Freight Logistics and Transportation at the Port of Melbourne

This report provides recommendations for improving transportation and freight logistics at the Port of Melbourne. It emphasizes the importance of intermodal access through the development of dry ports and the Murray Basin rail project. The report suggests alternative port expansion concepts to address size restrictions and capacity concerns, moving away from conventional port planning that focuses solely on maritime perspectives. Strategic design, involving demand forecasting and port expansion strategy development, is recommended to mitigate size restrictions. The report references various sources to support its analysis and recommendations, highlighting the need for efficient hinterland connectivity and reduced traffic congestion around the port.

Running head: TRANSPORTATION AND FREIGHT LOGISTICS
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7) Recommendations
Intermodal access-
 Dry ports- Transport modes such as sea ports and dry ports are required to be efficiently
developed in the Port of Melbourne to promote intermodal access. These dry ports in
hinterland regions are recognised to promote intermodal transport and accessibility and
further offer transfer as well as transhipment functions with customs clearance services
(Pauka 2017).Dry port efficiently provide services to port of Melbourne for successful
management as well as temporary storage of containers and bulk cargoes which entered
or leaves the dry port by any mode of transport including inland waterways (Hunt 2018).
 Murray Basin rail Project- Planning process may be incorporated to bring the corridor
into operation if requires increase and further facilitate regular functioning of
developments in conjuncture with South Australian and New South Wales authorities.
The lower rail freight expenditure will consider trains taking a substantial share of the
freight task in the Murray Basin (Towers 2018). Exporters from the Murray Basin will
see well established modal competition between rail and ports. Furthermore the proposed
rail shuttle that is connecting the Port of Melbourne to suburban freight centres will
efficiently reduce the transport expense by around 10% and further reduce truck
congestion in the inner region of the city.
Towers (2018) indicate that Victoria will have to shift over 300% gross freight in
the following three decades. This however will be achievable by pushing the Port of
Melbourne towards its capacity that should be more than the expected limit and further
focusing on the congested and extensively populated inner city areas as more heavy
wheelers are required in order to shift goods (Sexton 2018).

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In addition to this it has been observed that the Andrews government has been
showing high level of interest for spending around $60 million port rail shuttle service in
order to connect the Port of Melbourne with freight centres in the external regions that tis
to the east, west and south of the city (Sexton 2018).
 Port expansion- Alternative port expansion concepts can be utilised by Port of
Melbourne in order to overcome these areas of challenges and further reduce the need for
land repossession works (Pauka 2017). Interstate primarily inter-capital city freight has
also been in the proposal list which will execute its operations over long distances on the
ARTC standard-gauge connection (Carey 2017). Regional chiefly exportation trade from
regional Victoria as well as southern NSW has further been proposed which typically
functions over short distances on the V/Line also utilizes the southern region of NSW
railway track in order to get the accessibility to the Melbourne Port.
 Second Port- Infrastructure Australia must consider the establishment of roadways and
rail linkages across the regions pertaining to Melbourne Water’s Western Treatment Plant
that is identified as a safeguarded location for birdlife (Pauka 2017). The port’s container
terminal would be set up in the offshore region, a 4km long industrial island that is linked
to the mainland through one and a half kilometre road as well as railway bridge which
would fundamentally reshape the Port of Philip Bay (Edwards 2015).
Size Restrictions and Capacity Concern
 Conventional port planning- Conventional port planning can be typically executed from
maritime perspective whereby the significance is positioned on well constructive
maritime accessibility, deep draught as well as land availability on the quay. Port of

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Melbourne recognises that hinterland connectivity cannot be a vital determinant for port
planning (Huang, Rashidi and Gardner 2015). Thus in order to circumvent the deficiency
of suitable inland waterway vessels Port of Melbourne must consider a viable option for
hinterland connectivity in order to improve the efficiency level of the port and reduce
severe traffic congestion around the port with extensive logistic expenses as well as
underutilized infrastructure possessions.
 Strategic design- Port of Melbourne has been based on the expansion of the existing
ports which may have and constructive effects such as the coastlines may depart and the
morphological procedures along the coast maybe immensely disturbed (Hunt 2018). The
efficient process of strategic design to mitigate size restrictions can be represented by two
step procedure which involves a conditional forecast of the demand for capacity issues
followed by the determination of the development of port expansion strategy in order to
access the Australian ports (Pauka 2017).

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References
Carey, A. 2017. Andrews government told to go west and build Melbourne's next port - in
2055. Available from https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/andrews-government-told-to-
go-west-and-build-melbournes-next-port--in-2055-20170517-gw6olm.html Accessed on 24
September 2018.
Edwards, J. 2015. Port of Melbourne to be privatised with 50-year lease to fund removal of level
crossings, legislation shows. Available from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-27/victorian-
government-to-lease-port-of-melbourne/6501348 Accessed on 24 September 2018.
Hunt, P. 2018. Murray Basin Rail upgrade taken out of V/Line’s hands. Available from
https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/victoria/murray-basin-rail-upgrade-taken-out-of-
vlines-hands/news-story/b4dfc2a8da1d8ee768fc0b4cfd4ac611 Accessed on 21 September 2018.
Huang, Y., Rashidi, T.H. and Gardner, L., 2015, February. The Global Maritime Container
Network: An Application of Conventional Transportation Modelling Techniques. In Conference
of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR), 33rd, 2015, Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia.
Pauka, C. 2017. Will Melbourne’s port shuttle work?. Available from
https://www.governmentnews.com.au/melbournes-port-shuttle-go-ahead-will-work/ Accessed on
21 September 2018.
Sexton, D. 2018. ACFS to connect export empties with rail on Melbourne Port. Available from
https://www.thedcn.com.au/acfs-to-connect-export-empties-with-rail-on-melbourne-port/
Accessed on 24 September 2018.
Towers, K. 2018. Rail ‘road’ for freight manifests support. Available from
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/rail-road-for-freight-manifests-

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support/news-story/b77c6e327fad553c0447a22c3b405123 Accessed on 24 September 2018.