SEALINK SERVICE COMPARISIONS OFFER SOME INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS
The Friendly Bay Islander received a first-hand opportunity to compare SeaLink services with a visit to Bruny Island in Tasmania just a couple of weeks ago.
We were visiting friends at Adventure Bay on Bruny and were required to use the new Sealink twin barge service.
The comparisons were enlightening.
Firstly the islands. Bruny Island has a local population of around 500 residents. However, their tourism visitation is massive in comparison to the SMB Islands, and more comparable to North Stradbroke (Minjerribah) when it comes to tourism.
Bruny is serviced by two new vehicular ferries that operate in tandem.
These are the same ferry design that will soon be seen on SMB Islands run in the coming weeks.
At Bruny Island the ferries leave either Kettering on North Bruny 20 minutes apart.
The distance between the two terminals in Tasmania are published at 6.82 kilometres, taking approximately just under 20 minutes in travel time.
The Redland Bay to Karragarra, Macleay, Lamb and Russell Islands varies between eight and 10 kilometres approximately.
The journey varies between 30 mins (first stop) and about one hour (depending on number of stops).
When it comes to cost of travel, the Bruny Island journey is considerably cheaper.
The return fare for an average car for visitors to Bruny is $48.50, and $36 for pensioners.
The small number of Bruny Island residents fare particularly well paying $16 return and $10 return for pensioners.
There are no such concessions for residents on the SMBI run, probably due to the different demographic of use (there are few visitors by comparison compared to Bruny and North Stradbroke Island)
SMB Island barge users pay $150 return and $124 return for residents.
We make no assumptions on the different price structures due to considerable operational differences at both locations.
• One of the Bruny Island Sealink vehicle ferries.