Port Botany (seaport)
Encyclopedia
Botany Bay
Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...
in Sydney, Australia. The port is dominated by trade in containerised
Containerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
manufactured products, and to a lesser bulk liquid imports including petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
and natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
. It is Australia's second-largest container port, and is administered by the Sydney Ports Corporation.
History
Prior to 1960 Sydney's international shipping facilities were exclusively located in Port JacksonPort Jackson
Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...
, with bulk and break bulk
Break bulk cargo
In shipping, break bulk cargo or general cargo is a term that covers a great variety of goods that must be loaded individually, and not in intermodal containers nor in bulk as with oil or grain. Ships that carry this sort of cargo are often called general cargo ships...
docks at Darling Harbour and Walsh Bay. and bulk and ro-ro docks at Glebe Island and White Bay.
With the advent of containerization in the late 1950s it became clear that Sydney would require additional port facilities to cater for new cargo types. In the 1960s the government agency responsible for ports, the NSW Maritime Services Board, recommended that a new port complex be developed in the northern part of Botany Bay adjacent to Sydney Airport
Sydney Airport
Sydney Airport may refer to:* Sydney Airport, also known as Kingsford Smith International Airport, in Sydney, Australia* Sydney/J.A. Douglas McCurdy Airport, in Nova Scotia, Canada...
. The New South Wales Government endorsed the proposal in 1969 and in 1971 work commenced on two container terminals to the north, and a bulk liquid wharf and storage area to the south.
Bulk liquids
The bulk liquid terminal was completed in 1979 as a common-user facility for the import of natural gasNatural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
, oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
, petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
and chemicals. The terminal and storage area were progressively expanded during the 1980s including new ethylene
Ethylene
Ethylene is a gaseous organic compound with the formula . It is the simplest alkene . Because it contains a carbon-carbon double bond, ethylene is classified as an unsaturated hydrocarbon. Ethylene is widely used in industry and is also a plant hormone...
tanks and handling plant operated by ICI
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
, and AGL
Australian Gas Light Company
The Australian Gas Light Company was an Australian gas and electricity retailer. It was formed in Sydney in 1837, and supplied town gas for the first public lighting of a street lamp in Sydney in 1841 AGL was the second company to list on the Australian Stock Exchange. The company gradually...
storage caverns in 1994 and 2000.
Containers
Neville Wran
Neville Kenneth Wran, AC, CNZM, QC was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 until 1986. He was National President of the Australian Labor Party from 1980 to 1986 and Chairman of both the Lionel Murphy Foundation and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation from 1986...
who christened it Brotherson Dock in memory of former Maritime Services Board chairman Bill Brotherson who had died in 1975. The terminal was initially leased to Australian shipping company ANL
Australian National Lines
The Australian National Line was an Australian Government owned overseas and coastal shipping line that operated in Australia between 1956 and 1998, when the container shipping operations and naming rights were bought by French shipping line CMA CGM....
but was transferred to Patrick Corporation
Patrick Corporation
Patrick Corporation Ltd was an Australian publicly listed logistics conglomerate. Headed by CEO Chris Corrigan before it was absorbed by Toll Holdings in 2006, Patrick had interests in shipping, rail and aviation, including a 62% shareholding in airline Virgin Blue...
in the 1990s. In 2006 the Patrick Corporation merged with Toll Holdings
Toll Holdings
TOLL , properly TOLL Holdings Limited, is Australia's largest transport company, based in Melbourne, Victoria. The company has operations in road, rail, sea and air in 55 countries....
.
The southern container terminal opened in 1982, christened Brotherson Dock Two and leased to the newly-formed stevedore company Container Terminals Australia (CTAL). Despite both terminals being of equal size and quay length, Brotherson Dock Two struggled to compete with its northern neighbour. In its first full year of operation, Brotherson Two handled just 91,000 containers with a berth occupancy rate of 40 percent. In the 1990s CTAL ceased operations and the terminal lease was onsold to shipping company P&O
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is usually known as P&O, is a British shipping and logistics company which dated from the early 19th century. Following its sale in March 2006 to Dubai Ports World for £3.9 billion, it became a subsidiary of DP World; however, the P&O...
. In 2006 P&O was purchased by Dubai Ports
Dubai Ports World
DP World is a major operator of marine ports with 49 terminals in operation and a further 9 under development across 31 countries. In 2010, DP World handled nearly 50 million TEU across its portfolio from the Americas to Asia...
.
In December 2009, Hutchison Whampoa
Hutchison Whampoa
Hutchison Whampoa Limited or HWL of Hong Kong is a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL is an international corporation with a diverse array of holdings which includes the world's biggest port and telecommunication operations in 14...
invested on Terminal 3 through subsidiary Hutchison Port Holdings
Hutchison Port Holdings
Hutchison Port Holdings is a private holding company incorporated in British Virgin Islands, it is the subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa. In April 2006 Hutchison Whampoa sold 20% shares to PSA International, Hutchison Whampoa still owned 80%....
(and its wholly owned subsidiary Sydney International Container Terminals), signed a 30-year lease with Sydney Ports Corporation.