The History of Port Kembla Harbour
Location and Coastal Conditions
Cargo Operations
Water Quality and Monitoring
Community and Heritage
About Port Kembla Harbour
Port Kembla Harbour ranks ninth in Australian ports, with an average of 24 million tonnes moving annually through the port, carried by some 1300 vessels. It is a major industrial port, with Australia's largest steel works (5 Mt/annum production) adjacent to the harbour and a large (20 Mt/annum) coal-exporting terminal, a grain exporting terminal (6 Mt/annum), a copper smelter and a fertiliser manufacturing plant in the immediate vicinity of the harbour.
Port Kembla is an artificial harbour, created over 100 years ago to support local industry and shipping. Major changes to the local coastal environment have occurred during, and as a result of, various phases of harbour construction and operations. The harbour ecology is dominated by the human activities, which have taken place or continue to occur within the catchment of the harbour. The extensive industrial activity on the surrounding land has left a pollution legacy that continues to impact on the ecology of the harbour. Contaminated sediments, stripped riparian vegetation, and the discharge of pollutants, even at rates significantly reduced from those in the past, mean that the harbour does not sustain a biota that reflects the local coastal environment.
Major efforts have been undertaken over the last 30 years, both through government legislation and action, and also through the efforts of the local community, to improve the harbour environmental quality. While these efforts have met with some success, there is still a great deal to be done. Activities such as the reduction of industrial pollutant emissions, removal of contaminated sediments, mangrove re-vegetation of the riparian zones in the major creeks entering the harbour, and control of new developments in the catchment will lead to continuing improvements in the environment of the harbour and its surrounding catchments.