HMAS Bundaberg fire forces Aluminium Boats Australia into voluntary administration

A Fire which gutted a $54 million Australian Navy patrol boat has been blamed for the demise of a Brisbane-based boat manufacturing and servicing company.

Aluminium Boats Australia today announced it had been placed into voluntary administration after the HMAS Bundaberg was destroyed while undergoing maintenance at its Hemmant shipyard in August.

The company lost its contract for servicing and maintenance of Australian Navy vessels soon after, forcing it to cut 90 jobs.

Another 70 staff were sacked today after the appointment of administrators from FTI Consulting, who are expected to take less than five weeks to assess the company’s future.

In a statement, Aluminium Boats Australia director Roy Whitewood said he hoped the business could still recover through the help of the administrators.

“It is my strong hope and desire to return the business to financial health, and I will be working closely with the administrators to try and achieve this,” Mr Whitewood said.

Aluminium Boats Australia specialises in the manufacturing and maintenance of defence, commercial and luxury vessels and has had contracts with the Royal Australian Navy, the Queensland Police Service, Mooloolaba Coast Guard and Cruise Whitsundays.

In October last year the company’s general manager Tommy Ericson told The Courier-Mail the company was expecting this year to go “very well” and planned for a 25 per cent increase in staff members.

The head of another Brisbane boat builder, Norman R. Wright & Sons managing director Bill Wright, said the industry was facing increasing pressures, with cheap imports challenging Australian-made vessels.

“I’ve been boat building for 42 years and I can tell you now it’s been as hard in the last five years as it’s ever been in my time, and probably in my father’s lifetime,” Mr Wright said.

“We’ve gone through a very hard time fighting off cheap imports from China, Malaysia, Taiwan and the US and Italy and very, very few people have actually (been able) to keep going with such imported crop coming into the country.”