Port Hedland Peace Memorial Seafarers' Centre Inc
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Port Hedland Peace Memorial Seafarers’ Centre Inc. May 2019 Page 1 of 11 Port Hedland Peace Memorial Seafarers’ Centre Inc. We have 21 employees (14 full-time equivalent employees) & six volunteers caring for 30,000 seafarers annually, 365 days per year, 12 hours/day Monday to Saturday and 5/hrs/day on Sundays. We are based in the harsh outback Pilbara district of northern Western Australia in a remote town of 14,000 people, 200k from the nearest town, battling 48 degree temperatures, dust and cyclones. The Port of Port Hedland is Australia’s largest export port by annual throughput and the largest bulk minerals port in the world. Serving the mineral rich east Pilbara region of Western Australia, its main export commodity is 515 million tonnes pa of iron ore. The Port of Port Hedland was the first port to exceed the 100 million tonne per annum ceiling in 2004/05. Our core business is the care of seafarers, both onshore and onboard ship. We are a registered not-for-profit charity, operating under the auspices of the international Mission to Seafarers, which in turn is part of the worldwide Anglican Church, but function as a stand-alone, self-funded business. Page 2 of 11 Background The Port Hedland Seafarers Centre is located on the northwest coast of Western Australia in the remote Pilbara region, 1,400 km north of Perth, 250km northeast of the nearest major port at Dampier and 600km southwest of Broome. The Centre handles 30,000 seafarers each year passing through its doors, together with 9,000 tourists. It is Australia’s largest-tonnage export port, exporting 500 million tonnes of iron ore to China, Japan and Korea. Figure 1. Port Hedland is 1,400km north of Perth in Western Australia, and is Australia’s largest- tonnage export port, exporting 500 million tonnes of iron ore to China, Japan and Korea. Figure 2. The Port Hedland Seafarers Centre Page 3 of 11 The climate is harsh and dry, with summer temperatures frequently above 40 deg C (104° F) and in the main cyclone belt, with 55 cyclones hitting the town in the last 100 years. Despite the cyclones, the town averages only 317mm (12.5 inches) of rain per year with 219 clear sunshine days per year. Figure 3. Christmas Day 2018 hit 48°C (118° F) and Boxing Day 49°C. Figure 4. Cyclone George, March 2007. Page 4 of 11 The Seafarers Centre has a fleet of five vehicles (a Kia sedan, 2 Kia 8-seat people-mover vans, a Toyota Coaster bus and a BLK 43-seat coach. It runs a launch that collects seafarers every two hours from the 19 berth around the harbour, and uses the buses to transport the seafarers from the launch to the Centre to change their foreign currency and then to a supermarket complex to shop for two hours before returning them the Centre and their ships. The Centre has been in Port Hedland since 1973, formed initially as a joint venture between the Anglican Church, the Catholic Church and the Baptist Church, with each group contributing $10,000 towards getting the initial Centre constructed. The Centre was opened by Hon John Tonkin on 15 September 1973, badly damaged by Cyclone Joan in 1975, and renovated over the years. Servicing Seafarers • Our Chaplain goes onboard berthed vessels to minister to those who cannot get shore leave. • We exchange seafarers currency and take them shopping. The pickup launch service and bus trips are free to seafarers. • We provide free WiFi and Internet communications, as well as selling phone recharge cards and SIM cards to enable them to use the cheapest available phone services to contact home • We transport sick or injured seafarers to doctors, dentists, hospitals and emergency services. • We provide counselling services to those with emotional or spiritual issues such as loneliness, separation from family, depression and suicidal thoughts. • We provide recreational facilities such as pool and table-tennis tables, free hot meals, cold drinks and snacks for sale and a bar Funding The Centre is self-funded and receives no funding from the Anglican Church or government grants. A harbour launch traverses each of the 19 berths in the harbour every 2 hours from 10am, collecting and delivering seafarers from & to their ships. The launch service costs $1 million per year to run and is funded by a contribution from the Pilbara Ports Authority and by invoicing the mining companies per berth. BHP Billiton has eight berths, the Port Authority has four, Fortescue Metals Group (‘FMG’) has five and Roy Hill Group has two. The Centre is open 365 days/year, 13 hours/day (09:00 to 22:00) Mon-Fri and 12:00 to 17:00 (5 hours) on Sundays. The Centre raises funds by running harbour tours, land tours of FMG’s iron ore loading operation, sale of mobile phone recharge cards, foreign currency exchange and running a small supermarket and gift shop. The Centre provides free WiFi services and internet to seafarers so they can have free video contact with home and family. The Centre has 9 full-time employees, 11 casuals or part-time and six volunteers. Total hours worked for Full-Time, Casual and Part-Time staff were equivalent to 14 full-time equivalent employees. Employees are selected to have a second language where possible, and we have five Tagalog (Filipino) speakers, three Chinese, two Nigerian, one Page 5 of 11 Zimbabwean and one Hindi speaker. Australian staff also speak French, German and Bahasa Indonesia. Figure 5. Harbour tours are conducted on the launch “Necede” which also ferries seafarers to and from their ships. 2. Business Model 2.1 Products & services The business is structured to provide: • Tours, • Retail sales, • Foreign currency exchange, • Telephone, WIFI & Internet provision, • Satellite tracking of ships Revenue Revenue in 2018 was $3.12 million, down on previous years due to larger ships resulting in increased tonnage exported with fewer ships, and increasing automation reducing average crew numbers from 24 to 22. Revenue is derived from a variety of sources so that we are not dependent on a single income stream that could vanish or diminish unexpectedly. Revenue comes from: Page 6 of 11 • Harbour Tours 7% • Land Tours of FMG’s iron ore ship-loading operations 1% • Shop Retail Sales 19% • Invoicing mining companies for supply of a pick-up launch 23% • Port Authority Launch support 18% • Foreign currency exchange 13% • Sale of mobile phone SIM cards and recharge cards 13% • Bus Hire 3% • Bar Sales 2% • Donations 1% Expenditure The main operating costs are mainly running the launch (26%) and wages (44%). Tours. • A unique experience for guests, enabling them to see a working port up close and to go places the public are not ordinarily able to go. Tours are open to people of all ages Page 7 of 11 and with all access mobility levels. Tour groups are largely made up of seasonal tourists, with a growing number of locals and business personnel taking part. • School excursion group tours are offered • Our Harbour Tour begins at the Seafarers Centre with a 20min talk, combining a brief history of the international Seafarers Mission and our own Centre, along with many facts and figures relative to the port. Port Hedland is the world’s largest iron ore port, operating 24/7 and representing 25% of the Global Iron Ore Seaborne Trade. The numbers, tonnages and dollar values of the happenings within the port shock and amaze many of our guests. They also take great interest in the 66,000 Seafarers who visit the Port and the work we do in caring for their welfare, with 34,000 seafarers through the Centre in 2016. Each guest is provided a bottle of water as they board the bus and morning tea on return. • Hospitality to the Seafarers is the core business of the Centre, providing free meals, paid bar facility, snooker tables, musical instruments, phone charge & SIM cards, free WIFI & internet, foreign currency exchange, books, videos, DVDs, mini supermarket and a bus run to the Boulevarde retail complex for shopping. • Tourists avail themselves of the bar, supermarket and gift shop. • Fortescue Site Tour is a bus tour leaving from the Seafarers Centre. Our guide points out many interesting features of Port Hedland as we drive round to the Herb Elliott Port Site. After passing through security checks the driver negotiates round the port site while the guide passes on information relative to the facility. Guests are shown the ore being dispersed onto stockpiles, reclaimers in action and then move past the conveyors and down onto the wharves to see the loading up close. If vessels are almost fully loaded guests can see onto the deck and get a feel for the enormity of the vessels. Innovative Business practices employed • The business’ prime purpose is the welfare of seafarers, a requirement for Australia under the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 which obliges signatories to the Convention to provide onshore recreation. The Seafarers’ Centre is a self-funded, not- for-profit charity, an Anglican Church Mission caring for the welfare of the Seafarers from the vessels that visit our port. We receive no Federal government funding, despite the Federal Government being the signatory to the Convention. The Pilbara Port Authority (WA government) subsidises one-third of the cost of the launch, which costs a million dollars a year to operate. We must generate for ourselves the balance Page 8 of 11 of our $2.5 to $3 million per year operating cost. We invoice BHP, Fortescue Metals and the Roy Hill Group for the cost of the launch on a proportionate cost -per-berth basis.