Seafarers centre applies to sell duty-free liquor

Port Hedland Seafarers Centre is hoping to gain a licence to sell duty-free liquor to crew from visiting iron ore carriers.

Seafarers centre senior chaplain Alan Mower said visiting crews liked to buy cask and bottled wine for consumption on board their vessels and as gifts for family and friends back home.

However, under tough Hedland liquor restrictions, sales of cask wine can only be made between 2pm and 4pm, while bottle shops also impose limits on the number of wine bottles individuals can purchase during a single visit.

He said duty-free sales could help overcome these issues to meet the needs of seafarers.

“It is a bit of a lucky dip for the crews to get ashore and to the shop during the time when cask wines are available and being sold,” Mr Mower said.

“Also I don’t think the general public know this, but Chinese wine is not really wine — it is liquid made to look like wine. They want to drink real wine and they also buy it to take home to give to family or gift it away.”

The move by the seafarers centre comes as it estimated visiting crew members spent $4.5 million in the Hedland economy every year, based on the amount of currency they exchange into Australian dollars.

Yet Mr Mower said his non-profit group’s decision to seek to expand its liquor licence to allow for duty-free sales was not a money grab.

He emphasised that under duty-free restrictions all liquor sold would have to remain capped until the crew members were back aboard their vessels.

“We don’t want to cause a problem in the community. The last thing we want to do is go against the Hedland liquor accord,” he said. “It is not about trying to grab other parts of the closed (liquor) market.

“We won’t be selling beer or spirits or cigarettes, none of that. It is just purely wine. That needs to be well understood in the community.

“(After all) I enjoy a glass of wine … (and) let’s face it, Jesus was the first person to turn water into wine — he wasn’t a wowser.”