“We’re back!” that was the message from Shipping Australia CEO, Capt Melwyn Noronha to guests at our Newcastle Luncheon held earlier this week.
Shipping Australia formerly regularly held events in Newcastle until COVID.
Capt Noronha vowed to hold another event again next year in the city as a token of our commitment to serving shipping around Australia.
We were delighted that Ms Sharon Claydon MP, Member for Newcastle and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, accepted our invitation to be our guest of honour. She gave a speech to the luncheon guests.
After making the formal Acknowledgement of Country, acknowledging the Awabakal and Worrimi peoples, Ms Claydon told guests that Newcastle was getting back to normal. Novocastrians, she added, are looking toward opportunities in the green energy transition and the push toward net-zero carbon emissions.
She paid tribute to the role that coal has played in the local area. Historically, the Awabakal people formerly cooked with coal. Later, by the early 1800s, the first exports of coal from Newcastle were made to the rest of the world. As coal flourished, so did the maritime industry in Newcastle, as did Newcastle itself.
There were, of course, major issues over time. Ms Claydon addressed the hardships and challenges caused when the local BHP facility shut down just before the 2000s began.
“A lot of people wrote us off,” she told guests, adding that many people thought the closure of BHP in Newcastle would be the end of the city’s prosperity.
“But look around now, and nothing could be further from the truth,” she said.
Ms Claydon acknowledged that Newcastle is the largest shipping port by throughput on the Australian East Coast but she adds that the port understands the urgency of change, adding that coal peaked in 2019.
Work is underway on diversifiction. There are three major projects underway, she told guests, are a container terminal, a clean energy project and a passenger vehicle import terminal.
Ms Claydon thank Port of Newcastle CEO, Craig Carmody, for his work on all three projects, adding that she hopes for the development of the container terminal next year (2025).
Also speaking were Capt Rahul Doshi, National Operations Manager at the MCC Group, and Roger Weiller, CEO of the MCC Group. Capt Doshi and Mr Weiller both discussed the values and philosophies of the MCC Group and a short video featuring interviews with MCC Group staff were played to guests.
Shipping Australia thanks Mr Weiller and the MCC Group for their sponsorship of this event and the support that they have shown.
