Cape York Camping Punsand Bay’s Jack and Rod Colquhoun wait in vain for guests to arrive and brace for a loss of tens of thousands of dollars due to Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council’s decision to pull the Jardine River ferry from operation for a month at the start of this year’s tourist season. Photo: Supplied.
Cape York tourism operators say they are bracing for losses totalling tens of thousands of dollars each after the owner of the Jardine River ferry advised it would be removing the troubled vessel from operation for a month from 23 April to undertake critical repairs.
The condition of the vessel, which spans the river and is the only road link between the Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) and the rest of the Cape, has long been a point of contention, but it is the timing of the planned closure from 23 April-23 May – at the start of this year’s influx of tourists – that has business owners most worried.
Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council (NPARC), which operates the ferry, announced the closure earlier this month after the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said the vessel was unable to be in the water until maintenance and safety issues identified nearly 12 months ago were fixed.
An AMSA inspection of the ferry in June 2024 identified 15 safety, engineering and operational issues, including insufficient lifejackets aboard, waste oil not being captured to stop it entering the marine environment, and significant problems with the hull requiring repairs and replating.
The hull issues were originally identified by a marine surveyor in October 2020, leaving furious tourism operators to ask why the council has waited until the start of the 2025 dry season to take action.
Cape York Camping Punsand Bay general manager Kahlia Colquhoun slammed NPARC and said the business had already lost more than $20,000 in revenue for May.
“The announcement has caused panic and chaos amongst travellers and tour operators,” she said.
“We have had some of our major tour operators cancel May’s bookings due to the uncertainty, which will see a revenue loss of over $20,000 just for that one tour combination of accommodation, transfers and things.
“The dates they’ve chosen for this closure haven’t taken into account the massive ripple effect on the region; if no temporary solution or alternative access is provided, many local businesses are going to struggle to stay afloat.
“We’re already seasonal operators – this is the start of the dry season, the time when we finally start generating income again; taking that opportunity away with no reliable backup plan is not just short-sighted, it’s potentially devastating for the entire region.”
The impact is being felt across Cape York, with Weipa Camping Ground general manager Gemma Shaw telling Cape York Weekly the business had already been inundated with cancellations and that the ferry closure “will push the start of our season even further back”.
“It seems like there’s always an issue with the ferry each year, and it’s becoming a piece of infrastructure that can no longer be relied upon,” she said.
“Business owners need to trust that NPARC will ensure the ferry is operational each year, especially during the peak season.”
Western Cape Eco Tours owner Malcolm Slack said the Weipa-based operation had also received multiple cancellation inquiries.
“I know it’s their bucket list trip, where they want to go to the tip of Cape York, I get that,” he said.
“People have cancelled; if they can’t go to the tip of Cape York and tick that off, they’re not just going to come to Weipa, that’s basically the nuts and bolts of it.”
Tourism operators and NPA residents are angry this social media post is the way stakeholders – including local police and paramedics – found out about the month-long closure of the Jardine River ferry from 23 April. Photo: Facebook (Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council).
The council has also been criticised for how it went about announcing the month-long closure, with key stakeholders – including local police and paramedics – finding out via a social media post.
One NPA business owner, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they believed the council was “holding the Cape to ransom” with the unannounced closure, adding it boosted the argument that the embattled vessel needed to be replaced with a bridge.
“Who do this council think they are?” they asked angrily.
“They’ve known the ferry has major issues for years, but they wait until the beginning of tourist season to do something about it and are holding the Cape to ransom as a result.
“They say they didn’t have the money to fix it until now – what’s happened with the millions NPARCS and the TOs (Traditional Owners) share every season?”
Based on the 2024 fee schedule of between $130-205 per vehicle, it is estimated NPARC generates between $3.9-$6.15 million in revenue each year from the ferry’s operation.
Cape York Weekly understands from several council sources the timing of the closure until after the Easter long weekend was determined in part by a request from a senior NPARC employee, which will allow them and family members to use the ferry to travel south to a wedding prior to 23 April.
One of the sources described the decision as a “disgraceful misuse of a public asset” that will “delay getting the ferry back running for everyone else by a week at least”.
NPARC acting chief executive officer Lew Rojahn blamed the availability of funding and bureaucratic processes for delaying the maintenance.
“Council certainly tried to get this work done in the wet season, but the timing of funding approvals didn’t allow that to happen,” he said.
“Once funding was confirmed, we then needed to comply with legislation through a tender process.
“I appreciate the inconvenience this will create for people in business and our local people as well, however, this was a requirement of AMSA to ensure that the safety of the ferry is in place before the dry season commences.”
An AMSA spokesperson could not explain why the council was given until 30 June this year to rectify the issues, despite its own report identifying some deficiencies were required to be fixed within three months of the 2024 inspection.
NPARC says the timing of the AMSA-mandated maintenance closure is a result of a lack of funding, however, Cape York tourism operators say the excuse does not hold water, given the ferry rakes in millions of dollars annually in Jardine River crossing fees. Photo: Supplied.
