South Australian Port Masterplan — Long-Term Strategic Planning of Seven Ports

The brief

Flinders Ports commissioned the complete port strategy for all seven South Australian ports under its control, covering short, medium and long-term horizons beyond fifty years.

The challenge

Seven ports, one plan. The facilities range from the Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal to bulk, cruise, ferry and general cargo operations at Port Pirie, Port Lincoln, Port Giles, Klein Point, Wallaroo and Thevenard — different trades, different fleets, different hinterlands, and in several cases genuinely different answers on whether the port has a long-term future.

The plan had to work for each port individually, for the state's trading position as a whole, and against fifty years of change in vessel size, commodity demand and landside logistics.

What we did

We delivered the entire masterplan, including capacity analysis of the Port of Adelaide and of every bulk, cruise and general cargo operation across the other six ports, forecasting capacity under multiple scenarios and identifying phased infrastructure needs at each.

Alongside detailed trade forecasting we built first-principles fleet forecasts, including long-term Australian and international container fleets, and assessed their capacity and handling consequences. Supply chain and origin-destination mapping and performance analysis underpinned the demand case.

The study also examined all of Flinders Ports' business arms, including assessment of its own container terminal operations against those of private operators.

Further scope covered road and rail network capacity and future needs, land use planning and land banking to protect future trade continuity, channel depth and width requirements, governance alignment with State and Federal legislation, staged cost estimates and cost-benefit analysis, funding advice, and environmental and sustainability planning with international compliance guidance and carbon reduction initiatives at every port.

Delivery involved engagement with multiple government departments including the Department of Transport, Land Corp and Defence.

The outcome

It is the most detailed port masterplan undertaken in Australia.

Black Quay was subsequently commissioned to deliver the FEED designs for both the FACT terminal rearrangement and the berth extension at Port of Adelaide, and to manage the proposed automation planning. It directly informed Flinders Ports' decision to invest approximately $360 million in the Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal — a major berth extension, new cranes and terminal automation.

 

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