T-PORTS will commence early site works on its Wallaroo grain facility next month.
The company has spent about six years developing and planning for the project, to be located on Chatfield Terrace.
This comes after Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Corey Wingard signed off on Crown Development Status for the project earlier this month.
The facility will feature 20,500 tonnes of grain capacity through steel silos, as well as a 550-metre rock causeway and a bunker site which will store up to 240,000 tonnes.
Grain will be conveyed to a ship loader for loading onto transshipment vessel the MV Lucky Eyre, which will operate between the new site and its current home at Lucky Bay.
“There are efficiencies and cost savings in building this port on the opposite side of the Spencer Gulf to Lucky Bay,” T-Ports CEO Kieran Carvill said.
“The port at Wallaroo is the logical next step in the T-Ports journey following the successful first harvest and export season at Lucky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula.
“Planning has included significant scoping studies of the coastal environment, shoreline, inland freight networks and economic feasibility to ensure the port’s long-term sustainability.”
T-Ports hopes to have final development approvals by the end of the year.
“The construction process will take between 12 and 18 months and during that phase we will look to utilise South Australian expertise and contractors as we have done at Lucky Bay,” he said.
“We are pleased to welcome Allied Grain Systems as the builder of the grain export facility and we expect up to 200 jobs will be created during the construction phase.
“We’ve been confident about this project for the past six years — we wouldn’t be doing it if we weren’t — but it’s good more of the outside can see it for themselves and how it works.
“We look forward to offering competition for growers in the Yorke Peninsula and Mid North regions and delivering significant supply chain savings.”
Mr Carvill said the site would be ready to receive grain from the 2021-22 harvest.
“South Australian grain growers are the first to benefit from our innovative transshipment technology positioning port infrastructure close to a product’s origin,” he said.
“Having a larger number of regional shallow-water ports, rather than transporting commodities to city ports on trucks or trains, makes sense.”

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