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Budget backs Hunter’s hydrogen-ready port push with $88.1m
newy.com.au – The Hunter’s clean energy transition has been given an $88.1 million line in tonight’s federal budget, with funding aimed at helping the Hunter region and the Port of Newcastle become hydrogen ready. Budget Paper No. 3 lists the money under “Hunter region – supporting clean energy” and spreads it across five years, including $8 million in 2026-27 and the largest instalment, $44 million, in 2027-28.
For Newcastle, the measure is a local transition play as much as an energy announcement. It points directly to the Port of Newcastle’s plans for a Clean Energy Precinct on Kooragang Island, where former industrial land is intended to support hydrogen and ammonia production, energy storage and new export infrastructure. Government material says the precinct is planned for 220 hectares, with construction expected to start in 2027 and full operations targeted for 2030.
The budget line lands in a region still deeply tied to coal. The port said last month it handled more than 160 million tonnes of cargo in 2025, including more than 149 million tonnes of coal exports, even as non-coal trade reached a record 11.12 million tonnes. That mix explains why hydrogen readiness matters locally: the same port, rail, storage and industrial skills that have supported coal exports are now being asked to underpin clean energy supply chains.
In the Hunter Joint Organisation’s 2026-27 federal budget submission, it described the Hunter as Australia’s largest regional economy, valued at $96 billion in 2025 and home to more than 800,000 people, while warning that the shift away from coal was already under way. The same submission cited coal industry modelling that nearly 12,000 direct and indirect jobs could be lost by 2030 from the closure of two mines, with almost 50,000 direct and indirect jobs affected over coming decades as further mines close.
The Clean Energy Precinct has previously been presented by federal agencies as one of the projects intended to turn that pressure into new industrial activity. The Commonwealth’s clean energy material says the precinct is forecast to support more than 5,800 jobs through construction, while the port’s own diversification push has already seen project cargo linked to renewable energy projects move through Newcastle.
