Hundreds of residents unite against proposed cruise ship terminal at Yarra Bay
More than 600 residents packed out the Yarra Bay Sailing Club this afternoon in uproar over a NSW government proposal to build Sydney’s third cruise ship terminal at the Botany Bay site.
NSW
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More than 600 residents packed out the Yarra Bay Sailing Club on Sunday afternoon in uproar over a NSW government proposal to build Sydney’s third cruise ship terminal at the Botany Bay site.
Locals said building a new terminal 16km south of Circular Quay made little sense, with cruise line passengers only interested in docking within Sydney Harbour so they can see the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from their cabins.
They called on the government to reconsider using the Navy’s Garden Island as a berthing place for cruise ships.
Annie and Tilly Bray, aged nine, both swim regularly at Yarra Bay and said they would be upset if a cruise ship terminal was built near their favourite beach.
“Yarra Bay would be really ugly if (cruise ships) came here,” Annie said.
Resident Elizabeth Fleming said the cruise ship terminal would be “devastating” for the area.
“It would be horrific, we come down here every weekend and have picnics and hang out,”
she said.
“The terminal will just wreck this amazing space which is there for the children and us.”
The cruise industry is worth $5.2 billion a year however cruise liners are being rejected from Port Jackson because large ships cannot fit under the Harbour Bridge to dock at White Bay and Circular Quay is already at capacity.
NSW Labor MP Michael Daley, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MLC Mark Banasiak, and Greens MLC David Shoebridge all addressed the crowd yesterday — protesting the idea of Yarra Bay being the site for the new terminal.
Mr Daley said an independent review had found that accommodating the cruise ships at Garden Island in Sydney Harbour would cost $143 million, as opposed to more than $500 million to build a terminal at Yarra Bay.
The federal government has made Garden Island off limits to cruise ships citing national security reasons.
Former NSW Liberal leader and Navy Reserve Captain Peter Collins headed an inquiry two years ago that recommended cruise ships and the Navy share the berths at Garden Island but the full contents of this report have not been released.
Mr Daley on Sunday asked for this document to be made public and called for a NSW Legislative Council inquiry into the proposal to build the new terminal at Yarra Bay.
“To get around the secrecy, we want an upper house inquiry into just what is happening with this procedure behind Cabinet doors,” Mr Daley said.
“It’s also time for the current Prime Minister to acknowledge that Garden Island is the obvious location representing the preference for both industry, value for money for the tax payer and the preferred choice for many communities.”
La Perouse local Aboriginal Land Council chair Noeleen Timbery said her people opposed the development and asked for their views to be respected.
“We have an ongoing connection to this land and these waters that go back many thousands of years,” she said.
“We have watched our cultural landscape be developed, redeveloped and developed again. Our question is really simple — when are our cultural rights going to be respected?”
