$1.5b NT prawn farm work now underway in earnest

Seafarms’ construction partner Canstruct has wasted no time starting key work on stage 1a of Project Sea Dragon after a further $92.5m was raised for the Territory prawn farm project.

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SEAFARMS’ construction partner Canstruct has wasted no time starting key work on stage 1a of Project Sea Dragon after a further $92.5m was raised two weeks ago for the Territory prawn farm project.

Work began on Canstruct’s initial $78m Legune Station Grow Out facility last Friday.

The first 21 buildings to establish the construction accommodation village are now on site and being prepared for set up.

Canstruct is also mobilising significant equipment to begin the job of moving, placing and compacting around 3 million cubic metres of earth to establish the farm.

This will mean 36 10ha ponds, 36 1ha nursery ponds and the associated supply and discharge canals.

In addition, tenders have been received for the long delivery four seawater intake pumps that are each capable of moving 7000 litres a second. Installation of these pumps is scheduled for late next year.

At both the Bynoe Harbour Breeding facility and the Exmouth Founder Stock Centre, work packages have been awarded for detailed engineering of buildings and utilities. These works are expected to start in a little over six weeks.

The procurement of water treatment components and systems have also started.

Project Sea Dragon aims to produce more than 150,000 tonnes of tiger prawns a year at sites in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Stage 1a is designed to produce 6000 tonnes of premium black tiger prawns within the first full 12 months of operation.

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The project includes a founder stock centre at Exmouth in Western Australia, the hatchery and breeding centre near Darwin, and the development of about 400ha of production and nursery ponds at Legune ­Station, plus the upstream and downstream facilities at Legune and other sites in the NT.

Seafarms says the $18.3m Western Australian government-sponsored sealing of the Moonamang Rd continues to be advanced.

When finished, it will provide an all-weather sealed road from Kununurra to the Legune Station boundary. It will ensure the company can efficiently move fresh prawns from where they will be grown and harvested at Legune to the planned processing plant near Kununurra all year round.