Cairns reef tours: Experience Co construction forges ahead for Dreamtime Island snorkel pontoon

A feat of modern engineering is playing out in a Portsmith shipyard as the gigantic steel skeleton of Cairns’ newest tourism attraction comes to life.

A FEAT of modern engineering is playing out in a Portsmith shipyard as the gigantic steel skeleton of Cairns’ newest tourism attraction comes to life.

Tourism conglomerate Experience Co wants to have Dreamtime Island on the water by Christmas, but there is plenty of work to happen between now and then.

English Engineering director Pat English is overseeing the reef pontoon construction in Austal’s massive workshop.

The $6.7m vessel will be stationed at Moore Reef, about 45km off the Cairns coast, and should not have to come back to shore for maintenance until it has been at sea for about 15 years.

English Engineering director Pat English and Experience Co Great Barrier Reef general manager Adam Jones oversee construction of the Dreamtime Island reef pontoon at the Austal shipyard in Portsmith. Picture: Stewart McLean

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That means attention to detail is crucial – and there is no shortage of details in the two-storey structure, with underwater viewing station and on-board scientific laboratory.

“We’re fairly well experienced at it,” Mr English said.

“We just finished doing one for Cruise Whitsundays last year.

“And there’s a couple of overseas inquiries but obviously this COVID-19 has slowed everything down a bit.

“So we hope to be building more – they’re a good job and they’re unique to Cairns.”

Construction is well under way on Experience Co’s new Dreamtime Island tourist pontoon to be stationed at Moore Reef from 2022. Picture: Supplied

Work crews have been busy welding together huge steel pipes to form the artificial island’s floating frame, with the underwater observatory and engine room sections to be mounted in the coming days.

Austal will chip in some of the finishing touches and painting before the big beast is rolled out to Trinity Inlet on rail tracks to see if it floats.

“This is a good job, this will keep us busy for 12 months,” Mr English said.

“Everyone seems to be fairly buoyant at the moment, strangely enough.”

The new pontoon has two decks and double the capacity of the company’s existing pontoon. Picture: Supplied

Experience Co’s existing pontoon at Moore Reef will be retired from the post, although its future use has not yet been revealed.

Experience Co Great Barrier Reef general manager Adam Jones said the replacement would be an extension of the popular Dreamtime Dive and Snorkel Indigenous sea ranger tour company and greatly increase patronage capacity.

Work crews have been busy welding together huge steel pipes to form the artificial island’s floating frame. Picture: Supplied

“Because it has two full decks, it’s almost double the capacity,” he said.

“The current one has a very small top deck at one end, this one has two full decks.

“We’re also doing a lot of things like increasing the water entry so we don’t have the bottlenecks that a lot of the existing pontoons have.”

He was particularly excited about the partnerships Experience Co could form with CSIRO, James Cook University and other bodies hoping to conduct on-site reef research for extended periods.

“And we’re putting a science lab on there that’s able to be manned 24 hours a day,” he said.

Originally published as Cairns reef tours: Experience Co construction forges ahead for Dreamtime Island snorkel pontoon