Islander fury at red tape port

TASMANIA’S peak farming body says excessive red tape is preventing access to a key Victorian port and compounding the state’s freight issues. 

TasFarmers, warns delays in gaining freight access for cattle to the Apollo Bay port in Victoria is discouraging investment, and undermining farmer confidence and effectively signalling that Victoria is closed for business. 

The organisation says shipping company, Bass Strait Freight, has been seeking access to Victoria’s Apollo Bay since 2022 to transport cattle and other produce to and from King Island to Victoria. 

TasFarmers President Ian Sauer said this was an example of the private sector attempting to solve a problem and invest its own money with their efforts being made utterly impossible by the port management bureaucracy at Apollo Bay. 

“If you’re a farmer on King or Flinders Island, you can’t send your produce directly into Victorian markets or source farm inputs efficiently because the Apollo Bay port is tied up by red tape and uncooperative port management,” he said. 

Mr Sauer said the Bass Straight Freight Company was seeking to re-establish a freight service between King Island and Victoria. 

However, bureaucratic road blocks were being used to delay what should be a very straightforward project with great benefits for the Port, local Victorian businesses, and King Island Farmers. 

Apollo Bay is the closest commercial port to King Island on mainland Australia. Other port access into Victoria exists at Geelong, Port Melbourne, Welshpool and Portland. 

However, all these other ports require steaming twice the distance from the port of Grassy on King Island. 

TasFarmers says it is unacceptable that livestock need to be on the vessel for twice the time and much greater expense than is necessary. 

“We used to have a service between King Island and Melbourne which ser viced 80 per cent of the island’s freight needs,” Mr Sauer said. 

“It was cancelled in 2022 when the Tasmanian government-owned ship ping service Bass Island Line with drew the service. 

Now we have a private Tasmanian business willing to step in to restore the essential direct link to Victoria, but they are being stonewalled by red and green tape. 

"It’s disgraceful and nothing short of a schmozzle.” 

Mr Sauer said the Apollo Bay wharf can accommodate the boats. 

Apollo Bay is 146km from the commercial port of Grassy on King Island, whereas Welshpool and Portland are 282 km from Grassy. 

Tasfarmers is calling on the Victorian Government to urgently step in to support business development in the Apollo Bay and Colac region and to integrate King Island farmers with Western Victorian beef processors.