LIVE exports started in Port Hedland last Saturday with a shipment of 2000 cattle heading to Indonesia.
Port Hedland export depot owner Paul Brown said the process went smoothly with the cattle calm and able to load well.
He said the “return of live export shipments from Port Hedland will be a relief for the Pilbara pastoralists who have obviously had to truck cattle much greater distances to export ports or to southern markets”.
“Everyone in the Pilbara is very keen to see live exports rebound here in Port Hedland,” Mr Brown said.
“It’s better for the welfare of the cattle and it obviously helps the pastoralist’s profitability.”
Mr Brown said although the depot, located about 20 kilometres from the port, had not been in operation for three years, he had kept it in working order, with AQIS registration and machinery on-site.
“I’m very relieved, having kept our good faith with the industry so that when exports from Port Hedland were revived, the industry had a facility to use that was ready at short notice,” he said.
Mr Brown said Pilbara Ports had invested in a modern cattle loading ramp which had given exporters the confidence that Port Hedland was open for business again.
“This will give exporters plenty of opportunity to load vessels much more quickly, which was one of the bigger problems that was previously experienced in Port Hedland,” he said.
“For many years the industry was of the view that live exports were an afterthought during the mining boom, but there seems to be a new mindset at the port now.
“It’s been a tough six years since the previous Federal Labor government cut the industry off at the knees and the following quota restrictions from Indonesia punished the Pilbara more than anywhere else.
“Hopefully this new focus on the Pilbara and exports from Port Hedland will be more than just a once-off and we can see export numbers increasing each year, as we were before the 2011 cattle suspension.”
Mr Brown said the potential for Port Hedland as an export port for large numbers of cattle to China was significant since the bluetongue zone had been extended to cover the Broome port.
Port Hedland is now the northern most port able to load cattle on vessels for China.
“I think that Port Hedland and the Pilbara cattle industry have a very bright future with new investment from the port and with China knocking on the door,” Mr Brown said.
Speaking at ‘The New Pilbara’ economic summit in Perth last month, the Pilbara Ports Authority landside operations manager, Jon Giles, said the port was one small link in the industry but “proud to have been able to rejuvenate the cattle trade to this stage”.
“We are very pleased the first shipment of cattle had occurred,” Mr Giles said.
“Livestock was around before iron ore.
“It has a lot of history.
“Live exports is something we want to see in the Pilbara.”
Mr Giles said the port had three multi-user berths for the livestock to use.
It had new infrastructure, in the cattle loading ramp, which was designed to load the ships at lower tides and could line up to both decks of the trailer for onloading.
Mr Giles said the port had a depth of 22 metres and sometimes saw tidal ranges of 7.5m, which made it impossible to load, but the new loading ramp design would help to continue operation in those circumstances.
He said the port was in the process of acquiring Lumsden Point as an ongoing site for the loading of livestock into the future – which would keep the cattle separate from the rest of its operations.