The working ports working hard for NSW

Whether it’s your coffee from Brazil, the fridge keeping your food fresh or the laptop on your desk. All these goods would have entered our shores by sea.

In fact, an incredible 98 per cent of imports to Australia arrive by ship and 99 per cent of exports leave by sea too.

Together, that’s around 1,600 million tonnes of cargo and $400 billion in trade passing through Australia’s ports every year.

New South Wales is home to some of the most economically significant ports in Australia — contributing billions of dollars to our economy and supporting thousands of jobs and countless businesses.

World-famous Sydney Harbour is one of the busiest waterways in the country. Home to thousands of recreational vessels, Sydney is Australia’s cruise gateway with over 300 cruise ships visiting each year.

Sydney isn’t just about recreation though, it’s also home to the working ports at Glebe Island and White Bay which have been delivering essential supplies to the heart of the city for over 100 years.

Just south of Sydney Harbour, Port Botany is one of Australia's biggest container ports. It provides goods for the largest population centre in the country and specialises in trade in manufactured products as well as petroleum and natural gas.

Further south, Port Kembla is the largest car importation terminal in Australia, while the Port of Eden on the far-south coast is home to the state’s largest fishing fleet and is an increasingly popular port of call for cruise ships.

Heading north, Newcastle Harbour is the largest bulk shipping port on the east coast and provides an economic gateway to the resource-rich Hunter Valley.

Further still, the Port of Yamba in the north of New South Wales supports a thriving shipbuilding and repair industry and is a popular summer tourist destination.

Port Authority of New South Wales ensures around 6,000 commercial vessels navigate safely in and out of our working ports each year. These ships deliver the goods we all depend on, take our produce to markets overseas and bring in hundreds of thousands of cruise passengers who contribute to our growing economy.

These working ports are vital to our economy on a local, regional and national level. They have shaped our past, they support our present and will help create our future.

From ferries to fishing, recreation, construction, storage and staging of major events, our ports and harbours are alive with activity. They’re not only our economic gateways to the world – they’re the beating heart of our coastal communities.