Bell Bay boom: Tasmania's 'sleeping giant' now awakening

Bell Bay is primed to welcome two new billion-dollar energy projects courtesy of ABEL Energy and SunCable, and Susie Bower says there is no shortage of other industries eyeing off the location.

Speaking to The Examiner at a major projects conference in Launceston, Bell Bay Advanced Manufacturing Zone's chief officer explained why the industrial precinct is creating such a buzz.

What has brought about the booming interest in Bell Bay?

The catalyst has probably been the hydrogen talk and everything that sits around it.

You've got your domestic hydrogen, export hydrogen, and then you need your energy input so you get onshore and offshore wind and solar projects as well.

I think too in many ways I see Bell Bay as a sleeping giant that is now awakening.

A lot of people have been looking around for developments and they need available industrial land near a deepsea port. They need access to energy and water and a skilled workforce and we tick every one of those boxes.

Our port is only at 25 per cent utilisation in Bell Bay so we've got a huge opportunity and capacity to grow and I think that's why all these businesses - not just hydrogen and renewable stuff but also mineral processing, construction companies - are all looking at Bell Bay as their preferred location to set up.

SunCable [is] one of the largest ones we've had for a very long time - the last manufacturing base of that size was probably Rio Tinto which was 68 years ago.

Is this the most exciting time for Bell Bay yet?

I've not seen the buzz around Bell Bay as it is right now.

We've had projects come before and they haven't happened.

I think there might be some concerned in the community with 'is this really going to happen'? - but some of these projects I'm looking at, they're definitely going to be happening.

What we need to understand is they're billion dollar projects so they take two, three, four years to come to fruition.

Someone like ABEL Energy for example, which is a methanol company, their final investment decision is not until the end of next year.

For all intents and purposes that project is looking really good - they've bought land, they're doing their feasibility, they've got a Headstart funding application in with the federal government.

All of that is looking really good, but at the same time, there won't be any shovels in the ground until after that final investment decision is made.

That's a $3 billion project so they need to do their due diligence to make sure it's right for them.

We heard from Maersk [on Tuesday], they're a shipping company, they've indicated they've got 121 ships on order at the moment to be powered by methanol, so the demand for methanol is going to be go through the roof.

We're sitting in a prime position to be supplying that fuel for the future of shipping.

Where do you see Bell Bay in 10-20 years time? What could its growth do for the greater George Town region?

When you drive around the industrial area at the moment you see a lot of industrial land - I don't think we'll have any. There'll be a development on every single piece of land.

We're going to be at capacity in 10 to 15 years' time.

With everything that's happening in the world and that transition to renewables, which we have been at the forefront of, that's not going to slow down - if anything it's going to accelerate.

Where we're sitting is prime for that, and this doesn't just affect the North of the state, this is affecting the whole state.

I had an electrical company from Hobart come to me and say 'with all the opportunities happening we want to set an office up in Bell Bay', so these are opportunities for the whole state.

Will there be a rush to secure vacant industrial land at Bell Bay?

There are pretty much only two land owners down at Bell Bay - TasPorts and Rio Tinto. Most of it is with Rio.

Leigh Darcy, who's the chair of the [BBAMZ] board, is also handling all of those enquiries for Rio on site.

He's conducted a master plan with the co-ordinator-general's office to make sure that when they're looking at all of the land that's available, they have a diversity of industry.

They're not just giving it all to hydrogen and replacing one industry with another industry, they're actually looking at construction, electrical, hydrogen companies and onshore and offshore wind.

Closures can happen at any time ... so you need diversification to make sure you've got a safe future for all the younger Tasmanians that are starting school now.