Yarrabah jetty: Katter vows to find fix to ‘unusable’ $11.5m pier

Kennedy MP Bob Katter has vowed to be a “raging fury” after reports the new $11.5m Yarrabah jetty would be unusable for 130 days of the year.

KENNEDY MP Bob Katter has vowed to be a “raging fury” in pursuit of a fix after reports the new $11.5m Yarrabah jetty would be unusable for 130 days of the year.

The state government project is almost complete with a 165m pier now jutting out from Gribble Point northeast of the Yarrabah township.

Department of Transport and Main Roads figures state the jetty will be accessible 87 per cent of the time for a 1m-draft vessel – a claim that has been roundly rejected by ferry operator Dindarr’s director Peter McAllister.

Bob Katter is not happy. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Katter has now called the 130-day inaccessibility estimate overly conservative given it only took into account tidal issues with no consideration for factors like south-westerly winds.

“Never, ever, ever do you build a pier or a jetty,” he said.

“They belong to primitive times before we got bulldozers and pneumatic drills.

“It’s just ludicrous.”

Mr Katter pointed to a recent jetty redevelopment on Mornington Island which he said would require millions of dollars more in public money to properly fix, preferably with an expensive rock wall.

Construction work is well underway on a brand new $11.5m concrete jetty off the Indigenous community of Yarrabah. Picture: Brendan Radke

“If you use a jetty, even if there’s only a foot of sea running, it will smash your boat against the jetty,” he said.

“Also, the jetty takes a pounding. The sea will eat up concrete and wood, but rocks last forever.”

Mr Katter said Yarrabah would need a rock wall or marina as well – and he had a plan to tie it in to an industrial overhaul of the area.

The Queensland Government funded project and the resulting ferry service to Cairns is expected to increase the job prospects of the community's residents, while also boosting Indigenous tourism opportunities in the town. Picture: Brendan Radke

He wanted the saddle cut out of the existing road into Yarrabah and to reroute the road so it did not climb over a dangerous mountain range.

The material blasted out of the saddle could then be used to build a rock wall breakwater either at King Point or at the township itself.

Questions have been raised over whether low tides will render the jetty functionally useless. Picture: Brendan Radke

Long-term, he said a deepwater port must be built at King Point, linked to a bridge across the inlet to Cairns and through to a new tunnel through the Kuranda Range to connect the likes of Mareeba and the Chillagoe mineral province to the world.

“There needs to be a rock wall, and I’m going to be a raging fury if it’s not protected,” Mr Katter said.

“Any fool could have told you that you just don’t build a jetty.”

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Originally published as Yarrabah jetty: Katter vows to find fix to ‘unusable’ $11.5m pier