South Australia is punching above its weight to position itself as a key logistics hub, with significant investment in port infrastructure in the past year and more planned, capitalising on its strategic position and logistics capability.
CONSCIOUS of its small population and the lure of the larger states, South Australia has always found a way to play to its strengths. Tourism ads featuring food and wine and the lifestyle benefits of a short commute and easier pace of life in Adelaide come to mind.
But belying the easy-going feel of Adelaide, South Australia is experiencing the biggest infrastructure boom in the state’s history.
Jonathan Wilson, CEO of the South Australian Freight Council, told the International Forwarders and Customs Brokers Association of Australia (IFCBAA) national conference in Adelaide this year that the state had $25 billion in infrastructure investment planned for the next decade.
Clearly, much of that investment will be at the Port of Adelaide precinct. Flinders Port Holdings (FPH), operator of the Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal (FACT), has plans for a $350 million package of works under its GatewaySA program.
Key elements include acquiring two new super post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes, to be delivered in early 2027, making a total of five cranes across berths 6 and 7. This will enable FACT to service two 366-metre vessels at once, a significant increase in capacity. Capacity will also be increased by a 135-metre extension to Berth 6, including remediation works, new fendering and 150-tonne bollards.
Complementing this, a designated area will accommodate performance testing for an automated rubber tyre gantry (ARTG) and ancillary safety system. A rigorous testing regime will validate technical performance and integration with the new Terminal Operating System (TOS) before considering broader ARTG deployment across the terminal.
There have been two significant land developments at the container terminal during the past year, including expansion of the empty container park to about 9000 TEU, adjacent to the Outer Harbor Terminal. This expansion is to allow for on-dock quarantine, reefer and container pre-receival facilities.
At one of Australia’s smaller capital city ports, the new container park will be one of the largest on-dock container facilities in Australia and is on track to be finished by April 2026. Other site upgrades include a new terminal gate infrastructure and safety systems, new power supply systems and enhancements to stormwater drainage, sewerage, pavements and hardstands.
We are committed to facilitating the export of South Australian produce, including agricultural goods and mineral resources through our facilities, while also supporting the import of critical infrastructure, particularly energy and mining equipment, to enable the state’s expanding industrial capabilities.
Trent Kolbig, Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal General Manager
Flinders Ports is also updating technology at FACT with new systems for vehicle booking, depot operations, gate technology and warehousing. The company also placed orders in the last financial year for nine hybrid straddle carries and three KONE empty container handlers.
Trent Kolbig, FACT general manager, says TEU container volumes have risen slightly (1.8%) while lifts saw a 1.2% decrease in the past year, but notes agricultural conditions have been particularly tough, with the state in drought and grain volumes reduced. Lower grain volumes have been partly offset by a rebound in wine exports after China relaxed its tariffs. It will take another year before the impact of raised US tariffs is known.
“We are committed to facilitating the export of South Australian produce, including agricultural goods and mineral resources through our facilities, while also supporting the import of critical infrastructure, particularly energy and mining equipment, to enable the state’s expanding industrial capabilities,” Mr Kolbig says.
FPH also operates regional ports in SA and has invested in upgrades at Port Lincoln, Port Pirie, Thevenard, Wallaroo and Port Giles.
Away from the Port of Adelaide, T-Ports, a smaller port operator in regional South Australia is expanding its innovative use of transshipment, where a small 'feeder' vessel is used to load grain onto a larger bulk vessel anchored offshore in deeper water.
In 2024-25, T-Ports invested $1.5 million to expand its storage capacity to receive more grades of grains and pulses at its Lucky Bay and Wallaroo port operations, with the business shipping lentils for the first time. This product diversification has helped compensate for drought-reduced grain volumes.
In another big development, T-Ports unveiled a proposal to expand operations by utilising a 380-hectare land parcel it owns at Lucky Bay for potential uses including a desalination plant, green hydrogen, green steel and energy storage. The site could also accommodate village-style housing for employees and allow expansion of berthing capacity.
T-Ports was set up in 2018 after an expression of interest to Eyre Peninsula grain growers that saw 120 growers commit to South Australia’s first farmer and private equity partnership port. Seven years on, the business has port facilities at Lucky Bay and Wallaroo on either side of Spencer Gulf and inland storage facilities. The T-Ports feeder vessel, the 87-metre MV Lucky Eyre, with a fully laden draught of just 3.9 metres, loads grain at Wallaroo and Lucky Bay and transfers it to a bulk carrier positioned in deep water five nautical miles from port.
The main advantage to growers is a shorter haul to port from the product’s origin—their farms on the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas. But by reducing the distances travelled by large trucks, there are broader advantages for the SA government and community: safer roads and less road damage, traffic congestion and greenhouse emissions.
* On 29 July 2025, The Australian Financial Review reported that T-Ports had engaged Nash Advisory to lead a structured bidding process to acquire the business after fielding unsolicited offers from large infrastructure and agricultural players. The AFR reported that a sale of T-Ports could fetch up to $250 million for its current owners.
A big win for shifting freight from road to rail in South Australia came in June 2025 with the announcement rail operator Aurizon had won an integrated logistics contract from BHP Copper South Australia. This will see Aurizon moving 1.3 million tonnes of copper concentrate and cathode a year from BHP’s copper operations at Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill and Carrapateena for up to 15 years. The 500-kilometre journey from a new terminal at Pimba to Adelaide will be by rail.
When the new service is operational, Aurizon estimates it will replace 13 million kilometres of truck movements annually with a reduction in carbon emissions of 20,000 tonnes annually, compared with the existing road-based operation — the equivalent of removing 11,000 annual truck movements from SA roads.
With copper a global growth commodity needed for telecommunications, renewable energy and electric vehicles, the contract is an important one, according to Aurizon CEO and managing director Andrew Harding.
“The shift to more rail transport means fewer trucks on public roads, delivering improved road safety and reduced congestion, a significantly smaller carbon footprint and an ability to scale up quickly with the potential for additional train services as BHP continues to expand its SA copper operations,” Mr Harding says.
Decarbonisation of the freight sector was a focus of the Australasian Railways Association in its submission to South Australia’s 20-year Draft Infrastructure Strategy in 2023. Observing that rail transport was 16 times less carbon-emitting than road transport for the same freight task, ARA noted that only 5.6% of non-bulk (containerised) freight was moved by rail in Australia in 2020. Yet the urgency of decarbonising had increased with the 2022 commitment to net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.
“There is an opportunity to improve rail’s modal share through the development of incentive schemes that encourage a greater uptake of rail for the movement of freight. There have been examples of successful incentive schemes in Australia, most notably the Fremantle container rail subsidy in Western Australia,” ARA noted in its submission.
The impact [of the COVID-19 pandemic] was particularly acute given South Australia’s reliance on global shipping hubs, rather than direct routes to north Asia.
2024 SA Freight and Supply Chain Strategy
But decarbonisation is not the only challenge. As South Australia develops high-tech industries, greater supply chain efficiency is critical to success, the 2024 SA Freight and Supply Chain Strategy observed. “The emergence of new industries like hydrogen, for example, will need an efficient and in some respects dedicated freight and supply chain network. Further, the decision by the Australian government to build Australia’s first nuclear-powered submarines in South Australia, as part of the AUKUS partnership, presents a significant opportunity for the state to build on its emerging high-tech manufacturing industry.”
The high-level Freight and Supply Chain Strategy noted the desirability of reinstating a 27-kilometre rail gap at the Victoria-SA border. If the track gap between Pinnaroo in SA and Murrayville in Victoria was reconstructed – along with reopening the Tailem Bend-Pinnaroo line – it would allow an alternative route for domestic freight and a shorter haul to port – Adelaide – for export produce from Victoria’s Mallee region.
The SA government emphasised the desirability of this link to better prepare the state for transport disruptions that came to light in the COVID-19 pandemic. “The impact of this was particularly acute given South Australia’s reliance on global shipping hubs, rather than direct routes to north Asia,” the strategy noted. “This presents an opportunity to explore a direct sea link with north Asian markets and building scale for container freight through the potential use of the Pinnaroo-Murrayville rail link.” An ARTC spokesperson told DCN there is no current proposal to reconstruct the Pinaroo-Murrayville rail link.
Another possible cross-border rail link that would enhance freight movement by trains in South Australia is reconstruction of the line from Mount Gambier to Heywood in Victoria. In the “green triangle” area of southwest Victoria/southeast South Australia, large numbers of trucks carry wood chips and logs from timber plantations. If the line was rebuilt, trains could carry timber exports to Portland for shipping. There is no current plan for this project but discussions involving cross-border commissioners are continuing and a business case has been developed. In a more ambitious option, a change.org petition for rebuilding the Adelaide–Mt Gambier line was launched in October 2023 but the business case for reopening the line east from Mt Gambier appears to be more advanced.
The 2024 SA Freight and Supply Chain Strategy also notes the potential for hydrogen and green methanol to help decarbonise the state’s freight and logistics sector.
One of the most significant developments in South Australian freight in the past year came with the announcement last November of a partnership between shipping line ANL and rail freight operator Aurizon to offer a landbridging service for ANL ships arriving at the Port of Darwin, with time savings of up to 10 days for arrival at Adelaide. The service offers customers shipping from Asia-Pacific ports to Darwin direct rail connection to Adelaide and southern Australian destinations.
ANL general manager intra Oceania trades, Lincoln Dundas said ANL was pleased to partner with Aurizon on this new supply chain solution into Australia.
“The ocean and rail supply chain provides our customers with optionality and the potential to deliver material time savings, with a reliable and efficient, alternate supply chain,” Mr Dundas said.
Aurizon developed the landbridging solution after its 2022 acquisition of the 2200-kilometre Tarcoola to Darwin railway, a large-scale rail haulage business in South Australia and the Northern Territory, as well as terminal and stevedoring assets at the Port of Darwin. The company runs double-stacked container trains from Darwin to Adelaide.
“Aurizon saw an opportunity to offer another service – an alternative supply chain for shippers and freight customers – in addition to the existing business that was already operating on this rail corridor,” said Gareth Long, Aurizon’s group executive containerised freight.
Industry sectors taking advantage of the new landbridging service include consumer goods, prefabricated steel and mining and agricultural equipment. After trials in 2024, Aurizon is working with auto logistics provider NYK to explore using landbridging to import motor vehicles into southern Australia.
Aurizon is improving the landbridging service with new infrastructure. The company is building a 1800-metre crossing loop at Bend Camp, near Katherine, so trains in opposite directions can cross, enhancing capacity and resilience. The loop should be finished by the end of 2025. And to support distribution of containers by truck to final SA destinations, Aurizon operates the Gillman Intermodal terminal at the Port of Adelaide.
The ANL-Aurizon landbridging service is welcome news to South Australia’s freight and logistics sector – and interstate southern destinations. An alternative path south for freight helps build resilience in the supply chain, while delivering a 10-day time saving for imports into Adelaide. Landbridging from Darwin to South Australia—with possible interstate final destinations—is a prime example of what Jonathan Wilson calls South Australia’s role as the “connector state” and capitalises on SA’s central location in the Australian continent.
While air freight carries only 0.03% of SA’s freight, it is strategically important as the mode by which some produce, notably seafood, is exported to key markets to arrive fresh. Conscious of the need to get fresh seafood to international destinations rapidly, the SA government has planned a major investment at Adelaide Airport East Freight and Logistics Precinct.
For imports, online shopping has driven an expansion of parcel delivery worldwide and South Australia is no exception. Adelaide Airport is catering to these trends with a high-tech and environmentally friendly precinct featuring smart warehouses, automated guided vehicles, solar power generation, recycled water and hydrogen-powered autonomous trucks carrying freight to and from the airport.
A trend has emerged for air freight to travel in the holds of wide-bodied passenger aircraft instead of dedicated freight aircraft and Adelaide Airport has planned its logistics precinct accordingly, with ground vehicles able to easily access aircraft for loading and unloading.
Apart from passenger services, that’s another reason why the South Australian government is keen to attract more international flights.
With seafood currently affected by a toxic algal bloom, the demand for air freight exports is currently reduced, but Adelaide Airport is confidently planning for future growth in air freight exports while accommodating imports.
This article appeared in the August | September edition of DCN Magazine