Welcome Centre-in-waiting at Eden on the New South Wales south coast

This follows a A$44m wharf extension and upgrade completed in August 2019 that was built to eliminate the need for tender boats to ferry passengers from ships to shore. It can take ships up to 325 metres in length.

Hit by pandemic

Both the extended wharf and Welcome Centre. which will also be home to the Visitor Information Centre, have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and Eden’s population of around 3,500 await the resumption of cruising.

Halfway between Sydney and Melbourne and a gateway to the federal capital of Canberra, Eden is one of dozens of regional ports around Australia’s coastline, as far flung as Broome to Bundaberg and Kangaroo Island to Thursday Island, looking toward an initial period of controlled domestic cruising for domestic passengers.

ACA’s groundwork

The Australian Cruise Association’s CEO Jill Abel, a guest at Friday’s opening of the Welcome Centre, said the organisation has been working with local and state governments developing infrastructure and access to regional ports around the country.