Eastern Line Shipping has stepped in and offered Need for Feed Australia the charter of their vessel, the King Islander – at cost – to shift all 700 tonnes of hay and cattle pellets from the mainland to King Island in one sailing.
“Warren Dick very generously and at great expense, is bringing the boat empty to Port Welshpool so that we have the best chance of getting all of our precious cargo to King Island in a timely manner,” NFFA said.
“Not only that, we have a loading and sailing date for Saturday, May 18 locked in with both Gippsland Ports at Port Welshpool and TasPorts at Grassy on King Island. They will be arriving at King Island on Sunday just before dawn and then it will be up to our local team to go into full swing to get it all unloaded and off to our recipients.”
This comes after Colac Otway Shire pulled the pin on the use of the port of Apollo Bay last week with NFFA needing to secure a ship capable of handling Bass Strait with access to Port Welshpool and find suitable sailing dates.
The result was that the shipping of the urgently needed feed for King Island livestock was postponed. The 500 tonnes or 770 bales of oaten hay sourced from across the country, and 200 tonnes of cattle pellets in 1-tonne bulk bags are now, according to NFFA, all going on one boat in one trip and not multiple sailings.
MORE DETAILS IN THE COURIER TOMORROW.