Wyndham Port
Founded in the 1885 was the landing point of thousands of gold prospectors and cattle graziers. The Port today has an important role in the mining, pastoral, sugar and tourism industries in the East Kimberley.
Ordco Wyndham Port
History
The port was established to service the East Kimberley cattle industry pioneered by the Durack family and others. It was gazetted as a port in 1886, with vessels berthing at a jetty at Antons Landing - the remains of which can be seen at low water at the northern end of Foreshore Drive near the museum.
In 1917, a new timber jetty was built on the site of the current jetty to service the newly opened meat works. This jetty was positioned to make use of a natural deep water basin to allow for larger, deep draft ships. In the early 1970's the current steel and concrete jetty was built to replace the original timber structure and the unique ‘horseshoe' shape was completed allowing the more efficient movement of cargo on and off the jetty. Originally, a light rail loop was used to move cargo from the jetty to the meat-works and storage sheds, one of the original trains can be seen at the front of the port administration building. Up until the 1980's, frozen meat was exported from Wyndham to overseas markets. Since the closure of the meat works in 1986, live cattle exports have become a major trade for the port.
Since the early days of European settlement, Wyndham Port has played a major role in connecting the East Kimberley to the outside world. In the early years, when road transport was non-existent, the only way to get people or goods into the area was by ship. Stateships, the government owned shipping line, operated a regular service from Fremantle to Wyndham from 1908 to 1995. This was replaced by a government-subsidised service operated by Norwest Shipping, which still calls at Wyndham every 17 days using the container vessel the MV ‘SCS Anne'. This is still a vital service to the East Kimberley and provides an alternative to road transport.
After over 100 years of government control, in 1999 the operation of the port was handed over to the Kununurra based Ord River District Co-Operative (Ordco).
Present and Future
Wyndham Port is the only deep-water port between Broome and Darwin. Exports include live cattle, raw sugar from the Ord River irrigation area and molasses. Imports include fuel oil, Ammonium Nitrate for the mining industry (in particular the Argyle Diamond Mine) and general cargo. The opening of the Sally Malay Nickel mine in early 2004 provides up to 80,000 tonnes of Nickel concentrate exported to China every year. Total exports of sugar have stabilized at 50,000t per year and will not increase until additional land is made available for the further development of the Ord River Irrigation Area at Kununurra.
Approximately 10% of Australia's live cattle exports go through Wyndham Port. The cattle are sourced from the many cattle stations in the East Kimberley and are exported mainly to Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines with some shipments to the Persian Gulf. The largest ships that visit the port are fuel tankers at 190m long and 50,000 tonnes Deadweight with a draft of 8.5m.
Pilotage is compulsory for all vessels over 500 tonnes entering Wyndham Port limits. For larger vessels, the pilot boards the ship at Lacrosse Island, which is 45 nautical miles north of the jetty. This makes Wyndham one of the longest pilotages in Australia. Wyndham has a maximum tidal range of 8.2m and tidal streams run at up to 7 knots through the narrower sections of the Cambridge Gulf passage.
WARNING
For safety and security reasons, NO access is
allowed into the port area.
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