Questions continue to be raised in the West Australian media and community about the environmental impact of Westport on Cockburn Sound and the need for a new port in the first place after far lower container ship traffic increases into Fremantle than predicted.
A recent report in the West Australian revealed that there may be a significant blowout for the Westport project with a new port not opening potentially now until 2042 – several years after it has been touted for opening by the Westport task force.
A Westport spokeswoman quoted in the article said the current estimate was for the port to be operational from the late 2030s, but the final delivery timeframe will be determined by the business case.
“It has long been envisaged that the Kwinana Outer Harbour will be required to service Western Australia’s growth in trade, regardless of the Perth Freight Link,” she was quoted as saying in the West article.
The article went on, “There’s long been debate over when the project — carrying a price tag of potentially $10 billion — will be needed.
Predicted container traffic increase “effectively stalled”
“A 2022 report by the Westport task force claimed Freo port could move no more than 1.2 million containers annually because of pressure on road and rail links.
“They would ‘begin to reach capacity around the mid-2030s’, the State Government-backed review found.
“But container traffic has effectively stalled.
“Fremantle Ports moved 810,000 container units in 2023, a lift of just 2.7 per cent over five years. That’s far below the 3.25 per cent annual growth underpinning the Westport taskforce report.”
Save Cockburn Sound says the Sound’s environment is too important to jeopardise through badly planned industrial developments. Potentially costing West Aussie taxpayers’ billions of dollars, is the Government 100 per cent sure it is needed?
“Worse than Roe 8”
Another report in the West revealed conservationists have been warning about the potential impacts of widening the Anketell Road from Kwinana Freeway to the new Port on endangered and threatened species including Carnaby’s black cockatoos and quendas.
Widening Anketell Road will knock over 40 hectares of endangered Banksia Woodlands, according to documents submitted by Main Roads for environmental review, said the West report.
A further 16 hectares of core foraging habitat for the endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoo will also be removed where quenda – a marsupial species – has also been spotted.
Greens Member of the Legislative Council Brad Pettitt was reported in the article to have said there was a risk the port and road would together deliver a worse environmental outcome than Roe 8.
Roe 8 was the proposed extension of the Roe Highway to Fremantle Port that were ditched seven years ago due to widespread concerns of its impact on the Beeliar Wetland.
“There are big question marks around the future of Westport,” Dr Pettitt was quoted as saying. “The demand and need for Westport … is actually much further away than anybody thought.”
Flower power
According to the same article in the West, botanists have recently claimed to have also found a rare Queen of Sheba Orchid near to the Banksia Woodland earmarked for the chop.
“(The) continual incursion on these areas for infrastructure development is not sustainable in the long term,” said a spokesperson for the Wildflower Society of Western Australia in the article.
Save Cockburn Sound says there are already substantial question marks over the impact of Westport on the Sound’s aquatic environment and now there appears to be questions around the development’s environmental impact on the land as well. At what point do the potential losses of Westport outweigh the increasingly questionable benefits?