Areas of growth

Regional centres of Queensland and Western Australia are set to be key areas of future growth for Australia’s marine industry. Exactly what promotes industry growth will come down to factors including: adequate government assistance, skilled staff, and an established local market.    

The Queensland State Government has identified the recreational and light commercial marine industry as a key industry from an economic and regional development perspective. The regional centres outside of Brisbane and the Gold Coast where marine precincts have been established and are further
developing include:

• Bundaberg and Fraser Coast;

• Gladstone;

• Mackay/Whitsundays; and

• Cairns.

According to Marine Queensland GM Don Jones, many regional councils have seen the benefits of the industry from a regional economic development context.

“The nature of the development in these regional centres tends to vary,” said Jones.

“Some regional centres have strong synergies with tourism while others are developing strong capabilities in manufacturing, refit or support for associated industries such as superyachts, fishing, government supply and marine transport. We are also seeing emerging trends in new marina developments.”

Examples of marina trends include stronger links with elements such as residential, commercial (sports, retail and entertainment) and tourism developments.  

“Some innovative marina developments are in effect becoming destinations in their own right as well as performing important portals to highly desirable marine environments for local communities and tourists alike,” said Jones.

Other regional centres which have embryonic developments earmarked include the Townsville and Rockhampton regions, according to Jones.

Crossing borders

Marine Business spoke to Haines Hunter managing director John Haber about the company’s move from Queensland to Victoria two years ago. Haber said, nationally, the next area of growth will depend on government legislation that is favourable towards boating, along with how many areas remain open for recreational fishing!

“We saw a massive decline in the production and sale of smaller boats (under 4.8m) when the mandatory PFD law was introduced in Victoria a few years ago,” said Haber.

“In similar light, with all the marine parks being established around the country that are locking out recreational anglers, there’s the very real situation of potential first time boat owners (along with existing ones) choosing another leisure activity,” he said.

Haber is in the unique position to comment after moving the Haines Hunter factory from Queensland to Victoria two years ago.
“Upon purchasing Haines Hunter in 2001, I was happy to continue running the manufacturing side of the business in Queensland, however, with the large number of fibreglass boat builders in this state is was quite evident there were a number of issues with which to contend,” he said.

According to Haber, these issues were primarily:

• The workforce being very transient. ie. younger generation spending 2-3 years on the Gold Coast, then moving on.

• Spending a lot of money on training staff, to have them move on to a competing manufacturer for short-term financial gain.

• Attitude, aptitude and attendance of employees down south was noticeably better than up north.

Sandgropers

Across the country in Western Australia, regional centres undergoing development include: Geraldton, Exmouth and Onslow. Perth’s main marine precinct is the Australian Marine Complex at Henderson. The Australian Marine Complex houses about 120 marine related businesses. Although WA’s shipbuilding and large commercial boat building industries overshadows the recreational boat industry, precincts like this open up opportunities for growth across all sectors, industry pundits say.

The infrastructure is already there for new businesses to develop or established companies to take advantage of facilities and skilled staff.   

“WA’s strengths are largely in the larger luxury vessels and commercial vessel markets such as fast ferries and Navy patrol boats,“ said a spokesman for WA Government’s Department of Commerce.

“However, many employees hone their skills working on these larger vessels and establish their own smaller boat manufacturing businesses. WA also has certain niche companies that are world leaders in their field such as Beurteauxs, for seating,” he said.

Western Australia is often touted as the “next big thing” for Australia’s recreational marine industry, yet many people on the East Coast put its “far away” location as detrimental to its future prospects.

As BIAWA general manager Sherry Donaldson explained, the industry in WA is already firmly established and is on the path towards further strong growth.

“In WA we’re looking forward to more marine development,” said Donaldson.

The BIA GM sings the praises of Western Australia’s State Government for its recent focus on the industry.

“There’s a much greater appetite of late for the boating industry. It’s been a great 12 months (for) re-establishing relationships with
the Government.

“The (WA) Government is a major sponsor of our boat show and that hasn’t happened for 10 years. They’re also sponsoring our marine awards.”

Donaldson said the Government was also looking at reducing red tape with trailer registrations going online.

“We’re really positive, WA at the moment is the boom state, discretionary spending is still slow but it is looking brighter.”

The WA Government Department of Commerce, which is responsible for the development of the marine sector in the state, recently undertook an in-depth study to map the size and shape of the local marine industry. The study, which was completed just over 12 months ago by Edith Cowan University during the depths of the global financial crisis, found that the estimated value to the WA economy of the marine sector was $1.5bn in direct industry output plus indirect flow effects of a conservative $2.07bn, bringing the total effect on the WA economy to $3.576bn for the 07/08 period. This figure was 17 per cent higher than the preceding year, primarily due to ship servicing and supply associated with the booming oil and gas industry in the resources-rich state. The study examined nine subsectors which included shipbuilding, ship upgrade and repair, ship service and supply, boat building, boat upgrade and repair, boat service and supply, component manufacturing, dealer/importers and marinas. Looking at the boating sector specifically for the 06/07 and 07/08 years, based on survey respondants:  

• Boat building stayed around the same level at $48.7m;

• Boat upgrade and repair grew significantly from $52.7m to $71.9m  (up 36 per cent);

• Boat service and supply also grew significantly from $95.6m to $124.9m  (up 30.6 per cent);

• Component manufacturers declined slightly to $16.6m;

• Dealers/Importers grew slightly from $52.6m to $55.5m;

• Marinas grew strongly from $40.8 m to $55.7m (up 36 per cent).

This puts the direct contribution to the boating and marina sector in WA at $356m for the 07/08 year.  While the survey achieved a credible 79 per cent response rate of 209 respondents, there were an estimated 200 smaller marine companies that did not take part in the survey.      

Future moves in QLD

What restraints are there for regional marine development? Marine Queensland’s Don Jones said the pace of regional development is generally constrained by infrastructure placement. “Approval processes tend to be complex, time consuming, costly and onerous.
To address these elements, Marine Queensland has been working with various government agencies to streamline and simplify approval processes.

“Examples of this work include marine infrastructure master planning initiatives and the development of regional tri-partite (state, local and Marine Queensland) governance structures for regional waterways management. A critical pilot governance mechanism is in advanced stages of development for Gold Coast waterways.’

Marine Queensland said the scope of this pilot addresses:

• Dredging and marine infrastructure;

• Destinations and access to waterways; and

• Marine industry planning and major development proposals in the region.

According to Jones, innovative funding models are being developed as a means of ensure greater sustainability and foster ongoing investment for the regional clusters and reduce burdens on industry participants.

Another major inhibitor to investment in regional centres in Queensland is the urgent need for a sustainable commercial marina rental framework for the state.

Marine Queensland also expects a much higher level of cross industry co-operation with future industry development initiatives.

There are many indicators, Don Jones said, to suggest that far greater economic benefits will result in this approach rather than stand alone developments.