A Bunbury leader has warned that the South-West community needs to be more proactive and continue to lobby, promote and support the future potential of the port as a viable option for the Westport Taskforce.
It comes after the Westport Strategy Taskforce visited Bunbury last week to provide a detailed update on the eight strategic options under consideration since the last local briefing.
Bunbury Geographe Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice president Rob Skipsey said several South-West organisations had worked together to promote the port's potential.
"We are facing significant opposition and a concerted effort from the Fremantle and Kwinana lobby groups who are actively promoting their own ports as the best and most viable option," he said.
"Bunbury Port has a key role to play in delivering viable alternatives for our supply chain infrastructure and key industries in our central and South-West regions over the next fifty years."
The strategy was established to look into how the state's key ports could fulfill needs for the next 50-100 years with the final report to be delivered to State Government later this year.
Mr Skipsey said despite opposition from Kwinana and Fremantle he was confident Bunbury Port provided a viable solution.
"There is also potential for linkages and synergy with the Bunbury Outer Ring Road project and the potential for upgrading the rail and freight linkages between the port, Greenbushes and Kemerton, which will enhance the options for the inclusion of Bunbury Port," he said.
Of the eight options being looked at, four of them include Bunbury with possibilities to move all containers to Bunbury as soon as possible or to transition containers from Fremantle to Bunbury over time.
Westport Strategy taskforce chair Nicole Lockwood said the biggest challenges were depth, distance and scaleability.
"The opportunities being the ability to start a program of building container supply chains from Bunbury - it's more about what's the transition plan to make sure Bunbury is part of the whole network," she said.
The Westport Taskforce will release the final shortlist of options identified and an investigation into Bunbury's regional supply chain on July 1.
For more visit mysaytransport.wa.gov.au/westport.
