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Resources Shire of Ashburton – www.ashburton.wa.gov.au
Freight
Ports The Pilbara has several of Australia’s largest ports, due to high volume iron ore exports. Steady investment over the past few decades will need to continue to provide the general cargo capacity needed to drive economic diversification and ongoing resources sector growth. With global growth shifting increasingly to the Indian Ocean Region, Pilbara Ports is able to service new general cargo trade routes as well as the growth of northern WA. Investment priorities include: • Capacity expansion or establishment of the ports of Dampier, Ashburton and Anketell are needed to overcome capacity constraints at Port Hedland. • Increased general cargo capacity is needed to accommodate the growth of direct freight from Singapore. Intermodal Ongoing investment in increased maritime to road intermodals will be required to support regional growth. Rail There is an opportunity to realise generational scale economic returns and long term, stable investor returns through a government-industry collaboration to progressively extend freight rail north from Geraldton to the Pilbara cities. The economic benefit is derived through the productivity gains and cost reductions freight rail delivers for a large subset of goods. The capacity to move goods at rates comparable to the rest of the country would normalise the cost of living and doing business unlocking a more normal pattern of investment and growth. The availability of land and plentiful land, renewable energy and water would enable the middle of the economy to fill out, including the range of light industry, small businesses, processing and manufacturing that support existing and new industries seeking to capitalise on local resources. These developments are essential to establishing larger settlements, diversifying the northern WA economy and ensuring these regions remain competitive. These are long term plans to be considered in stages, but much as with the Ghan line to Darwin, it will be necessary to establish all forms of freight transport across WA to fully realise the potential of WA’s north.
82 | WA Investment Prospectus
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