The limited capacity, condition and age of the region’s infrastructure is a major issue. Many of the region’s development opportunities will not be realised without a substantial upgrade of utility, transport, community, and tourism infrastructure. This requires significant government and private sector investment.
The road network is vast and is becoming a maintenance burden for local governments. Strategic road improvements are needed to make the highway network safer and ensure that local government roads can accommodate increasing use by road trains and tourism vehicles.
The isolated narrow gauge railway network was closed in 2019 resulting in the subsequent growth in grain cartage by road that has markedly increased heavy vehicle movement, magnified road maintenance costs, and raised community concerns about road safety. A corresponding growth in tourism caravans and recreational vehicle movement across the region has amplified these concerns.
The upgrade and connection of the narrow gauge railway system to the national standard gauge rail network, including a link to a Cape class port facility, is a high priority need to enhance access to national and international markets and improve the region’s export capability.
The region’s main ports at Thevenard, Port Lincoln, and Whyalla have functional issues that are hindering export capability and increasing export costs. These ports also do not have container capability.
Container shipping infrastructure is also needed to provide new value-adding business, employment, export and product development opportunities for the region’s primary production industries.
A new nigh-voltage power line has been constructed and five electricity substations upgraded. This will support business growth opportunities – such as new industrial developments, and the progression of mining projects from exploration to operation, in addition to the construction of a bulk commodities port facility.
Mobile telephone and Internet services are gradually being improved with the rollout of new mobile phone towers across the region. However, communications are either poor or unavailable in some sections of the region, which is constraining community and business functionality and the efficacy of emergency services. A resolution must be found for these communication black spots.
Social and community infrastructure in many regional towns needs to be upgraded to enhance liveability and assist with workforce attraction. Tourism infrastructure needs continuous improvement to assist visitor attraction and enhance coastal access and management initiatives.
These collective infrastructure issues need to be resolved because they are hindering economic and business growth.
AIRPORTS
The airports at Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Ceduna have regular passenger transport (RPT) services, with two carriers (Qantas and Rex) providing RPT at Port Lincoln, Rex at Ceduna, and Qantas at Whyalla. As well as servicing the regional community, the airports are important regional gateways for tourists and business travellers.
The Port Lincoln Airport is the busiest regional airport in South Australia, averaging over 190,000 passengers per annum. 40% of passengers are business travellers. The facility also provides an important seafood export hub for fishing and aquaculture industries.
Smaller aerodromes are located throughout the region and are available for private flying, charter, firefighting operations and Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) aircraft.
These aviation facilities have substantial potential for future growth, and many have strategic development plans in place to expand facilities and services.
PORT INFRASTRUCTURE
Port Facilities at Thevenard, Port Lincoln and Whyalla provide the main domestic and international export hubs for regional product and commodities.
The Whyalla Port principally services the export of iron ore and handles the import and export of a variety of commodities, mining consumables and equipment.
Port Lincoln is the main outlet for the export of grain from the lower Eyre Peninsula, and provides infrastructure to support fishing, aquaculture and cruise tourism operations.
The Port of Thevenard handles dry bulk cargoes including exports of grain, mineral sands, salt, and gypsum. The upgraded Thevenard Marine Offloading Facility enables the Great Australian Bight commercial fishing industry to load and unload marine products and supplies.
South Australia’s first Cape Class export facility at Cape Hardy is being progressed as part of Iron Road Limited’s Central Eyre Iron Project (CEIP) at Warramboo. The planned export facility is designed to be integrated with a green manufacturing and industrial precinct over a number of stages including development of the Cape Hardy Green Hydrogen Project – a large-scale hydrogen and ammonia production facility with Amp Energy as the lead developer. In November 2023 it was announced by Northern Water that further studies for the proposed 260NL/day Norther Water desalination plant will focus on Cape Hardy as the preferred site.
WATER INFRASTRUCTURE
Non-climate dependent water supplies are critical for the region’s growth. The longstanding reliance on rainfall dependent groundwater supplies is unlikely to meet future demands for a secure and resilient water supply.
The Uley South basin currently provides around 75% of the region’s water supply, with most of the remainder sourced from the Murray River. Extraction from the Uley South Basin needs to be reduced to ensure sustainability of the resource and given the state of the Murray River, the supply of river water to Whyalla and Ceduna is not sustainable.
SA Water has announced Billy Lights Point, Port Lincoln as the proposed location for a desalination plant. The plant would produce 0.016 gigalitres or 16 megalitres of fresh, clean drinking water per day – with the capacity to be expanded to around 0.024 gigalitres or 24 megalitres per day.
Northern Water aims to provide a new, climate independent water source for the Far North, Upper Spencer Gulf and Eastern Eyre Peninsula regions, to enable the growth of industries crucial to achieving net-zero goals, including the emerging green energy and hydrogen industries. This would involve construction and operation of a 260ML/day seawater desalination plant (in two stages) in the Spencer Gulf connected to northern South Australia via up to 600km of pipeline.