Northern Tasmania News

A brand new liquefied natural gas (LNG)-fueled roll-on-roll-off freight vessel, Searoad Mersey II, has commenced service from its home port Devonport, in northern Tasmania, Australia. Touted by Bass Strait shipping and logistics firm SeaRoad as the “cleanest, greenest freight ship ever to trade in Australian waters”, Searoad Mersey II is the first coastal ship in Australia to use LNG fuel-and-power technology and the first pure dry cargo ship in the world to use a roll-on roll-off LNG supply system.

The Spirit of Tasmania III has docked in Devonport for the final time. The Sydney-to-Devonport ferry made a low-key entrance to northern Tasmania on Monday, almost two months after its sale to Mediterranean operator Corsica Ferries. Spirit III's final voyage lacked the fanfare of its launch in January 2004, when it was billed as a tourism boon to the island state. Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon announced the ferry's sale in June, saying the loss-making vessel was no longer viable. Only a year before that, the government threw Spirit III a $115 million lifeline, but Mr Lennon said the domestic tourism decline had changed passenger forecasts. Corsica Ferries purchased the ferry for $111 million, which was $6 million more than its 2003 purchase price, in July.