CAPE YORK - 11th Waypoint

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Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia. The land is mostly flat and about half of the area is used for grazing cattle. The relatively undisturbed eucalyptus wooded savannahs, tropical rainforests and other types of habitat are now recognized and preserved for their global environmental significance.

The west coast borders the Gulf of Carpentaria and the east coast borders the Coral Sea. The peninsula is bordered on three sides (north, east and west).

Cape York Peninsula supports a complex mosaic of intact tropical rainforests, tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannahs, shrublands, heath lands, wetlands, wild rivers and mangrove swamps.

he first known contact between Europeans and Aborigines occurred on the west coast of the peninsula in 1606 but it was not settled by Europeans until the 19th century when fishing communities, then stations and later mining towns were established.

The Torres Strait is a strait which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately 150 km (93 mi) wide at its narrowest extent. The strait links the Coral Sea to the east with the Arafura Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria in the west. Although it is an important international sea lane, it is very shallow (7 to 15 m water depth), and the maze of reefs and islands can make it hazardous to navigate.

Elizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. Elizabeth was born in London as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. When her father died in February 1952, she became head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon.

Annastacia Palaszczuk is an Australian politician and 39th Premier of Queensland, serving since the 2015 election. She has been a Labor member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland since the 2006 election, representing the electorate of Inala. She held various ministerial portfolios in the Bligh Labor government from 2009. Following Labor's defeat in the 2012 election, Palaszczuk succeeded Bligh as leader of Queensland Labor. After the defeat of the Newman LNP government in 2015, Palaszczuk became the first woman in Australia to become Premier of a state from Opposition.

Our Trustees believe that it might be useful to anyone interested in progressing low carbon transport, for us to plan a route for the Elizabeth Swan, such that if it is deemed a worthy cause in the battle to tackle climate change, that we have a plan in place to demonstrate clean ocean transport is not as far away as one might imagine, should the political will crystallize to accelerate sustainable technology after COP 24 in December 2018.

If the Foundation were to support the initiation of such a challenge, it would be in a dual format, also being designed as an ocean awareness event to attract a global audience to gain the highest potential media coverage.

11TH LEG - The tenth leg of this zero carbon voyage is approximately 724 nautical miles from Thursday Island, Cape York to Darwin, Australia. At a cruising speed of 7 knots this leg of the ocean awareness campaign would take 4.5 days to complete. At 6 knots the journey would take 5 days.

Hence this is a theoretical exercise to determine what might be possible in the world of cargo and passenger transport if future ships were to use a power formula derived from the Elizabeth Swan and SeaVax platforms, to increase voyage speed for zero carbon shipping such as to be commercially viable and non polluting.

The following then is a contingency plan to be ready should the Foundation or any Government, Organization, ocean literacy associate or collaborative research partner decide (jointly) that we are in a suitably robust position to mount such a challenge to be worthwhile in awareness terms, including advancing climate control knowledge.

The above does not preclude the possibility of  responsible commercial associates enjoining - being a most welcome prospect, perhaps when the Foundation is further along the R&D line and any proposed circumnavigation presents less of a technical risk share to potential contributors and end users, such as ship builders and fleet operators. Such partnerships might accelerate project development considerably.