Delayed ferry return
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Journalist: Ros White — The arrival of the new SeaSA ferry has been delayed but the Wallaroo to Lucky Bay service will recommence in mid-November.
SeaSA managing director, Stuart Ballantyne, announced last Friday the new ferry “Aurora” would begin operating in mid-November, not mid-2010 as advised last October.
Mr Ballantyne said the Aurora was currently being pre-cut in Vietnam and then construction would start.
“We will be taking on staff again in August and we are going flat chat to get the service up and running again in mid-November,” he said.
SeaSA suspended its ferry service between Wallaroo and Lucky Bay in October last year, after the withdrawal from the market of the planned interim vessel, “Seaway”, by its new owners the Abu Dhabi Government.
The Seaway was loaded on a ship last month for its journey to the Middle East.
Mr Ballantyne said he was very pleased state cabinet met on December 17 and approved Major Project Status for the ferry terminal development in Lucky Bay.
“The Department of Environment and Heritage (DEH) had been contesting an issue of high sea level rise,” he explained.
“Hopefully, we can now build our new terminal building where the current terminal is and not a kilometre up the road.
“We are hopeful of resolving an ILUA (Indigenous Land Use Agreement) on the Lucky Bay side by mid-February, which will enable us to have a permanent lease instead of an annual licence.
“The issue with the Copper Coast council in relation to the intersection of Jetty Road and Heritage Drive has also been resolved.”
Mr Ballantyne said his company had provisional planning approval for its Wallaroo terminal building, which the Development Assessment Commission was processing as a non-complying development, and had still not been informed by the DAC on its approval.
District Council of the Copper Coast chief executive officer, Peter Dinning, said the DAC was still awaiting a “Statement of Effect” to be supplied by the applicant in relation to car parking before final approval could be granted.
Construction soon
DCCC mayor Paul Thomas said he was pleased to hear of a mid-November recommencement date for the SeaSA ferry service, although council had been hoping for an earlier start, but it had not been advised of a starting date for the construction of a multi-storey terminal at Wallaroo.
“We will be contacting SeaSA and our suggestion will be that construction start as soon as possible, which will certainly build confidence in the area,” he said.
“One of the problems at the terminal was the amount of parking available and this would be less during a construction period.
“If a lot of this building could be done while the ferry is not operating, the car parking issue could be eliminated.
“Council will work to redesign the intersection of Heritage Drive and Jetty Road to allow the movement of heavy vehicles, as Transport SA deemed the intersection was too tight for these vehicles to negotiate safely.”