Marsden Point

Marsden Point with the refinery.

Marsden Point is a head of the Whangarei Harbour, near Whangarei, New Zealand, lying close to the northern tip of Bream Bay. It is also a major industrial area, containing Marsden Point Oil Refinery, the country's only such facility,^[1] and two large defunct power plant stations (Marsden A and Marsden B). Marsden Bay is immediately to the west of Marsden Point.

Port and rail plans

Since the 1970s, there have been proposals to expand the harbour facilities and build the Marsden Point Branch, a branch line railway from the North Auckland Line to serve Marsden Point's current economic interests as well as a proposed deepwater harbour.^[2] As of 2007, land acquisition to establish a corridor for the line is under way.^[3] The associated harbour (which would also require substantial investment into new container cranes) is being proposed as an alternative to smaller facilities throughout New Zealand. According to the Marsden Point backers, these should be rationalised into fewer, more cost-effective hub ports. In comparison with, for example, Ports of Auckland in its constrained Auckland CBD location, the Marsden Point port would also have much free land for expansion.^[4]

See also

• Northland Port

References

1. ^ Marsden Point (from Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Accessed 2008-02-06.)
2. ^ Railways of New Zealand: A Journey Through History - Churchman, Geoffrey B. & Hurst, Tony; HarperCollins Auckland, 1991, Page 100
3. ^ Negotiations for Rail Link Land Under Way - Northland Regional Council website, posted 2007-09-09. Retrieved 2007-09-29
4. ^ Graham, Pam (29 October 2007). "Northland port signals big future". The New Zealand Herald. NZPA. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10472719. Retrieved 20 October 2011. 

Coordinates: 35°50′28″S 174°29′41″E / 35.840986°S 174.494734°E / -35.840986; 174.494734