Victor Harbor Council votes to pursue $11m boating plan to attract cruise ships

Victor Harbor has voted to chase a plan to capitalise on the region’s burgeoning popularity with boaties and also draw in major cruise ships.

Victor Harbor Council is steaming ahead with a bid to attract cruise ships to the Fleurieu Peninsula at the same time as giving local boaties another place to launch.

The council has voted to approach Premier Steven Marshall to discuss ways to bring new boating infrastructure to the region, after a business case found a new facility on Eastern Beach, north of the causeway, would cost about $11m.

The new facility, featuring large breakwaters, a ramp and floating pontoons for tender boat mooring, would need state and federal government funding and rigorous environmental assessments to turn from vision to reality.

Big Duck Boat Tours owner Michael Veenstra says the region needs more boat launching facilities. Picture: Tom Huntley

Big Duck Boat Tours owner Michael Veenstra said if the project went ahead it would help address a shortage of boating facilities on the South Coast.

“It’s such a hard environment to run a business when you don’t have those facilities,” he said.

Last summer, fishers sat in huge line-ups waiting to get onto Victor Harbor’s boat ramp next to The Bluff, demonstrating the need for an extra place to launch.

The council’s business case found the new infrastructure would create up to 120 full time positions and bring a $118m economic boost to the state’s economy over two decades.

Victor Harbor chief executive Victoria MacKirdy said elected members were clear the council could not shoulder the total cost of the project, which would benefit the entire region.

Victor Harbor Council has done a business case finding that new boating infrastructure allowing the docking of cruise ship tender boats would bring a $118m economic boost to the state’s economy over two decades. Picture: Leedwell

The council will gauge the state government’s support for it before deciding whether to proceed with a $180,000 environmental impact assessment.

Ms MacKirdy said the SA Tourism Commission had flagged Victor Harbor as a potential cruise ship port before the pandemic hit.

“The domestic market is still there and there’s very much interest from the cruise ship industry to have Victor Harbor as a destination,” she said.

Elizabeth Steele-Collins, of whale advocacy group Encounter Whales, said the project posed a risk to whales during construction and operation.

She said endangered southern right whales already faced enough challenges without the increased boating activity and noise that the development would bring.

“This would be a new and permanent risk to the environment and the critical nursery habitat that attracts the whales to the area in the first place,” Ms Steele-Collins said.

A State Government spokeswoman said it would wait to hear from the council and consider its business case.

[e-mail]