Prior to 1960 Sydney's international shipping facilities were exclusively located in Port Jackson, with bulk and break bulk docks at Darling Harbour and Walsh Bay. and bulk and ro-ro docks at Glebe Island and White Bay. With the advent of containerization in the late 1950s it became clear that Sydney would require additional port facilities to cater for new cargo types. In the 1960s the government agency responsible for ports, the NSW Maritime Services Board, recommended that a new port complex be developed in the northern part of Botany Bay adjacent to Sydney Airport. The New South Wales Government endorsed the proposal in 1969 and in 1971 work commenced on two container terminals to the north, and a bulk liquid wharf and storage area to the south.
Bulk liquids
The bulk liquid terminal was completed in 1979 as a common-user facility for the import of natural gas, oil, petroleum and chemicals. The terminal and storage area were progressively expanded during the 1980s including new ethylene tanks and handling plant operated byICI, and AGL storage caverns in 1994 and 2000. The bulk liquid terminal can accommodate ships of around in length and.
Containers
The northernmost container terminal was completed in 1979 and officially opened by then-Premier Neville Wran who christened it Brotherson Dock in memory of former Maritime Services Board chairman Bill Brotherson who had died in 1975. The terminal was initially leased to Australian shipping company ANL but was transferred to Patrick Corporation in the 1990s. In 2006 the Patrick Corporation merged with Toll Holdings. The southern container terminal opened in 1982, christened Brotherson Dock Two and leased to the newly formed stevedore company Container Terminals Australia. Despite both terminals being of equal size and quay length, Brotherson Dock Two struggled to compete with its northern neighbour. In its first full year of operation, Brotherson Two handled just 91,000 containers with a berth occupancy rate of 40 percent. In the 1990s CTAL ceased operations and the terminal lease was onsold to shipping company P&O. In 2006 P&O was purchased by Dubai Ports.
Port expansion
The third container terminal at Port Botany was completed in June 2011. The 515 million project included the reclamation of of land with the construction of of shipping wharves which will berth five vessels. In addition, there was associated rail and road networks. Baulderstone and Jan De Nul Joint Venture partners were awarded the Australian Construction Achievement Award, Australian construction industry’s most prestigious award, for their work on the project. In December 2009, Hutchison Whampoa invested in Terminal 3 through subsidiary Hutchison Port Holdings, signed a 30-year lease with Sydney Ports Corporation, now transferred to NSW Ports. The terminal is expected to be operational during 2013. The expansion catered for continued growth in demand for imports by intermodal containers and to provide space for a third stevedore for Sydney. The expansion was twice the size recommended by an independent Commission of Inquiry in 2004. The Commission's recommendation proposed that increased demand could be catered for by the two existing stevedores via improvements in technology and logistics. The concentration of NSW's container trade at Port Botany will see a tripling of containers being processed, and although there are plans to double the current percentage of containers being transported by freight rail from 20% to 40%, there will still be a 200% increase in container trucks on Sydney's roads. An A$84 million expansion to the Bulk Liquids Berth, called BLB2, has commenced and will double the capacity of bulk liquids operations. The BLB2, when operational in mid-2013, will be suitable for ships up to in length and.
