Query over huge wharf

TASMANIA’S Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff has been asked to explain why salmon producer Tassal requires a 195m wharf to support its single lease Okehampton Bay development at Triabunna

Tassal’s proposed wharf at Okehampton Bay in Tasmania. Picture: BURBURY CONSULTING

TASMANIA’S Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff has been asked to explain why salmon producer Tassal requires a 195m wharf to support its single lease Okehampton Bay development at Triabunna.

Planning documents show the marine farming shore facility that Tassal has applied to build includes a 195m wharf and dredging.

Some opponents to the development had previously raised concerns that the wharf’s size could allow the company to expand salmon farming operations into the Mercury Passage.

But the State Government last week stated that finfish farming in the Mercury Passage beyond the Okehampton Bay lease would be banned.

Despite this, Greens leader Cassy O’Connor has questioned why “such a whopper of a wharf” is necessary.

Ms O’Connor said Tasmanians had legitimate questions about the Liberals’ plans for fish farming on the East Coast and their relationship with the industry.

Mr Rockliff said that developments such as the Okehampton Bay proposal required infrastructure investment.

“That is a good thing, isn’t it? Jobs will be created to build the infrastructure,” Mr Rockliff said.

“Why wouldn’t a company that wanted to invest be prepared to ensure they have the infrastructure right?”

A Tassal spokeswoman said the wharf was 195m because of the depth of the water and the draw of Tassal’s harvest vessel.

The questions came after Resources Minister Guy Barnett was asked by Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff during Budget Estimates committee hearings last week whether the Government had been in discussions with public or private entities about the possibility of using Triabunna as a bulk export point for forest and other products.

Mr Barnett said at the time that the Government had discussions with a range of stakeholders across the forestry industry.

A government spokesman said this week Triabunna had not been an export option for the forest industry since the sale and destruction of the Triabunna Mill, and no information had been received to suggest that had changed.

Glamorgan Spring Bay general manager David Metcalf told the 2014 Triabunna Mill inquiry that there were alternative options to the existing wharf for bulk exports from Triabunna, east of the Spring Bay Seafoods mussel farm.