A container terminal is approved at an Australian port

State planning, EPBC assessment and a sea dumping permit, running largely in parallel, with no queue or scheduling time anywhere in the model. This process is here because it is not the reason there is no container terminal at Newcastle.

infrastructureOne new container terminal and its associated capital dredging at an existing port skeleton compare across jurisdictions

This is a structural skeleton, not a measured process. The steps, the authorities and the sequence are researched from this jurisdiction's published requirements and are broadly right. The durations are a uniform template applied across all jurisdictions, so the differences between them on the comparison page are mostly an artefact of that template rather than evidence about Australia. Do not quote the day counts. Replacing them with sourced figures for even one jurisdiction would make this page genuinely useful.

540 days elapsed
longest dependent chain

6 discrete steps
across 2 bodies

0% waiting on availability
scheduling or queue, not assessment

758 days saved by concurrency
vs. 1298 if run end-to-end

Where the time goes

Critical-path days only. Steps that run alongside others are real work but do not lengthen the process, so counting them here would overstate the prize.

assessment		540d	Someone is genuinely evaluating the merits.

The process, step by step

Applies when: A port lessee seeks to develop container handling capacity requiring dredging and Commonwealth environmental approval.

#	Step	Who	Why it waits	Clock	Typical	Basis
1	State planning approval assessment State significant development or infrastructure assessment, including environmental impact statement and public exhibition.	NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure	assessment	—	540 estimate	—
2	EPBC referral and controlled action decision referral Whether the proposal is a controlled action requiring Commonwealth assessment.	Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water	statutory	28	28 legislated	Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)
3	EPBC assessment and approval assessment after EPBC referral and controlled action decision 147d slack	Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water	assessment	—	365 estimate	Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)
4	Sea dumping permit for dredge spoil application A separate Commonwealth permit, under a separate Act, for placing dredged material at sea. after EPBC referral and controlled action decision 147d slack	Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water	assessment	90	365 p90 540d published	Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981 (Cth), s 19
5	Commercial preconditions satisfied decision Whether the project can proceed on terms anybody will fund. Not a permit, not an assessment, and not visible to a process map.	—	assessment	—	0 reported	—
6	Terminal approved and able to proceed decision after State planning approval, EPBC assessment and approval, Sea dumping permit for dredge spoil, Commercial preconditions satisfied	—	assessment	—	0 estimate	—

on the critical path scheduling/queue = delay not caused by the assessment itself

Proposed changes

The Act says 90 days. The department says over 12 months. Both are correct. digitise
Section 19 of the Sea Dumping Act requires the Minister to grant or refuse a permit within 90 days. The administering department advises that applications may take over 12 months depending on complexity. Nobody publishes the actual distribution.
No permit stopped the Newcastle container terminal. A 2013 deed did, and it is lawful. remove
The State of NSW must compensate the Port Botany and Port Kembla operators if container traffic at Newcastle exceeds a cap. The ACCC sued and lost twice. NSW extinguished the port's reimbursement liability in 2022 and kept its own, now estimated at up to $4.3 billion.

Sources

Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981 (Cth), s 19: the Minister must grant or refuse a permit within 90 days after the application is made, extended where Subdivision A of Division 4 of Part 11 of the EPBC Act applies
DCCEEW: sea dumping applications may take over 12 months to be assessed depending on their complexity
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)
Port of Brisbane Channel Enhancement Project: dredging could start in 2028 and would require a Commonwealth sea dumping permit if material is placed outside internal state waters
Port of Newcastle 10-year maintenance sea dumping permit renewed September 2022, running to 31 July 2032

Something wrong here?

This page is wrong in some way -- every page like it is. If you have run this process, the most useful thing you can do is tell us which step took longer than we say and why. Edit data/processes/au-port-container-terminal.toml and open a pull request, or send us the correction.