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Australia's Brisbane has blueprint for large-ship cruise terminal

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Ann Sherry - long-time advocate for a new Brisbane cruise ship terminal
The Courier Mail, Brisbane’s daily newspaper, has reported that Port of Brisbane has earmarked land for a future A$100m terminal to cater for supersized cruise ships.

The terminal at the mouth of the Brisbane River would cater for the large ships that cannot dock at the Portside terminal at Hamilton because of height restrictions sailing under the Gateway Bridge and a lack of turning space in that stretch of the river.

Currently ships longer than 270 meters have to dock at the grain terminal at Fisherman Island, which is not designed for handling passengers.

The proposed site will be included in planned amendments to the Brisbane Port Land Use Plan, the blueprint that governs future developments at the port.

The paper quoted Port of Brisbane gm, Peter Keyte, as saying the project is in the early stages and it will be up to the Queensland government to determine who will build and finance the project.

‘In the last 12 months there have been 35 cruise ship dockings at Fisherman Island from about 12 five years ago,’ Keyte said.

‘Fisherman Island is a heavy industrial area and cruise ship passengers and trucks don’t mix,’ he said.

‘There is a need for a purpose-built facility.’

Carnival Australia ceo Ann Sherry has strenuously lobbied for a terminal that will accommodate the company’s large ships that cannot get to Portside, a residential and retail complex, as well as Brisbane’s international cruise ship terminal, which opened in 2006 at a cost of A$750m.

‘We have been in discussions with the Port of Brisbane and the government on the future needs of the booming cruise industry in Queensland,’ Sherry said.

‘The current cruise facility in Brisbane has limitations which restrict it to smaller ships.’

She said the allocation of the land is ‘good news’ for tourism and the A$3.2bn cruise industry.