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Western Australia’s Defence Industry Minister, Paul Papalia CSC, has announced that Australian-owned, Perth-based marine and underwater service provider Franmarine has taken its next step after receiving nearly $4 million from the Western Australian government’s Investment Attraction Fund.
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As part of the company’s expansion, Franmarine is in the process of establishing a global operations centre at Henderson, which will provide the company with the capacity to consolidate technology development fabrication and assembly of its integrated in-water vessel cleaning system.
The company has been delivering biofouling management and ships husbandry capability to the Royal Australian Navy since 2018 and has recently signed a new agreement with engineering company Babcock to deliver critical services under the regional maintenance program (RMP-W) as part of the Royal Australian Navy’s Plan Galileo integrated maintenance and sustainment program.
Western Australia’s Defence Industry Minister, Paul Papalia CSC, highlighted the importance and the success of the WA government’s Investment Attraction Fund (IAF), saying, “The Investment Attraction Fund allows the Western Australian government to support worthy endeavours, which create local jobs and bolster local industries.”
Franmarine’s cleaning system removes harmful biofouling to prevent non-indigenous invasive marine species (IMS) being transferred via vessels, the technology does this while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by minimising hull drag. Franmarine has also recently become qualified to provide in-water cleaning services direct to the Canadian government, Royal Canadian Navy and Coast Guard.
The company is the only organisation in Australia delivering all aspects of biofouling management. The company’s biofouling management capability includes:
- MarineStream biofouling management and Marine biosecurity compliance programs.
- MarineStream.
- In-water hull cleaning.
- Niche area cleaning.
- Invasive marine species treatment.
- Fleet-wide governance framework development.
- Regulatory compliance support.
- Biofouling management plan development, implementation, and maintenance.
- All aspects of inspection, maintenance, control, marine biosecurity compliance and quality assurance.
“Franmarine is [a] proud WA organisation with a global reputation for its underwater sustainment and biofouling management,” Minister Papalia added.
Franmarine’s new global operations centre will employ an additional 66 employees in WA and create 74 new jobs over the life cycle of the project.
Minister Papalia said, “I am looking forward to see what the new operations centre in Henderson will be able to offer both local and international vessels.”
Franmarine was established in 1981 and is an innovative Australian-owned subsea and technology organisation providing a unique technology-enabled underwater sustainment and biofouling management capability to Defence and industry across Australia.
The Investment Attraction Fund was established to encourage new investment in the state, create local jobs and diversify the WA economy, with more than $148 million allocated to 40 job-creating projects to date.
The WA government’s IAF will enable investment into a range of industries, facilitating a more targeted and coordinated approach to investment attraction supporting the WA government’s economic diversification framework, Diversify WA. More information on the Investment Attraction Fund is available here.
