While the Esperance Council has taken a decision to replace not repair this jetty, last night (19/20 June 2018) a further span of jetty has broken up (substitute article after original article linked was unavailable).

As there is a heritage order on the jetty, a new one will have to be in keeping with this heritage. Council has committed $2 million for the project estimated at $6 million. Grants will be sought.

A new beginning

The Port of Esperance has its own stevedoring capability and most product handling equipment is owned and operated by Southern Ports. Its exports include nickel, iron ore and grain, and imports include fuel and fertiliser.

The Port of Esperance consists of three wharves. Two are land backed berths with a dredged depth alongside of 14.5 metres and are capable of loading or discharging Panamax size vessels (the maximum size capable of transiting the Panama Canal, approx. 65,000 to 75,000 DWT). The third berth is a purpose-built dolphin style berth, to load mineral products. This berth has a dredged depth alongside of 19 metres and is capable of handling Cape size vessels (approximately 180,000 DWT).

No.1 berth is leased to Cooperative Bulk Handling and is used to load grain with the ship

loading facility being owned and operated by the company.

No.2 berth is used for loading nickel concentrates and discharging petroleum, fertilizer and other minor cargoes. The ship loader on No.2 berth is used for loading nickel.

No.3 berth and ship loader are used to load mineral products. Connected to berth No.3 are conveyors and sheds used to store and handle iron ore, which are owned by the Authority with the exception of iron ore shed No.2 and associated conveyors that Portman Ltd. has constructed.

Esperance Port Authority statement

Why has it not been either restored, or demolished and replaced with a useable fishing and recreation jetty? See History of the Tanker Jetty (substitute article after original article linked was unavailable).

Plans to demolish the jetty were stopped in 2015, when the State Heritage Minister intervened. The Minister stated "I was very clear to them that I saw demolition as a premature option, given that they haven't defined, identified or funded what the alternative is going to be."

We visited the Esperance Tanker Jetty in September 2017.

Already severed from the land, a further collapse of a six metre span occurred only days before this photo, creating the second gap (at right).

An unsafe section of seven spans near the end was removed in the late 1980s, leaving an ‘island’ section.

In 2008, Tanker Jetty, Esperance was included on the Register of Heritage Places and the State Heritage Office of Western Australia.

Subsequent to 1977, the tanker jetty remained popular for fishing and recreation until its closure to the public in 2015 due to safety concerns. The aluminium walkway which had been constructed in 2014 to enable access onto the jetty was removed at the time of the closure. Due to further degradation, the crumbling ‘island’ section was removed in 2015.

The history of the jetty and a dream for the future on the Esperance Tanker Jetty website is no longer available since the battle to save it has been lost

# A busy port with principally land-backed wharves.

The opening of the Esperance sandplains to agriculture in the 1960s and nickel discoveries in Kambalda resulted in a modernisation of the harbour facilities, with a new land backed wharf opened in 1962 and an additional berth in 1972 #.

In 1976 a new jetty was built at Taylor Street for the commercial fishing fleet and yachts, and this short jetty remains. In 1983 a new fishing boat harbour was constructed at Bandy Creek, on the east side of town.

The last ship to unload at the Tanker Jetty was a fuel tanker in 1977.

The Tanker Jetty.

Esperance Tanker Jetty 2017. Why is it falling apart?

The Port of Esperance's history dates from 1792 when the French explored the south coast of Western Australia, but in 1802, it was officially claimed by the British.

As a result of the gold rush of the 1890s the Town Jetty was built in 1895 and extended in 1896 and 1898. This later became known as the James Street Jetty.

By the 1930s, farmers in the region were growing crops. Shipping was the best way of getting their grain and stock to market, but the James Street Jetty, build in 1895, couldn't accommodate the more modern ships being used for freight.

A sculpture representing a whale’s tail, and a short groyne with a small seven span jetty from the side, marks the site of the former James Street Jetty.

Double-click here to edit the text.

The construction of this new curved jetty, initially known as the Esperance Deep Water Jetty, began in 1934 and was completed in 1935. At a length of 875 metres, it was five metres deeper than the James Street Jetty to allow the larger ships to berth. From 1835 to 1965, exports of wheat, salt, copper concentrate and other minerals were loaded at this jetty, which had become known as the Tanker Jetty.

More of Esperance yet to come

More coming soon

< 2017 Index

Resources

Signage on site

September 2017 News (article no longer available). See Inherit and Esperance Council for history of the Tanker Jetty.

Minister stops demolition with a heritage order

Further spans collapse June 2018 (article no longer available). See WA Today.

The opening of a new jetty

Esperance Port details
Further articles can be seen on TripleM Perth.

With the completion of the new 415 metre replacement jetty, it was officially opened on Sunday, 28th March 2021. The new steel and concrete structure pays homage to its 87 year old predecessor with a dive platform, a fish cleaning station and cross bracing beneath its piles.

Community members and Aboriginal elders joined Federal MP Rick Wilson, Shire president Ian Mickel, former Shire president Victoria Brown, and resident Phyllis Smythe, who at 100 years of age remembers walking on the “new” jetty almost 90 years ago, to cut the ribbon to officially open the jetty on 28^th March 2021.

Fishing from the new jetty 2023.