{"id":22001,"date":"2026-05-31T21:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T21:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/22001\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T21:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T21:41:10","slug":"united-states-navy-interested-in-using-controversial-darwin-ship-lift-nt-minister-bill-yan-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/22001\/","title":{"rendered":"United States Navy interested in using controversial Darwin ship lift, NT minister Bill Yan says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States Navy has expressed interest in using the controversial $850 million Darwin ship lift, the Northern Territory’s infrastructure minister says.<\/p>\n

Construction of the ship lift is scheduled to be completed in March 2027, with workers set to start night shifts to meet the time frame.<\/p>\n

NT Infrastructure Minister Bill Yan said the NT government has had discussions with US officials.<\/p>\n

“The US Naval attach\u00e9 was here quite some time ago, I spoke with him about the ship lift and its capabilities,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I believe the US are watching this project closely to see how it can benefit them.<\/p>\n

“I know that the US Navy is looking at what we’re doing here to see if it will suit their needs.”\"Man<\/p>\n

Bill Yan says the NT government has been in discussions with the US Navy. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

More than 100 metres long and 26 metres wide, the ship lift will be capable of lifting large vessels up to 5,500 tonnes for on-land maintenance.<\/p>\n

The project was first flagged by the NT government in 2015, when it announced a $100 million grant for private industry to get the project started.<\/p>\n

In the ensuing years the ship lift turned into a fully-publicly funded project, with its cost blowout branded one of the biggest in Australia’s infrastructure history.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The ship lift is being built on Darwin Harbour. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

The latest increase, worth $30 million, was noted in the NT budget last month, taking the total cost to $850 million \u2014 half of which Mr Yan said had already been spent.<\/p>\n

Despite its massive outlay, the government will receive no direct revenue in return due to contracts signed by former Labor chief ministers.<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, Australia’s largest pearling company Paspaley will operate the facility for profit.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Workers are beginning night shifts to finish the ship lift by March 2027. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

Marine complex to complement ship lift<\/p>\n

Last year a parliamentary committee recommended the Country Liberal Party (CLP) government proceed with the ship lift<\/a>, saying it would cost almost $600 million to break contracts and ditch it.<\/p>\n

Darwin ship lift should proceed despite cost blowout, report finds<\/a><\/p>\n

The NT government will gain no direct revenue from the project, despite spending $820 million on its construction.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of this year, the government subsequently announced the ship lift would form part of a wider 246-hectare Northern Marine Complex<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Yan said the complex would complement the ship lift and be a base for vessel maintenance services.<\/p>\n

“The ship lift in itself is one piece of a larger picture,” Mr Yan said.<\/p>\n

“If we’re lifting a vessel out of the water, there are all these industries needed to work and repair that vessel \u2014 there’s electricians, there’s plumbing, certainly mechanical, paint, blast and stripping.<\/p>\n

“Anything you put into salt water around here is going to need work done on a regular basis and that’s what we’re positioning the ship lift and the marine precinct to be able to do.”\"Stack<\/p>\n

The project was first announced in 2015.\u00a0 (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

Asked whether public money would be pumped into creating the marine complex, Mr Yan said the government was paying for ground and infrastructure works.<\/p>\n

“We’re already doing work for plumbing, sewerage and power to support this area \u2014 we’ll do some of that heavy lifting to prepare the marine precinct for investment,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But then we want to see private sector investment come in and partner with government and partner with the project.<\/p>\n

“There’s interest from across the board, from the private sector, from defence and, of course, I know that our Indo-Pacific neighbours are really looking at what we’re going to be able to do here.”<\/p>\n

\"Cranes<\/p>\n

The ship lift will form part of the Northern Marine Complex. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

ADF a ‘close partner’ on project<\/p>\n

The NT government has repeatedly spoken about the ship lift’s importance to the Australian Defence Force (ADF).<\/p>\n

The ADF did not directly answer whether they had made a commitment to use the ship lift, but Mr Yan said the ADF had been “a close partner” on the project.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Bill Yan says defence is a key partner for the ship lift. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

“The Northern Marine Complex will deliver significant sovereign maritime sustainment capability in Northern Australia, and the Government will continue engaging with Defence to ensure it supports Australia’s long-term maritime sustainment and national security needs,” he said.<\/p>\n

Project cost blowout rivalling Snowy Hydro 2.0 and Hobart stadium<\/a><\/p>\n

The Darwin ship lift project has taken 10 years, blown out by hundreds of millions of dollars, and is still nowhere near becoming operational.<\/p>\n

“I know defence have been winding down their operations over at Larrakeyah [Naval Base] as far as maintenance goes, waiting on [the ship lift] to come out of the ground,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The previous [NT Labor] government delayed on the project, which should have been out of the ground years ago \u2026 and of course, that has affected defence, but defence are a key partner for us.”<\/p>\n

Although the NT government will not receive any direct revenue from the ship lift, Mr Yan said Territory taxpayers would eventually get some return on their investment.<\/p>\n

“We’ll see the returns for the Territory in that business and growth around the [Northern Marine Complex],” he said.<\/p>\n

“As businesses start and employ people, that’s where we start to see that larger piece of growth throughout the Territory.<\/p>\n

“We’ll pick up some money in payroll tax \u2026 we’ll hopefully see more people coming to live here.<\/p>\n

“That means more housing, more families and growth of Darwin.”<\/p>\n

The US Navy has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The NT government says although the ship lift won’t generate direct revenue, the wider complex it will exist in will see returns for the NT. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States Navy has expressed interest in using the controversial $850 million Darwin ship lift, the Northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6101,22,13485,21,20924,20925,6822,20922,5735,20926,1938,3339,6936,20927,20923],"class_list":["post-22001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-adf","tag-au","tag-australian-defence-force","tag-austrlia","tag-bill-yan","tag-blowout","tag-darwin","tag-darwin-ship-lift","tag-defence","tag-northern-marine-complex","tag-northern-territory","tag-nt","tag-nt-government","tag-paspaley","tag-us-navy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}