Kirrily weakens to tropical low

26 Jan 2024 / Queensland, Australia

Tropical Cyclone Kirrily crossed the Queensland coast, between Townsville and Ingham, as a Category 2 system at 10pm AEST last night (25 January) and is now moving over land. It has weakened to a tropical low.

The port of Townsville is now at Condition Green – Recovery. VTS operations at Townsville have now resumed, and shipping will recommence as soon as possible. Anchorages are now open.

At Mckay, the port will tentatively reopened for berthing from 1400 today (to be confirmed by the Regional Harbour Master prior to commencement).

Mourilyan is now open to all traffic.

At the port of Hay Point as well as Hay Point & Dalrymple Bay coal terminals, VTS has commenced planning to manage the return of vessels to anchor that were evacuated. Based on current forecast conditions, the anchorage is expected to be reopened from 1200 today.

On confirmation that inspections indicate that no infrastructure has been impacted by the weather, the port will be tentatively reopened for berthing from 1400 today (to be confirmed by the Regional Harbour Master prior to commencement).

To limit congestion at anchorages, returning ships will be allocated a time slot to arrive at VTS limits inbound, bearing in mind the following considerations:
- 6 ships will be allocated each arrival time with the ships to manage their ETA to VTS Limits within 15 minutes before or after their scheduled time.
- Ships are not to arrive earlier than scheduled allocated time as they will not be cleared for entry to VTS Limits.
- Ships are not to arrive early and drift in the proximity of VTS limits as this will add to congestion for returning ships.
- Ships will be returning to the anchorages they were in prior to departure.

As per MSQ weather contingency plan, the port of Abbot Point is currently still at Warning level – EMERGENCY WARNING (RED). There is currently no advice about when the port/terminal will re-open and continue with operations as normal.

A Severe Weather Warning has been re-issued for inland North Queensland. Ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily is expected to produce heavy to locally intense rainfall and possible damaging winds over the warning area today.

For further details and updates, as well as information about operations in Australia, contact GAC Australia at [email protected]

If quoting any content from Hot Port News, please cite GAC Hot Port News as the source.