BRIDPORT, Tasmania-based Bass Strait Freight (BSF) has converted one of its two small ro-ros for full-time livestock use by fitting stock crates and pens.
The 2022-built Matthew Flinders IV will begin shipping cattle from Flinders Island and King Island to Port Anthony in Gippsland, while fleetmate Matthew Flinders III will maintain BSF’s Bridport-Lady Barron freight service.
BSF principal David Harris told DCN the cattle population on both Bass Strait islands has grown significantly over recent years thanks to quality pastures, improved farming methods and investment from both local and mainland farmers. For Flinders Island, for example, this has meant a herd increase from around 5,000 to 45,000 head, depending on season.
As the demand for the cows is mainly on the mainland, it makes sense to configure the service northbound, with the company developing its own shore livestock-handling facilities at Port Anthony, which is not as constrained as currently-used Port Welshpool.
Mr Harris says the way Matthew Flinders IV has been refitted he calculates it will be able to carry five times as many cattle per deadweight tonne as other Bass Strait traders, which include Bass Island Line’s John Duigan, Eastern Line’s King Islander and LD Shipping’s Statesman.
He believes he can reduce shipping costs by as much as 50%.
BSF is planning to lengthen Matthew Flinders IV by 10 metres next year, taking capacity to 500t. The work will be done ‘in-house’ at the company’s Bridport facilities, where Matthew Flinders III was similarly lengthened in 2006. Both ships were built by former BSF owner Matthew Bayles, who also constructed Southern Condor and Captain Bill, now employed in the fish farming industry in Southern Tasmania.
Mr Harris says a Matthew Flinders V is now on the drawing board, likely based on the 2013-completed Captain Bill. In due course BSF plans triangulated services between Tasmania, the islands and the mainland, which may include purpose-built, privately-owned port facilities at Smithton, Bridport and on Flinders Island. He notes Smithton and Bridport are the closest ports to the mainland.
More urgently, Mr Harris said, dredging is required at Bridport where an excessive build-up of sand has restricted vessel movements to very specific tides. BSF is seeking government co-operation to ensure the port can remain open and supply links to the Furneaux Group continue.