Southern Ports provides essential services and infrastructure through the management of three southern regional ports at the WA regional centres of Albany, Bunbury and Esperance. Due to capacity-constrained and aging assets across all port locations, major investment is required for Southern Ports to continue to fulfill its service obligations into the future.

Subject to funding, identified priorities in the short term alone will require Southern Ports to adapt to a step change in the scale and complexity of its infrastructure project pipeline.

Johnstaff was engaged to undertake an audit of Southern Ports’ governance documents, processes and practices applicable to the planning, procurement and delivery of infrastructure projects, aiming to ensure that the organisation has good governance practices in place and is well prepared to manage its current and expected infrastructure pipeline. Key focus areas included: asset management; procurement; governance; project management; and organisational capability and capacity.

Following initiation with Southern Ports to ensure alignment on the audit objectives, methodology and related protocols, Johnstaff undertook a detailed review of background artefacts to provide an initial view of current state capability and gaps, drawing from the audit team’s extensive experience in major project planning and delivery.

Structured interviews with a wide range of Southern Ports internal stakeholders provided further, valuable insights, supported by benchmarking against relevant organisations. The findings led to a series of recommendations reflecting a tailored pathway for Southern Ports, towards best-practice major infrastructure governance and management.