Hopes brand-new Bass Strait service will cause less expensive shipping for farmers

Cycling

“We are taking all those cattle north and so the trend is there, we just have to respond to it.

“We’re rather positive that it’ll be a make-or-break for our business and it’ll be a huge modification for the method livestock are drawn from the islands.”

The new service is expected to be cheaper for farmers by reducing reliance on Bass Strait Freight’s home port at Bridport, in northern Tasmania, and the headaches that come with its shallow channel.

The service direct to Port Anthony will take about 15 hours and is expected to be up and running by the end of October.

The privately owned Victorian port at Corner Inlet is co-investing in the berth and livestock facilities along with Mr Harris.

Mr Harris has already been running services from King and Flinders islands to Port Welshpool, not far from Port Anthony, but he said it had its limitations.

“That center does not enable you to combine freight,” he stated.

“So we believe we can drop the expense rate of livestock and basic freight by about 50 percent by going direct to the [Australian] mainland.”

Avoiding Bridport’s shallow channel

Bass Strait Freight has been pushing to secure a regular direct shipping route from King and Flinders islands to Victoria for some years.

Its bid to reinstate port access at Apollo Bay, a service that existed for more than a decade until 2022, was unsuccessful.

Sailing through Bridport’s shallow channel has caused massive headaches for Mr Harris too.

It is so shallow that most large boats have only a half-hour window either side of high tide to cross it.

Bass Strait Freight has purchased two excavators to better maintain the channel, but Mr Harris admits it is not a permanent solution.

“After 32 years of operations, with the sand developing outside the existing entryway, there will not be a routine shipping service from Bridport to Flinders Island if we can’t get the channel straightened,” he said.

“That’s why we are establishing Plan B to service the island from the north.”

Mr Harris said there was also potential to source cattle from northern Tasmania.

Livestock and freight will travel on the modified Matthew Flinders IV, which will be permanently based at Port Anthony.

He said this vessel was much more vulnerable to running aground when entering the harbour at Bridport.

Cattle markets changing

Farmers on King and Flinders islands produce roughly half of Tasmania’s total cattle herd.

Pricing and seasonal conditions dictate where those cattle end up each year.

A number of beef producers on both islands have expanded their herds.

They are acquiring more land in your area and some are ending up stock on farms and feedlots interstate.

Mr Harris’s strategy to move bigger varieties of livestock from King and Flinders islands north, bypassing mainland Tasmania, has its critics throughout the regional beef market.

Flinders farmer Nick Campion thinks the advantages will stack up in the long run.

“When we go north, we’re not handling a tidal port,”

Mr Campion said.

“Even though it’s 16 hours rather than 8 hours back to Tassie, we can turn that boat around straight away and come back.

“The larger producers have already developed their markets and systems around taking their stock north.

“It will just contribute to Tasmania; it will not detract,” he stated.