Planned and coordinated transition
Fremantle’s Inner Harbour has and will continue to play a key role in trade for our State.
The new port will be a number of years in the planning and development and Fremantle will continue to operate as Perth's primary port until this time.
While meeting trade needs from Fremantle’s Inner Harbour is not an immediate challenge, its ability to efficiently and effectively move containers in the future will be constrained by:
- Increased road congestion, mainly caused by passenger vehicles
- Larger ships which will require significant changes to operations that may not be at optimum efficiency or require significant infrastructure investment
- Supply chain trends and changes in operating environment, in terms of technology, policy and regulation, which may require significant infrastructure investment
As part of the business case, Westport will advise the Government on when and how trade will move from the Fremantle Inner Harbour to the Kwinana Outer Harbour.
This will include reviewing all the businesses established around a port, that directly or indirectly support its operations, to ensure as smooth a transition as possible, while keeping trade moving in the process.
Program timeline
Stage 1 and Stage 2
Westport Independent Taskforce: September 2017 - August 2020.
In August 2020 the Westport: Future port recommendations Stage 2 report was endorsed by the State Government. This followed the Westport Independent Taskforce’s preliminary work, which identified Kwinana as the best location after a comprehensive comparison of more than 20 different options.
Stage 3
Westport Program: Current stage
The Westport Planning Program in Stage 3 will provide advice to Government about when and how a new Kwinana port and logistics network should be developed, and will make investments and decisions to enable this development project. The business case will recommend to Government the high-level designs and best time and way to transition from the Inner Harbour in Fremantle to the Outer Harbour in Kwinana.