MINISTER for Ports and Freight Melissa Horne this week officially opened the new premises of the Port of Melbourne.
The new, elevated offices at 839 Collins Street are in Docklands and provide impressive view of the port precinct.
The premises have been secured under a lease arrangement.
Port of Melbourne previously operated for 10 years from offices also in Collins Street, albeit in the heart of the CBD.
Chief executive Brendan Bourke talked of the importance of the new office in ensuring a connection with port operations.
“The one thing that I’ve found in, not just our staff but stakeholders and the businesses, that there is a degree of pride with what gets done around the port,” he said.
“When we had – I’ll say the opportunity but it was really the necessity – of moving out from where our previous offices were, as a management team, what we wanted to do was actually to recognise that we as the Port of Melbourne, the business, needed to be connected more strongly with the business that we serve.
“For me to be able to actually come to work and look at what is actually happening [at the port]. When our staff are at work and they look out the window, they feel like they are actually part of the port,” Mr Bourke said.
“The new office also supports a collaborative work environment and a welcoming place to host customers and key stakeholders.”
Minister Horne spoke of the importance of ports and freight.
“Ports and freight is just absolutely delightful. I feel in a way I have entered [the portfolio] in an incredibly lucky time,” she said.
“Having started working in transport 15 or so years ago, we were talking about things now we are on the tipping point of actually delivering – the on-dock rail solution, the supply chain, the port access strategy.
“We have all of these things and now we have an impetus behind the ports and logistics frame that never I think was there before.”
The opening was attended by a gathering of people from shipping, logistics and transport.
