chooses to make the harbour an exclusion zone, it will take 2km to traverse the area covered and will exclude a substantial area currently used by fishing and tourist operators,” he said.
Kangaroo Island Council this month voted to write to Planning Minister Stephan Knoll reiterating it was “entirely opposed” to the development.
The council wants the company to abandon its plans for Smith Bay, on the island’s north coast, and find another location.
It is worried about how it will affect Yumbah and the environment, and has said the company should find a site west of Stokes Bay Rd, closer to plantations, where the water is deeper.
Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers executive director John Sergeant said determining the harbour’s boundary was an administrative step and would not affect the environment or neighbours.
He said a harbour master would control the area, excluding other vessels when needed to ensure safety.
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Mr Sergeant said his company had done “exactly to the letter” what Yumbah had asked for, by making large-scale changes to its seaport proposal.
It last year announced it would extend the end of its proposed jetty another 250m offshore, to eliminate the need for dredging, and building a fully-piled structure.
“The building of the seaport is utterly transformative in a positive way for that community. It would bring many hundreds of millions of dollars into a community that sorely needs it, and I think most people can see that except for possibly the immediate neighbours,” Mr Sergeant said.