Duke Point, British Columbia

Duke Point is a geographical location in the extreme southeastern part of the city of Nanaimo. It is located on a thin peninsula to the east of the Nanaimo River estuary, just across the Northumberland Channel from Gabriola Island. Located at Duke Point is a major industrial park, which includes sawmills and pulp-and-paper mills. BC Ferries operates a major terminal at Duke Point, which provides access to ferry service across the Strait of Georgia to Tsawwassen. The terminal was built in 1997 to divert commercial vehicle traffic away from BC Ferries' other main Nanaimo dock, located at a point in the middle of the city known as Departure Bay, thus easing traffic jams through Nanaimo's city centre. The ferry terminal marks the southern terminus of British Columbia provincial highway 19, which connects the terminal to the Trans-Canada Highway just south of Nanaimo's city centre.