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Tropical Reef Shipyard, Cairns

Tropical Reef Shipyard is a privately owned Australian company employing up to 150 personnel. Established in 1977, the shipyard has been dependant upon its unrelenting attitude to provide quality service aimed at providing a reliable turnaround for all customers. The energy and determination of the loyal management team and dedicated staff, enhances the shipyard’s commitment to providing an unparalleled service in the region. This has led to our continued success. The shipyard is able to offer a comprehensive range of ship repair services through our staff and extensive supplier network. Located in the city of Cairns, the shipyard is serviced by an international airport, providing ease of access for customers, as well as an import to access supplies from around the world.

With the largest slipway capacity north of Brisbane, it is well placed to service vessels from Darwin to Brisbane, the South Pacific and Asia, the local marine industry, and those from further afield. Tropical Reef Shipyard has a 100m, 3000 tonne capacity slipway catering for a wide variety of vessel types. As the largest slipway north of Brisbane, Australia and one of the largest in the Pacific, when combined with our deep water berths and outfit/repair wharves, we are able to cater to many different size vessels. In addition to the large slipway, the shipyard also has a floating dock facility capable of docking vessels up to 350 tonnes. This allows for slipway or afloat repairs of vessels.

The yard is fully equipped with Cranes up to 100 tonnes, Elevated Work Platforms, Commercial Spray Machines, Water Blasters up to 40,000psi and workboats to 3 tonne bp to assist with vessel movements, amongst many other industry specialised equipment. The full machine workshop includes repairs and rebalancing of propellers, which is carried out in-house. The onsite store allows for the provision of essential stock items, which assists with a fast turnaround of vessels. The combination of skilled staff and contractor base ensures full customer service.

Tropical Reef Shipyard has conducted numerous slippings of varied military and paramilitary related vessels from United States of America, Australia and various nations of the South Pacific. A diverse management team has a broad range of skills & experience in project management. Pertaining to the refitting of ships are more than capable of handling defence related projects. Tropical Reef Shipyard has a long history of experience in defence related work including the completion the LOTE (Life of Type Extension) of the Royal Australian Navy Landing Craft (LCH) and currently retain a maintenance contract for the ongoing scheduled refit, dockings and provision of adhoc supplies for these vessels. Each of these refits are significant projects and are completed within stringent budgets and time frames.

As the preferred maintenance facility for the Hydrographic ships operated by the Royal Australian Navy, Tropical Reef are involved in the maintenance and refit of these vessels. Utilising our extensive depth of resources will allow meeting the ongoing turnaround requirements of such projects. Tropical Reef defence work extends beyond the Australian defence force requirements and the company had extensive experience with the refit of US Army vessels over an extended timeframe. Tropical Reef built extensive customer relations and have a strong customer focus. Tropical Reef's reputation of being able to absorb potential growth with minimal impact on delivery, without sacrificing quality, has been part of success with completing defence contracts.