Community Encouraged to Provide Input on Cairns Shipping Project EIS

Ports North is continuing its consultation with the region’s stakeholders and will be consulting with the community ahead of submitting its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Cairns Shipping Development Project later this year.

Ports North Chairman Brett Moller said community input into the Cairns Shipping Development Project was vital to deliver a project that truly reflected community sentiment.

“This is one of the most rigorous EIS of its type ever undertaken in Australia and we are determined to ensure it meets the needs of the tourism industry and the community,” he said. “We want to understand from the people of Cairns how important tourism and cruise shipping is to them and the community.”

Members of the public will have the chance to learn about the progress of the project and the options being considered at the Ports North display in the Fred Moule Pavilion at the Cairns Show from Wednesday July 16 to Friday July 18.

Mr Moller said the extensive range of studies being undertaken for the EIS was delivering important new insights.

“We have been examining a range of sea and land options for placement of dredged material,” he said. “By using different modelling techniques, we already have been able to reduce the volume of silt that needs to be removed to widen the channel.”

Mr Moller said another important finding was the increased value of the project to the local and State economy.

“Our latest economic analysis shows a major increase in regional economic benefit to $634 million over the next 25 years. This is an increase of $198 million (or 45%) on the previous forecast of $436 million due to increased expenditure per passenger identified by Access Economics.”

Mr Moller said there also were increased employment benefits with the forecast number of additional flow-on jobs each year of 680 per annum by 2041, up from the previous forecast of 540 extra jobs.

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Press Release, July 15, 2014