Bell Bay is an industrial centre and port located on the eastern shore of the

Tamar River The Tamar River, officially kanamaluka / River Tamar, is a estuary located in northern Tasmania, Australia. Despite being named a river, the waterway is a brackish and tidal estuary over its entire length. Etymology The Tamar River was named ...

, in northern

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, Australia. It lies just south of George Town. In the year ended June 2021, 3.6 million tonnes of exports and imports passed through Bell Bay.

History

Bell Bay Post Office opened on 18 September 1951 and closed in 1973.

Industry

The Bell Bay Power Station was decommissioned in 2009, replaced by the

Tamar Valley Power Station Tamar Valley Power Station is a $230 million natural gas-fired power station located in Bell Bay in the Tamar Valley, Tasmania. It is owned by Hydro Tasmania, and is immediately adjacent to the decommissioned Bell Bay Power Station, which is ...

built next door.

Bell Bay aluminium smelter The Bell Bay aluminium smelter is located on the Tamar River at Bell Bay, Tasmania, Australia. The smelter has a production capacity of 178,000 tonnes of aluminium per year. It is owned and operated by Pacific Aluminium, a wholly owned subsidiary ...

started operating in 1955. it is operated by Rio Tinto (previously by

Comalco Rio Tinto Aluminium (previously known as Comalco) is now known as Rio Tinto Alcan after Rio's takeover of Alcan. It was the world's eighth largest aluminium company. It mines and manufactures bauxite, alumina and primary aluminium. Rio Tinto A ...

TEMCO / Liberty manganese smelter

A manganese alloy smelter built by

BHP BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

, known as the Tasmanian Electro Metallurgical Company (TEMCO) opened on 11 May 1962 produces

ferromanganese Ferromanganese is an alloy of iron and manganese, with other elements such as silicon, carbon, sulfur, nitrogen and phosphorus. The primary use of ferromanganese is as a type of processed manganese source to add to different types of steel, such ...

and silicomanganese. BHP sold the plant to a

Billiton BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

subsidiary, Samancor, in 1998. BHP merged with Billiton in 2001, and so TEMCO came under the company's ownership again. In 2021 it was bought by

Sanjeev Gupta Sanjeev Gupta is an Indian-born British businessman, and the founder of Liberty House Group. He is the CEO and chairman of GFG Alliance, an international conglomerate that operates primarily in the steel and mining industries, its major subsid ...

Liberty Steel Group Liberty Steel Group Holdings UK Ltd (LSG), which is also referred to as Liberty House or Liberty House UK, is a British industrial and metals company founded in the United Kingdom in 1992 by industrialist Sanjeev Gupta. It is headquartered in ...

(parent company

GFG Alliance GFG Alliance (long name Gupta Family Group Alliance), usually referred to as GFG, is an international group of businesses associated with businessman Sanjeev Gupta and the British Gupta family. , the companies in the group are Liberty Steel Group, ...

), becoming known as Liberty Bell Bay. It is the only commercial

ferroalloy Ferroalloy refers to various alloys of iron with a high proportion of one or more other elements such as manganese (Mn), aluminium (Al), or silicon (Si). They are used in the production of steels and alloys. The alloys impart distinctive qualitie ...

operation in Australia. In May 2025 the smelter began a phased shutdown, due to a shortage of ore, beginning with a period of "limited operations". Tropical Cyclone Megan damaged infrastructure of

South32 South32 Limited is a mining and metals company headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It was spun out of BHP Billiton on 18 May 2015. It is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with secondary listings on the Johannesburg and Londo ...

GEMCO The Groote Eylandt Mining Company, known by its acronym GEMCO, is an Australian company that was commissioned to mine high grade manganese ore. GEMCO is majority owned by South32. It runs its operation on 84 square kilometres (32 sq. mi.) of the Ar ...

, their main supplier of ore, in March 2024. The

Premier of Tasmania The premier of Tasmania is the head of the Government of Tasmania, executive government in the Australian state of Tasmania. By convention, the leader of the party or political grouping which has majority support in the Tasmanian House of Assem ...

Jeremy Rockliff Jeremy Page Rockliff Tasmanian House of Assembly, MP (born 5 February 1970) is an Australian politician currently serving as the 47th premier of Tasmania. Rockliff's Premiership of Jeremy Rockliff, premiership began in 2022 following the resign ...

, requested assistance from the federal government in May 2025. The smelter was scheduled to cease operating in mid-June for at least four weeks, with employees having to use up their leave.

Transport

Bell Bay was connected to the

Tasmanian Government Railways The Tasmanian Government Railways (TGR) was the former operator of the mainline railways in Tasmania, Australia. Formed in 1872, the railway company was managed by the Government of Tasmania, and existed until absorption into the Australian Nat ...

network in May 1974, when the 35 kilometre Bell Bay railway line opened, branching off the North East line at Nelson Creek to the north of Launceston. Primarily built to carry logs for export, today it carries

intermodal containers An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, or a freight container, (or simply "container") is a large metal crate designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different mod ...

to and from the port.

Berths

The first Bell Bay wharf was opened in 1927. it has seven berths, which cater for cargo from the various industries in Bell Bay, along with others.

References

Bass Strait Ports and harbours of Tasmania Railway freight terminals in Australia Tamar River Towns in Tasmania Localities of George Town Council {{Tasmania-geo-stub