Techport investment by government of South Australia crucial to winning navy ship/sub building, 2011 to 2050
The Techport shipbuilding complex on Lefevre Peninsula facing Adelaide's Port River with St Vincent Gulf in the background.
Image courtesy government of South Australia
More than $250 million invested by the South Australian government in state-owned world-class Techport infrastructure at Osborne on Adelaide's Port River gave it a strong case to win the stream of Royal Australian Navy shipbuilding contracts – destroyers, offshore patrol vessels, frigates and future submarines – continuing from 2011 to 2050.
With the last of the six Collins Class submarines completed at Osborne in 2003, the state government decided to underpin its bid for the $8 billion air warfare destroyer program by building a shiplift and common user platform called Techport Australia at Osborne, costing more than $240 million over six years.
The common user facility's world-class shipbuilding structures and services included a wharf, runway, dry berth, transfer system and the largest ship lift in the southern hemisphere. That prompted the federal government to give South Australia the air warfare destroyers with work on the three ships starting in 2011, 2014 and 2015. The first ship, Hobart, was launched to international acclaim in December 2016.
The air warfare destroyer program funded extending the wharf at Techport. The state government also developed another major upgrade plan that included a second dry dock for shipbuilding and maintenance as well as expanded work areas to allow ships and submarines to be built at the same time.
Techport also offered a big integrated industrial precinct for suppliers plus a commercial and education precinct including the maritime skills centre, air warfare destroyer systems centre and ASC ship and submarine building plant.
While planning with the federal government for more investment to make Technport needed for the next generation of navy ships and submarines, state government minister Martin Hamilton-Smith could declare in 2017 that "South Australia is the natural home of shipbuilding in this country”. That year South Australian government agreed to sell Techport to the federal government (that originally claimed it at no cost) for $230 million.
