Denis has provided these photographs from when the team visited the Northport Log Facility.
Judy’s report on the visit
We did the tour round Northport in two groups, one before lunch, lunch together with both groups, then group two going round in the afternoon. We were taken round in a Minibus driven by a lovely chap who had worked there for eleven years.
Northport started off basically as a wood product port – and boy was there a lot of wood there! A ship called ‘Warrior’ was being loaded while we were there – huge ship, and our guide described the logistics of how it was done.
Cement from Golden Bay Cement was the next export Northport took on as log exports waned. Finally containers were taken on and the special ten million dollar crane required for them was purchased, they now have two of them. As many Northlanders probably know Northport has been trying to get permission to dredge out more of the harbour so they can expand the container aspect of the port to take over some of the Ports of Auckland container trade as Auckland is at full capacity and trying to expand which a lot of Aucklanders don’t want. Northport still has a lot of land they own which would easily give them the room for expansion.
It was a fascinating insight into the workings of a port which most of us would never get to see so thanks very much to the club for organising the outing.