Balmain businesses welcome Cruise Terminal

Leichhardt Council’s rearguard action against the Cruise Passenger Terminal at White Bay is one policy which is by no means universally popular amongst local businesses. Grant Crowle, representative for Policy and Advocacy at the Balmain Rozelle Chamber of Commerce, believes the Terminal will provide a welcome shot in the arm for local enterprises.

“The Chamber in general is in favour of the Cruise Passenger Terminal, because we reckon it’s a great opportunity to regenerate the foreshore down there,” he said. “To be honest, the [state] government won’t do anything about it unless they get something out of it, and it’s quite a passive use compared to lots of other things that could be proposed.”

According to Mr Crowle, the Chamber especially sees commercial retailers on the strip as benefiting from the arrival of the CPT.

“Darling Street is only 250 metres from the waterfront down there. If there’s access through the roads – if the area is opened up, on a model similar to that of the Overseas Passenger Terminal (in Circular Quay), it’s not very far away – people can walk up and go get a beer, buy clothes, or have lunch when they get off the ships.”

But the Chamber’s arguments fail to appease Council’s most strident opponent of the move, independent councillor John Stamolis, who said he would need to “see some evidence” the CPT would provide anything more than a “tiny benefit, if anything” for local businesses.

“I think they’re really clutching at straws,” he said. “I would hasten to say they are going to find there is very, very little gain as a result of the cruise ship terminal, in terms of the impact on businesses in Balmain or Rozelle. The government has made it quite clear that there’s going to be an internal road along James Craig Drive, which will basically stop people from getting into Balmain – it will just drive people onto the main arteries, [like] the City West Link and the Anzac Bridge, and out of the area. All this terminal is, is a high-volume transit zone.”