Today, the Gladstone Ports Corporation (GPC) manages the Port of Gladstone and facilities to deliver natural resources and products to customers around the world. Located on a natural and protected deep water harbor, the Port of Gladstone is the largest multi-commodity port in Queensland.
Major exports through the Port of Gladstone are coal, alumina, magnesia, grain, fly ash, scrap metal, cement clinker, ammonium nitrate, limestone, and grains. The port exports containers, general cargo, and breakbulk cargo. The major imports arriving at the Port of Gladstone are bauxite, caustic soda, petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas, copper, bunker oil, liquid ammonia, and magnetite. Imports include general cargo, containers, liquid bulk, and breakbulk cargo.
GPC manages not only the port but the Gladstone Marina, the city’s recreational parklands, and the Port Alma Shipping Terminal some 50 kilometers to the northwest. The Port of Gladstone covers over four thousand hectares of land, including 700 hectares of reclaimed land.
The Port of Gladstone’s Container Terminal was designed for containerized, breakbulk, and general cargo. Its facilities include a 2100-square meter storage shed, 1.5 hectares for general storage, 3.5 hectares for heavy storage, and direct rail access. The wharf at the Gladstone Container Terminal is 172 meters long with a berth depth of 11.3 meters.
Gladstone’s shipping first began at Auckland Point with the export of live horses. The old facility has been expanded many times. Today, it contains four wharves and handles over 1.4 million tons of cargo each year. Auckland Point contains four wharfs ranging from 217 meters to 172 meters long with a depth of 11.3 meters. Cargos handled include magnesia, calcite, breakbulk, grain, petroleum products, caustic soda, general cargo and containers, gypsum, magnetite, liquefied petroleum gas, scrap metal, and ammonium nitrate. Auckland Point No. 2 Wharf contains a storage shed with capacity for 20 thousand tons of cargo and several silos with a combined capacity for almost 150 thousand tons. Auckland Point Wharf No. 3 includes storage area for almost 62 thousand tons of petroleum products, one thousand tons of liquefied petroleum gas, and five thousand tons of caustic soda.
The RG Tanna Coal Terminal was built in the late 1970s to export coal to steel mills in Japan. The first vessel sailed from the terminal in 1980 carrying over 26 thousand tons of coal. Originally called the Clinton Coal Facility, it was renamed in 1994 to honor General Manager Reg Tanna. In the first year, 4.3 million tons of were exported through the RG Tanna Coal Terminal. Today, it exports over 45 million tons per year.
The Port of Gladstone’s Barney Point was first used for coal exports in the late 1960s by Thiess Peabody Mitsui Coal Pty Ltd. They constructed private rail from Moura to Gladstone and completed the facility at Barney Point in 1968. GPC bought the facility in 1998. While coal has always been the main cargo passing through the Barney Point facility, GPC is diversifying cargoes. In 1999, almost 30 thousand tons of cottonseed was exported here. The Barney Point wharf is 205 meters long with a berth depth of 15 meters. Coal and bunker coal, magnesia, and limonite are the main cargoes handled through Barney Point.
In 1981, Fisherman’s Landing was completed to house a clinker plant operated by Queensland Cement Ltd. Originally a single-berth wharf, a second birth was added on reclaimed land in the late 1990s. A third berth appeared in 2003 to serve an alumina refinery. Fisherman’s Landing contains three wharfs ranging between 200 and 300 meters long with berth depths from 11.2 to 12.9 meters. Fisherman’s Landing No. 2 handles bauxite, alumina, and caustic soda. Landing No. 4 handles cement and cement clinker, fly ash, caustic soda, and limestone. Landing No. 5 handles liquid ammonia. Today, Fisherman’s Landing handles over six million tons of cargo a year, and current plans are to make it the Port of Gladstone’s main wharf center.
The Port of Gladstone’s South Trees facility at Parsons Point was the original site of Swift’s Meatworks. In the early 1960s, Queensland Alumina Ltd purchased the land for a new alumina plant. Construction included a causeway and bridge that connected South Trees Island and Parsons Point. The wharf at South Trees Island handles over 13 million tons of cargo annually, including alumina, bauxite, bunker fuel oil, and caustic soda. South Trees contains two wharfs of 478 meters with a berth depth of 12.8 meters. Alumina, caustic soda, bunker oil, bauxite, and bunker coal are the primary cargoes passing through South Trees.
Boyne Wharf was constructed in the mid-1970s for an aluminum smelter. The first vessel discharged over 16 thousand tons of petroleum coke in 1982. Today, over 600 thousand tons of cargo passes through Boyne Wharf each year. Boyne Wharf is 250 meters long with berth depth of 15 meters. Cargos handled here include aluminum, petroleum coke, liquid pitch, and general and breakbulk cargo.
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