Meridien’s marina in Port Douglas is finally getting the treatment it deserves – a tenday dredge.
Boat operators were left scrambling to make alternative arrangements to unload passengers on Tuesday after the Hall’s dredge Evergreen began sucking 9000 cubic metres of sludge off the bottom of the marina.
“While the Port Douglas marina awaits the future planned redevelopment this first stage of dredging will ensure that all commercial vessels will be able to attain to their timetables regardless of the tides,” Meridien Marina Port Douglas general manager Jason Roles said.
However, not all operators of the commercial boats which will benefit from the dredging do not appear to have been notified.
“We had an idea something was in the wind,” one operator said, “but we didn’t know it was going to be this week.
“We got a call at 3pm (on Tuesday) to say we had to figure out where to unload passengers because the dredging had started.”
It is not believed the dredging will extend to the long-term berths in the A and B fingers of the marina, merely the commercial berths in the main marina.
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Source: Port Douglas & Mossman Gazette , August 26, 2010;