It is just on 22 years since I was asked to comment on the feasibility of putting a new cruise terminal down at Hamilton where the old liners used to go. Naturally I told them it was a bad idea and as ships were getting larger. Soon, because of river restrictions, passenger ships would not be able to get down that far. Evidently it wasn’t the answer the State Government wanted to hear as they ignored it. By that time I had probably made matters worse by telling them that the place to build it was not in Brisbane at all, but further south on the Gold Coast. I even got some professionals to design the means by which it could be done.
Anyway they finally went ahead at Hamilton, built a mediocre terminal with about as much imagination as a sleeping house brick and some small passenger ships have been there.
However, today the new Queen Victoria is in Brisbane, well not quite ‘in’ but about a safari away at the mouth of the river where passenger ships berthed 30 years ago, seems she is too big to get to the bright new terminal, what a surprise. She is at the same container terminal, which got the port such a bad name during the times of the (old) Oriana, Canberra etc. Cruise lines hated berthing there and still do.
I have no idea what vastly intelligent person or persons decided that all professional advice was wrong and that their little pen pusher views correct. In most private companies you would probably get fired for being so off the mark, this mob probably got promoted.
Oh well it is still summer so passengers waiting for their coaches to bring them into the city can experience the joy of getting bitten by the sand widges that love it out there next to the mangroves.
Ah yes, Brisbane, gateway to The Great Barrier Reef, Capital of Queensland the Sunshine State, home to the biggest fools on the planet.
Roll on noon so that I can have a drink (and I don’t mean water).
Anyway they finally went ahead at Hamilton, built a mediocre terminal with about as much imagination as a sleeping house brick and some small passenger ships have been there.
However, today the new Queen Victoria is in Brisbane, well not quite ‘in’ but about a safari away at the mouth of the river where passenger ships berthed 30 years ago, seems she is too big to get to the bright new terminal, what a surprise. She is at the same container terminal, which got the port such a bad name during the times of the (old) Oriana, Canberra etc. Cruise lines hated berthing there and still do.
I have no idea what vastly intelligent person or persons decided that all professional advice was wrong and that their little pen pusher views correct. In most private companies you would probably get fired for being so off the mark, this mob probably got promoted.
Oh well it is still summer so passengers waiting for their coaches to bring them into the city can experience the joy of getting bitten by the sand widges that love it out there next to the mangroves.
Ah yes, Brisbane, gateway to The Great Barrier Reef, Capital of Queensland the Sunshine State, home to the biggest fools on the planet.
Roll on noon so that I can have a drink (and I don’t mean water).
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