Why ports, freight and logistics need to be viewed as one connected supply chain — and why that matters for Tasmania’s productivity, resilience and long-term prosperity.
Posted
07 August 2026
As an island state, Tasmania’s prosperity is shaped by the strength, reliability and efficiency of the supply chains that link our producers, customers, communities and industries to national and global markets.
With 99 per cent of Tasmania’s freight arriving by ship, ports sit at the centre of that system. But they do not operate in isolation. They are part of a broader network that includes road, rail, shipping, aviation, customers, industry and government.
That was the message I shared this week at the Tasmanian Transport Association State Conference - if Tasmania wants to remain competitive, we need to think and act as one single connected supply chain.
When we talk about ports, it is easy to focus on physical assets — wharves, berths, terminals and ships. But modern ports are much more than infrastructure. A fifth-generation port is an enabler of trade, productivity, industry confidence, and economic growth.
Port performance has consequences across the whole supply chain — for customers, carriers, producers, regional communities and the broader economy. That is why the way ports are planned, funded and connected, matters well beyond the waterfront.
TasPorts sees its role as broader than owning and operating assets. We are part of Tasmania’s productivity, resilience and economic performance, with responsibility for infrastructure that underpins the state’s freight task. TasPorts contributes approximately $2.3 billion to Tasmania’s Gross State Product each year, directly employs more than 300 people and supports around 8,000 jobs statewide.
Over the coming years, we’re investing more than half a billion dollars in infrastructure projects to renew ageing assets, maintain safe and reliable operations, and strengthen Tasmania’s freight, logistics and tourism gateways. That responsibility to the people and state of Tasmania is not lost on us and it’s something we take very seriously.
The opportunity is to build on that role by treating ports, freight and logistics as one connected supply chain. Tasmania cannot afford fragmented planning. When one part of the system is under pressure, the impacts are felt elsewhere through delays, duplication and increased cost.
That means matching port capacity with strong land-side connections, coordinated planning, practical customer engagement and disciplined long-term investment.
Much of Tasmania’s port infrastructure has served the state for decades and is now operating closer to its limits, so we need to renew critical assets before constraints affect customers, key industries or the broader economy.
In some cases, that means new infrastructure. In others, it means making better use of the assets we already have.
The principle is simple: invest where needed, optimise where possible, rationalise legacy constraints where appropriate, and remove waste from the whole supply chain.
Projects such as QuayLink at Devonport, the Macquarie Wharf Redevelopment in Hobart, the remediation of Berth 4 at Burnie, the replacement of the Bell Bay Shiploader and the Bass Strait Renewable Energy Terminal at Bell Bay are not separate stories. Together, they reflect a broader strategy to strengthen the network, support key and emerging industries and secure Tasmania’s island economy for decades to come.
But infrastructure alone will not deliver the outcomes Tasmania needs.
The next phase of this work is already underway through TasPorts’ 2027 Port Master Plan. Developed over the next 12 months, it will provide a strategic framework to guide port development, infrastructure investment and land use across Tasmania’s four commercial ports, with a later phase to deliver Land Use Plans for King Island, Flinders Island, Stanley and Strahan.
The plan will align capacity, land use, service levels and investment with realistic demand, environmental constraints and financial sustainability. It will help assess the freight task TasPorts must support over the next 30 years, understand demand drivers, and identify where infrastructure, optimisation or efficiency improvements are required.
This planning cannot happen in isolation. It must be informed by industry, customers, transport operators, supply chain partners and our communities, overlaying their future needs with TasPorts’ network, asset and investment priorities.
We need to look at what Tasmania will require over the next 10, 20 and 30 years, including improvements outside the port boundary — in road, rail, scheduling, technology, operations or policy — where that delivers the greatest whole-of-supply-chain benefit.
Tasmania’s freight task is diverse, from containers, minerals, agriculture and forestry to fuel, fertiliser, cruise, Antarctic logistics and emerging renewable energy supply chains. That diversity is a strength, but it also means our planning needs to be coordinated, disciplined and future-focused.
Ports will always matter for an island economy. But ports alone are not enough. The real opportunity is to build a transport and logistics system that thinks and acts as one connected supply chain, with shared responsibility for Tasmania’s long-term competitiveness and prosperity.
The port is more than a link in the supply chain.
It is one of the places where Tasmania’s future is enabled.
Capt. Allan Gray
Chief Executive Officer - TasPorts