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12:19 AM Thu 29 Jan 2009 GMT
 | | 'The view is far from picture-postcard perfect at White Bay terminal.'
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Opposition is mounting to the New South Wales Government's decision to allow thousands of cruise ship passengers to dock at White Bay in Sydney's inner west, despite a barren concrete landscape and limited facilities there.
The announcement was made just prior Christmas as a "temporary measure" while the terminal at Barrangaroo is redeveloped as part of the urban renewal project in the CBD's west. The existing Darling Harbour facility was also supposed to be temporary and it has been in use for a decade.
The Minister for Ports, Joe Tripodi, and the Planning Minister, Kristina Keneally, are behind the move to White Bay. When it is operational, the White Bay terminal will handle more than 75 vessels a year.
'Today passengers arrive at Barrangaroo, which is a 22 hectare concrete slab,' said Planning Minister, Kristina Keneally.
'It is not the most appropriate passenger facility and, indeed, we think we can create a cruise terminal in the bays precinct that offers passenger amenity, that is able to meet international passenger security standards and that provides a first-class, world facility.'
But the Opposition's ports spokesman, Andrew Stoner, says not only will it bring traffic chaos to the area, but White Bay's lack of services will be a less than salubrious welcome for tourists. Overlooking a disused power stations, the location has no shop, caf? or restaurant in the vicinity.
'There are very few venues, whether retail or hospitality, for the inbound passengers to actually use in the White Bay-Balmain area,' he said. 'This is just more bad Labor policy: inner west residents lose, visiting passengers lose, and CBD businesses lose.'
Each cruise ship arrival would involve 600-1000 traffic movements, and at least 30 truck movements, which would be repeated for each departure. Port facilities for visiting cruise ships were included in the initial Barangaroo redevelopment at East Darling Harbour but they have since been dropped.
According to Minister Keneally, local business representatives are very supportive of putting the temporary cruise terminal in the area. 'The Balmain-Rozelle Chamber of Commerce has told the Government they're very excited, and they're very proud, to have even this temporary location in White Bay."
For residents of the inner west, the decision means a peninsula that already carries heavy traffic will face even more congestion each time a cruise ship comes to port.
The Government has pledged to improve transport infrastructure in the long-term to support a more permanent cruise ship terminal somewhere in the inner west bays precinct.
The Government says cruise ships need an onshore 'exclusion zone' for immigration and customs, which will be available only at White Bay, even though internationally such facilities are incorporated in port-side shopping malls.
by Jeni Bone
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