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Glebe Island and White Bay Port Noise Policy and Protocol

Managing noise

Effectively managing community noise exposure and noise levels from commercial ships is key to the successful operation of the port of Glebe Island and White Bay. To achieve this, Port Authority has developed a Port Noise Policy and Vessel Noise Operating Protocol to manage noise proactively, consistently and fairly across port operations in Glebe Island and White Bay.

By implementing this policy and protocol, Port Authority seeks to manage noise from commercial shipping in a way that is acceptable to the local community, while recognising Glebe Island and White Bay’s, long-term role as a working port. Noise from cruise ships at White Bay Cruise Terminal and Berth 4 is controlled by Port Authority’s Noise Restriction Policy.

This policy is the first of its kind in Australia and aims to provide certainty about noise management for the community, port users and other stakeholders. The Port Noise Policy, effective from January 2021, contains:

  • guidelines and explanations of noise triggers for individual ships visiting Glebe Island and White Bay, and consequences if the ship exceeds those triggers, explained in the Vessel Noise Operating Protocol
  • guidelines and explanations of precinct-wide landside noise criteria
  • a framework to guide future noise assessments and planning controls
  • a goal for gradual long-term reduction of ship noise while at berth.

The Policy documents include:

Current status and next steps:

The Policy commenced implementation in January 2021. This will be the first time that noise from the whole port is monitored and managed in a way that is consistent and transparent, with strict consequences.

Results of vessel noise monitoring including any exceedances of trigger levels are available here.

We are currently establishing the port monitoring system which will provide further information about whole-of-port noise, including landside noise. This is anticipated to be operational in first quarter of 2021.

We hope our implementation of this policy will allow us manage noise in a way that is acceptable to the community, port users, and others while recognising Glebe Island and White Bay’s ongoing status as a working port.

Once we have completed additional investigations to address vessel noise on arrival/departure to the berth and modelling inclusive of cumulative landside noise further information be emailed to people who made submissions and the summary reports will provided on this website.

Updates to the ongoing reviews of the Policy, and reporting of noise monitoring and results, will be made public via this webpage.

Background - policy development:

The final policy and protocol was shaped by feedback from the community, and our response to the 80 submissions we received during the consultation period are outlined in  a Response to Submissions (RtS) Report. This report categorises each item raised and the Port Authority’s response, as well as where changes were made based on feedback received.

Further detailed information and responses can be found in Appendix B: Technical Responses to Submissions completed by Spoke Acoustics.

Based on feedback received the policy was changed to:

  • Include a cumulative noise assessment of all port activities using noise maps for the whole port including vessels and landside operations. See Appendix I of the Policy.
  • Contain more detailed consideration of the noise limits adopted in the Policy and how they have been derived. See Sections 5-7 and Appendix F of the Policy.
  • Include accelerated consequences for vessel operators for exceeding the trigger levels for vessels during the evening period (6-10pm). See revised Vessel Noise Operating Protocol.
  • Clarify the process in the Vessel Noise Operating Protocol and consequences for any vessel after reaching ‘three strikes’ (3 corrective action notices) to make consequences more stringent after receiving a third corrective action regardless of level of exceedance (imposing a night time restriction).
  • Clarify that in any future review of night time vessel noise triggers, the ultimate goal would be a minimum of 50dbA (being the anticipated minimum noise level that could reasonably be achieved by vessels given current technology) and would not be below ambient noise levels in the area surrounding Glebe Island and White Bay at the time.
  • Undertake Policy reviews on a five-yearly basis, and specifically include consultation with the Glebe Island and White Bay Community Liaison Group.

In addition to these changes made, after considering specific community concerns about the scope of the Policy, the Port Authority commits to undertaking the following actions:

  • Further investigation to address vessel noise on arrival/departure to the berth, by undertaking an investigation to measure actual noise levels during these periods – we commit to investigate a potential restriction or feasible operational changes on vessels arriving and potentially departing during the night-time period to reduce noise, based on review of the results of this monitoring.
  • Additional cumulative noise modelling with further modelling inclusive of cumulative landside noise from port activities will be undertaken during the implementation of the Policy, based on monitoring data of actual landside noise from the port.

Read the RtS here and Technical Responses to Submissions here.

For information please contact the Port Noise Policy Project Team on [email protected] / or call 61 2 9296 4595.