Holdfast Bay Council backs calls for ferry from Glenelg to Kingscote
Holdfast Bay Council has joined calls for a ferry direct from Glenelg to Kingscote after the mayor of Kangaroo Island said it was a necessity.
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A push for a fast ferry from Glenelg to Kangaroo Island is increasing with the support of Holdfast Bay Council.
Councillors this week supported a new ferry direct to Kingscote and possibly other locations such as Yorke Peninsula.
Kangaroo Island Mayor Michael Pengilly this month said any upgrade of Glenelg Jetty should include infrastructure for a ferry to Kingscote.
Councillor John Smedley, who led the Holdfast Bay push for the ferry, acknowledged services had come and gone in the past but said the ability to run a viable operation was now much greater.
“In the intervening years since those ferries stopped operating, the tourism on Kangaroo Island has only grown exponentially and the opportunities down there continue to grow,” he said.
“There’s been a link between Kangaroo Island and Glenelg that goes back 200 years since European settlement.
“How good would a two-hour ferry service be from Glenelg? You could have Kangaroo Island residents day-tripping to Glenelg, shopping in Glenelg and you’d have people like me who’d like to get away for a day and go and sit on a beach in Kingscote.”
Cr Smedley believed it would also be possible, at some stage, to run ferry services to Yorke Peninsula and weekend trips to Port Lincoln.
Holdfast Bay Mayor Amanda Wilson also backed the push for a new KI sea link.
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“We think a ferry service form Glenelg to Kingscote would be great for our economy and for tourism to the state in general,” Mrs Wilson said.
Mr Pengilly earlier this month said Kangaroo Island Council had been approached by a business that wanted to set up a Kingscote service.
The State Government recently announced it had commissioned a study into options for a Glenelg jetty overhaul, costing up to $110 million.
Holdfast Bay Council first raised the proposal in 2015. It would include a hotel, aquarium and other recreational activities, along with a potential ferry berth.