Whitsunday Regional Council to vote on downsized Bowen Marine Centre of Excellence
Whitsunday community leaders have rejected criticism of changes to a long-awaited Bowen development, arguing the updated concept will ‘gel the region more together’.
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Whitsunday councillors have rejected claims the removal of educational facilities from a $120 million marina development proposal will inflame tensions between the northern and southern ends of the region, arguing there is little interest in maritime training courses in Bowen.
Mayor Andrew Willcox on Wednesday joined his six fellow councillors in a unanimous vote supporting changes to the proposed Whitsunday Marine Centre of Excellence, including renaming the project the ‘Bowen Marine Industry Precinct’ and canning plans for an accompanying $28m educational facility.
Speaking in favour of the updated concept, Mr Willcox insisted the long-awaited project’s most important features would be retained, and Bowen would not suffer as a result of Airlie Beach remaining the region’s main training hub, through the $5m expansion of the Whitsunday Sailing Club.
The Bowen resident and budding federal politician said the project’s “main driver from day one has been the industry component” and that that was where most of its hundreds of promised new jobs would come from.
“No one’s turned their backs on anything,” Mr Willcox said.
“The vision was always going to be a big Syncrolift and then opening up all the trades.”
Deputy Mayor and Bowen-based Cr Mike Brunker agreed it made more sense to expand established training facilities at Airlie Beach than build a brand new educational facility in Bowen, especially when “at no stage was anybody expressing interest” in doing so and the existing Bowen TAFE campus was considered “a white elephant”.
Mr Bunker was confident Bowen residents were more interested in apprenticeship-style training than classroom-based studies, but said the council could make provisions if this proved incorrect.
“I haven’t seen a line up of people wanting to do Master classes here,” he said.
“If 10 people want to come to Bowen and do their Master class in Bowen, we’ll organise it – we can rent a shop in the main street.”
The consensus was that Bowen as an industrial centre would complement Airlie Beach as a training hub.
Councillor Al Grundy said having both facilities up and running would prevent locals “pouring money into” better-equipped places such as Mackay, Brisbane, Cairns and Tasmania when getting marine tourism qualifications or getting their boats worked on.
“It’s always been about the whole region,” Cr John Collins said.
“I think it only goes to gel us more together,” Cr Gary Simpson said.
Fears Whitsunday town will miss out in changes to $120m superyacht marina
Tensions between the northern and southern communities of the Whitsundays are flaring over a pending council vote on a proposed $120 million marine centre that promised to deliver hundreds of new jobs to Bowen.
Whitsunday Regional Council will on Wednesday decide whether to downsize plans for the Bowen-based Whitsunday Marine Centre of Excellence to have part of it based in Airlie Beach instead.
The recommendation to the February 9 ordinary meeting at Proserpine is to continue to seek funding for a world-class marina and shipyard with boat and superyacht repairs and maintenance facilities at Bowen, but without an accompanying $28 million educational facility as originally proposed in 2018.
The reasoning behind the suggested change, which also includes scrapping ‘Centre of Excellence’ from the name to instead call it a ‘Marine Industry Precinct’, is that Whitsunday Sailing Club is already in the process of establishing its own $5 million maritime training centre at Airlie Beach, with the help of a $2.5m federal grant secured in 2021.
Some community members were shocked to learn upon the release of the council meeting agenda this week the project had changed course, believing the “updated concept” had been developed without sufficient public consultation.
Whitsunday Regional Residents Association president Ross Newell said keeping the entire project in Bowen made sense given the potential of the existing harbour and the town’s need for an economic boost.
He said the lack of consultation before the new concept “just appeared” in the agenda was “extremely disappointing”, and the move represented another example of favouritism of Airlie Beach, despite the combined Bowen/Collinsville communities contributing more in rates.
“Airlie Beach has been well looked after and anyone who wants to dispute that only need look at the capital works and budget spend down there compared to what’s up here,” Mr Newell said.
“Our position is this was something developed and the concept born in Bowen, and Bowen has always looked to have that facility from the point of view of growing the town and the chance to bring in another major industry.”
As a former councillor himself, Mr Newell said the issue was bound to stir up the “us versus them” mentality he believed existed in the region since the Bowen and Whitsunday shires amalgamated in 2008 and “probably always will”.
“That’s why you have to have councillors on that have got the Wisdom of Solomon and the judgment to look at what’s best for the region as a whole, and I don’t think that happens sometimes,” he said.
Whitsunday Sailing Club’s projects and development director Terry Archer said the club “fully supports” the recommendation to the council and had made its position clear since the Centre of Excellence concept was first floated for expressions of interest.
Mr Archer said the sailing club’s proposed training facility was already under construction and would be complete by the end of 2022.
To build a similar facility in Bowen would “split the effort”, he said.
“We have one of the largest marine industries in the state in Airlie Beach so to have the training centre here – this seems to be the correct place for it.
“I can understand they would like some additional facilities in Bowen but I think as the broader community I don’t think we should be competing internally for the same space.
“There’s other opportunities in marine engineering and ship building and so forth that aren’t on our [club’s] radar which could be adopted in the future and the council has identified that.”
Council documents state there is “potential to complement the Whitsunday Sailing Club’s operationally focused education facility with a marine maintenance education facility [in Bowen] at a later stage”.
A report authorised by council CEO Rodney Ferguson further states the council met with the sailing club in October 2021 to “align future maritime education facility plans for the region” and found the club “will need to be factored in regarding the discussions around the Marine Centre of Excellence in Bowen”.
“To support the Whitsunday Sailing Club in their pursuit to establish a maritime education facility, Council will focus this project to establish a world class marina and shipyard at the Bowen Marina and remove the education facility component,” the report states.
The council meeting will be live streamed via the council’s website from 9am, Wednesday.
The council was contacted for comment.
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