Are we too lazy to grasp a Cairns shipping export boom?

An incredible opportunity to position Cairns as the chief logistics powerhouse of the Pacific is about to slip through our fingers.

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AN INCREDIBLE opportunity to position Cairns as the chief logistics powerhouse of the Pacific is about to slip through our fingers.

Let it happen and it will be a pox on all our houses for generations — all because we were too scared or too lazy to grasp the fortune in front of our faces.

Freeport Indonesia has cut ties with Cairns after 45 years, ripping more than $170 million worth of annual freight from the city’s port and leaving a giant hole in the economy.

The view of the Cairns port from the upper deck of the United States Navy's San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock USS Green Bay. PICTURE: CHRIS CALCINO

The company has ignored all official attempts to find out the motivation behind the retreat, but there is an entirely logical common theme to conversations going around town.

Freeport could not get all of its goods up here by rail so the decision was made — stuff it, we will just run everything directly from down south despite the obvious geographical drawbacks.

It came just months after our other exotic export sweetheart, Cathay Pacific, announced it wanted a divorce after a 26-year relationship.

QLD_CP_NEWS_CATHAYPIC_09MAY19

After a run like that, Cairns could easily feel like an unlovable pariah — but in the words of the great trout-smoocher Rex Hunt: “There are plenty more fish in the sea, thank your mother for the rabbits, yibbida yibbida.”

Organisations like the volunteer Cairns-PNG commerce group Tradelinked are laying groundwork for exciting prospects to capitalise on our closest international neighbour’s growing list of major mining projects.

Rex Hunt would not let this one get away. PICTURE: WAYNE LUDBEY

Their efforts are commendable but barely scratch the surface of the opportunities before us.

The Federal Government’s new “step up” policy to engage with the Pacific — largely to offset China’s growing influence in the region — presents a chance for Cairns to enter a new age of prosperity.

It sounds bombastic, but it is true.

Australia and the US have committed to redeveloping Papua New Guinea’s joint Lombrum Naval Base in a move that will likely cost billions in capital expenditure alone.

QLD_CP_NEWS_FRECKLINGTON_27JUN19

The running costs will be sky-high and Cairns is the natural launching pad for so much of the maintenance, supply and operational trade that must necessarily accompany a project of such magnitude.

It does not stop there.

The Federal Government’s promise to step up Australia’s Pacific engagement is broader than just a naval base.

It has established a $2 billion Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific and moves are afoot for the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation to be granted new resources and powers to support investments in the region.

We have the know-how, the equipment and the manpower to pull off these big jobs and quickly replace what we lost to Brisbane, Newcastle and Perth when Freeport’s last ship pulled away.

What we lack is the infrastructure.

Ports North has a masterplan due early next year, arguably a decade too late.

We cannot wait any longer for the redevelopment of HMAS Cairns to actually happen.

We need to have a real conversation about turning Admiralty Island into a logistics hub, complete with railhead to get goods directly to port.

Freeport’s Grasberg mine back in 1995 — supplied by Cairns until March this year.

We need a long-term plan etched in granite that we can belt Brisbane and Canberra around the head with until they are bruised, bloody and dejected.

Politicians will not do it for us and Cairns will forever be overlooked unless we make our vision impossible to deny.

Otherwise all of these opportunities will sail away to the Brisbanes, Darwins, Perths and Townsvilles.

We have a choice.

We can shut up, accept our fate and marinate in our misery as more bodies stack up — or we can do everything it takes to make sure Far North Queensland is not ripped off again.

Originally published as Are we too lazy to grasp a Cairns shipping export boom?