How Advance Cairns and Warren Entsch helped grow the Cairns Marine precinct and what’s next?
It all began with a failed bid to secure Guardian class patrol boats for Cairns, but through that disappointment came a new plan to make Cairns a hub of marine industry. Read what it means for the future.
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BACK in 2014, 48 hours and three men became crucial to the future of Cairns, its industry and its ongoing economy.
The key hours came as a bid for tender of the Guardian Class Patrol boats for our Pacific neighbours was undercut by a competitor in WA who was willing to do whatever it took to secure ongoing work.
However, out of that disappointment and some anger-driven determination came a plan to turn Cairns into a northern hub of marine industry, a “one-stop-shop” for navy, tourism, and international maritime business.
Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, Advance Cairns’ Trent Twomey, and BSE Maritime Solutions managing director Justin Parer decided that if Cairns wasn’t going to build ships it was going to become the hub of maintaining them.
“The reality is with continuous ship building, that is great, but you can’t have it everywhere and if we got bits and pieces of that it would be good but there are always peaks and troughs with contracts.” Mr Entsch said.
“But with sustainment you have 20-30 years of sustainment and maintenance so there are no troughs.”
WHAT DOES THAT
MEAN FOR CAIRNS?
The short answer is jobs, and more specifically, future-focused jobs.
A total of $300m is set to be injected into the Cairns Marine Precinct for a new Common User Facility (CUF), which would allow more boats to come out of the water at once as well as increase lifting capacity in the port to 5000 tonnes.
Advance Cairns chairman Nick Trompf travelled to Brisbane recently to work out some of the details regarding the delivery of funding for the facility.
He met with the Queensland premier, deputy premier and treasurer stating funding for the marine precinct was as important as health to our region.
“We will be encouraging the Queensland government to fast-track its funding to, at the very least match or flow even earlier than the federal money so we can get activity happening as quickly as feasible.”
HOW MUCH WILL IT COST?
There are already, however, some estimates suggesting that the project could reach between $400m-600m due to the sheer scale of what is involved.
“I’ve seen some work done and BSE and we are talking concrete metres and metres and metres thick, massive to hold these ships. And then you have to anchor that hard stand to something so you really need to go down to bedrock,” Mr Entsch said.
“I’ve had conflicting guesses on how much it would cost to put it on the site and it’s been from $4-600 million.
“You've got to make sure its fully funded.”
Advocates of the precinct are saying there are still steps to be taken to ensure any opportunities that come up can be grasped with both hands.
Of key importance is a package of $24m to complete upgrades to the three main shipyards – $8m each – now before the construction of the CUF comes online.
That money could come out of the slated $300m pot.
“What worries me is the actual precinct is not finished. There is still another tranche of work to be done within the precinct to complete it,” Mr Entsch said.
“Work on hardstands and wharfage; working with the three.
“Let’s get that job done, give the operators the $24m to finish the bloody thing.”
Tropical Reef Shipyard business development manager Andrew Wagner said investment now would ensure the CUF could reach a higher potential.
“If we finish the projects now with the $24m, once the CUF comes online it will be a natural progression from there so it just grows,” Mr Wagner said.
“Investing now to get these facilities upgraded speeds things up. Where as if you wait for the CUF, you need to upskill people to be able to work on those new ships. It can become a problem.
“It’s all about starting now and making sure you do it properly.”
DEFENCE PLAYS A ROLE
A real cornerstone for the precinct will be the ability to work closely with defence, and operators have their eyes set on more than just the Australian navy. They see areas of opportunity to go big.
Over the coming years Cairns is going to witness much more in the way of the impressive, grey navy ships in our port.
A spokesman for Defence confirmed the importance of the Cairns port for defence.
“Defence regularly reviews its base disposition to ensure the Defence estate is able to support current and potential future requirements,” the spokesman said.
“Cairns is and will remain an important strategic sustainment hub for naval vessels into the future.”
While Defence would not comment on the ongoing strategic review due in 2023, growing concern over the expansion of China’s interests in the Pacific is driving more focus north.
That means more ships using Cairns as a home port, and more maintenance and sustainment opportunities for ships operating to Australia’s north.
Mr Trompf said Advance Cairns as well as Ports North and Cairns Regional Council had all provided submissions to the defence review advocating for investment in Cairns port.
“The defence strategic review could have major implications for Cairns as Queensland’s only navy base,” Mr Trompf said.
“What we were recommending is that as part of its posture review that navy looks to base more of its vessels out of Cairns than what currently exist.
“That they expand substantially the HMAS Cairns base meaning more crew to be based within the region and that they establish an Office of the Pacific in Cairns, noting that Port Moresby is our closest capital, much closer than Brisbane.”
The next class of Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs), the Arafura class, will be making its way north with four to be home based out of HMAS Cairns.
Comments from Defence spokesperson Dan Fankhauser, speaking to a Senate Estimates hearing on Wednesday, November 9, confirmed the designs associated with the upgraded wharf and facilities required for these vessels had been completed and works would begin in early 2023.
This comes as part of a $95m package related to HMAS Cairns expansion, which also includes a mid-term refresh and facilities to support improvement of information and communication services for the naval base.
WE’RE GOING TO NEED
A BIGGER BOAT
With increasing tensions with China comes the need for bigger boats.
There are growing calls for Australia to be up-gunning its naval power with navy Corvettes, a step above OPVs, reportedly being considered in a major defence review to be published next year.
Mr Trompf confirmed that the submission to the review also explored the types of vessels being home ported in Cairns.
“There is also a number of other new vessels that have been suggested, and there are also a number of other vessels based elsewhere in Australia that could potentially be more logically based here.
“But the common-user facility is critical in all of this because of the ability to be able to be flexible and deal with more and larger defence vessels which will position Cairns even better for those growth opportunities that come from the review.”
Foreign constructors are also looking to provide for Australia’s needs with a Spanish-designed Air Warfare Destoyer being pitched to Defence.
They’re key considerations for the future of the precinct.
Bigger boats mean more work and more jobs for those living in Cairns or those looking to benefit from the development.
“Those new ships are all bigger so here in Cairns right now we can do ships up to 3000 tonne. With expansion of the next $8m, we could get up to 4000,” Mr Wagner said.
“Getting up to 8000 isn't really viable for us so that's were the CUF should come into (it) and go, ‘righto, we can now take it to that next level and support these newer bigger ships’.”
BUILDING A
TRACK RECORD
The precinct is already building success stories with Norship and TRS combining in a provider role as Norsta as part of the regional maintenance centre for the navy.
In this role Norsta was awarded a $70m contract as the regional maintenance provider.
“It's a 50/50 partnership but we found skills gaps that needed filling and so we reached out to local companies to fill them,” Mr Wagner said.
“This means that it is a 100 per cent Australian entity providing services to the navy, we are now doing the work global giant BAE was doing.”
Mr Wagner said growth would push back through the community as the port grew.
“We farm out to 250-300 small companies all the time so the revenue goes back out to them very quickly, which allows them to employ more people and expand their operations.”
The shipyards are working to ensure that employment on the development can also capture locals with existing skills or going through school or training programs through TAFE.
“There are programs to try and bring it back to the school level and then bring them in and give them tours of the facilities, show them what’s available,” Mr Wagner said
“We are working closely with TAFE and JCU as well as the college to build pathways and programs for young people.”
Ports North Chairman Russell Beer agreed that expansion and the development would be the biggest thing for the economy of Cairns since the international airport terminal opened 30-40 years ago.
“What this will mean is that if any of the shipyards are thinking twice about putting on more apprentices or hiring more people, that will go out the window. They’ll just say we need to build up for this and increase our capacity and so they will be putting on people, they will be training up staff,” Mr Beer said.
“In 2021 when Rear Admiral Wendy Malcolm said that Cairns would be a regional maintenance centre, it’s gone a million miles from there.
“Clearly there is great desire from navy to get stuff done up here and have more capability. “That dovetails in with the commercial needs here with the various merchant fleets that are around,” Mr Beer said.
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