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Newcastle Harbour today

Approx 7,000 thousand people have flocked to Newcastle Harbour to watch the Forgacs floating dock leave its home of more than 30 years.

People have lined both the Newcastle and Stockton foreshores to catch a glimpse of the iconic dock.

At about 11am, it was passing the Queens Wharf Brewery to cheers and applause from the gathered spectators.

It made its way out of the harbour accompanied by a pilot and with helicopters hovering overhead.

Workers took part in an emotional ceremony yesterday to bid farewell.

‘‘The landscape of the harbour will be very different from now on,’’ .

Long considered one of the key pieces of infrastructure in Newcastle port, the Forgacs floating dock was ideal for conversions, refits, unscheduled repairs and maintenance.

But with no maintenance work for the past two years the company began looking for a buyer and the sale was finalised yesterday.

To mark the occasion long-serving employees gathered to unveil a banner bidding farewell to the floating dock.

A specialist tug, “Bluster”,, larger and equipped for long journeys, will tow the floating dock past Nobbys to start the journey to Singapore, where it will be overhauled before being transported to its next home port in South Africa.

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