Port Kembla's last coal shipment marks an era's end

Port Kembla has loaded its last export coal shipment, marking the end of an era that began in the 1890s when the port first exported coal from the Southern Coalfields mines and sustained a coastal export industry that defined Port Kembla's commercial identity alongside the steel operations for more than a century.

NSW Ports confirmed the final loading and departure of the bulk carrier MV Southern Cross as the completion of the transition from coal export to the diversified cargo and energy precinct that the port is being repositioned as, with the coal terminal infrastructure being decommissioned and the land progressively converted to the offshore wind supply chain, green hydrogen, and general cargo uses that represent Port Kembla's commercial future.

Former coalfield miners and port workers attended a ceremony at the terminal to mark the occasion, with several noting the mixed emotions of seeing an industry that had employed generations of Illawarra families reach its end while acknowledging that the transition to the clean energy economy had been unambiguous and that the port's future lay in the renewable energy supply chain, not in a coal export trade that had lost its commercial and political viability.

Port Kembla Port Corporation CEO Marika Calfas said the coal terminal closure would free approximately 40 hectares of prime port waterfront for the renewable energy supply chain and offshore wind staging uses that have been identified as the highest-value future uses for the land, noting that the offshore wind staging area alone was expected to generate more economic activity per hectare than the coal terminal had in recent years of declining trade volumes.

The transition plan for the workforce previously employed in coal terminal operations has been developed in partnership with the Transport Workers Union, with the majority of affected employees offered positions in the offshore wind supply chain infrastructure that will be developed on the former coal terminal site.

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