Ferry service to be privatised

Council agrees to outsource Daintree link

l DOUGLAS SHIRE

| Nick Dalton

EXPRESSIONS of interest to own and operate the Daintree River ferry are to be called after the Douglas Shire Council agreed to stop plans to build a new four-lane vessel to replace the ageing and costly current boat.

Cr Roy Zammataro successfully moved at a council meeting on Tuesday last week to rescind the August 9, 2002 motion to build a new ferry and to invite expressions of interest for the provision of the Daintree River service.

“Note it is in the public interest to invite expressions of interest before inviting written tenders and (4) continue with associated landside infrastructure upgrades on both riverbanks,” his motion read.

All councillors, including Mayor Michael Kerr, voted for the new motion. Cr Zammataro said the council paid $4.5 million for the existing ferry in May 2021 and since then it had cost ratepayers significant costs in maintenance and repairs.

He said about $645,000 had been spent upgrading the vessel to pass an Australian Maritime Safety Authority inspection in March this year.

Cr Zammataro said it was not within the council’s scope to run a ferry service which at times required staff to be diverted to assist.

He said the replacement cost was in the vicinity of $6.5m.

“Or is that in the vicinity of $10m?”

Cr Zammataro said the ferry had been “a financial disaster” and ongoing costs could exceed $400,000 a year over the next four years.

He said the timelines for the new ferry kept getting pushed back, “now until August 2025, and we haven’t even started yet (on construction)”.

Deputy mayor Lisa Scomazzon said she did not have any confidence that a new ferry would be operating by 2028 when the current vessel would have to be taken to Cairns for a full safety inspection.

She said the council was no closer to a new ferry than it was three years ago.

Cr Peter McKeown said he was against any further delays but conceded that there was no reason expressions of interest shouldn’t be called but that landside works on both sides of the river continue in the meantime.

Cr Abigail Noli said the council had paid six or seven times too much for the current ferry.

“We should never have even bought the ferry,” she said.

Despite the misgivings by Mayor Michael Kerr and Cr McKeown, the motion to rescind the August 9, 2022 motion and for expressions of interest to be called to own and operate the Daintree River ferry was passed unanimously.