Spirit of Tasmania IV undergoing sea trials in Finland. Photo: courtesy Spirit of Tasmania
The Tasmanian Government is to focus efforts on building a berth for their new Spirit ferries at Devonport after plans to upgrade existing berths were ruled out.
The government concedes that the port’s new Terminal 3 may not be completed until February 2027 but is hopeful of an October 2026 completion date.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff says the government will do what it can to have the new berth ready as soon as possible.
“This situation we are in is extremely regrettable … we have said we will sort the Spirits, fix the GBEs and back Tasmania’s tourism industry,” he says.
“That’s what we are doing.”
Transport Minister Eric Abetz says investigations found that upgrading Berth 1E to enable them to bring the ferries to Devonport sooner would be too risky.
“Options to modify Berth 1E and 2E were investigated but found any modifications would provide limited benefits, cost the taxpayer up to $60 million and would require significant timely and costly compensation and renegotiation of agreements,” he says.
“It would also pose risks of vessel allision” Abetz says. Allision are accidental contacts between vessels or objects, moving or not.
“Ultimately, any financial investment into Berth 1E and Berth 2E would outweigh the benefits of bringing forward the timeline.”
The first new Spirit of Tasmania vessel was due to depart Finland in the coming weeks; operator TT-Line is now considering leasing or chartering the vessel during the interim period.
“It is still planned that the vessels will come to Tasmania for finalisation of fit-out,” Abetz says.
The minister says leasing the vessels will avoid the need for vessel storage costs and admits that leasing of their second vessel, due for delivery in late 2025, is also on the cards.
The Tasmania Government says that if leasing doesn’t work, TT-Line will look at medium-term storage in Tasmania and that TasPorts will not charge TT-Line to store the vessels.
Abetz says the government expects TasPorts and TT-Line to work together.
