Consortium flies in for $400 million Darwin ship lift talks

MORE than 70 Territory businesses have taken part in a local industry engagement event organised by one of the consortiums shortlisted to build Darwin’s $400 million ship lift facility

An artist's impression of Darwin's planned $260m ship lift at East Arm. Picture: Supplied

• Two Territory firms in running to build $400 million ship lift facility at East Arm
• $400m Darwin ship lift gets the all-clear for construction to begin

INTEREST in the $400 million ship lift project at East Arm is at a premium with more than 70 Territory businesses joining in a local industry engagement event organised by one of the three interstate consortiums shortlisted to build the facility.

The purpose was to introduce local subcontractors and suppliers to the Northern Lift Consortium which is led by Besix Watpac.

Northern Territory companies Sitzler and Territoria Civil are among the five companies shortlisted as part of the expression of interest process.

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The local industry engagement event was held at the Industry Capability Network (ICN) in Parap Monday afternoon from 4pm.

The Northern Lift consortium said it has moved early on the local industry participation so if it is successful it is ready to hit the ground running on local work packages.

The consortium had its senior project team in Darwin and its Indigenous engagement manager and the national training manager here to talk one-on-one about these important aspects of the project.

The presentation by Northern Lift bid director Michael Schaumburg explained the scale of the project and some of the known requirements which will require a wide range of subcontracting capability across many disciplines.

The ship lift project will support more than 100 jobs during construction, with 400 ongoing new jobs, and inject $260m into the Territory economy every year.

Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison says everything is on track to have construction up and running at the end of next year.

Ms Manison said the 103m ship lift would be capable of servicing large vessels from industries including offshore petroleum, fishing, pearling, Defence and Border Force, and be capable of lifting vessels out of the water so they could be serviced, repaired or stored.

Anyone unable to attend who believes their business can contribute is urged by the Northern Lift Consortium to register their interest via the ICN gateway https://gateway.icn.org.au/project/4658/darwin-ship-lift-besix-watpac