Dear Mr Braslis, 

Planning Scheme Amendment C24 (Point Gellibrand Heritage Coastal Park): Independent Panel Hearing October 2002 

Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc., a federation of 14 conservation organizations around Port Phillip, one of which is Friends of Williamstown Wetlands Inc., in your municipality, wishes to comment on the above planning scheme amendment. We understand that the proposed amendment is to be considered at an Independent Panel Hearing this month. We would be pleased if you would convey our views on this matter to the Hearing, and my willingness to present our views to the Independent Panel in person, if that is sought by the Panel. 

PPCC Inc. has seen a copy of Parks Victoria’s response to submissions on the proposed Amendment above. We have also obtained a copy of your Council’s "Amendment C24 Explanatory Report", and are pleased to note and support the following worthwhile aspects of it: 
 

•      Emphasis is to be placed on the heritage and ‘wild’ features of the Park 
•      The Park has been reserved under the Crown Land (Reserves) Act 1978 
•      The Park has been zoned "Public Park and Recreation" under the Hobsons Bay Planning Scheme 
•      Parks Victoria has been appointed as the Committee of Management 
•      The Park, which has been a reserve since 1837, is to be a Regional Park that respects and conserves the site’s cultural values and    the coast 
•      Contaminated areas on the site are to receive remedial treatment Parkland will be continuous to Laverton Creek, Altona, which is very much in accord with PPCC Inc. Policy Statement No. 12 "Remnant Large Open Space Land Parcels in Port Phillip Catchment Area" 
•     The Time-ball Tower is to be a major historic focus

Strong Preference for Option 1 "No Road": We note the remarks in your "Explanatory Report" that the coastal road is proposed to be re-aligned to create a predominantly car-free park, enhance visitor safety, and reconnect the park to the coast (it is conceded there will be some extra traffic impact on Kanowna Street). PPCC Inc. wishes to leave your Council in no doubt that we strongly support, as our first preference, Parks Victoria’s Option 1 "No Road". We fully agree with the reasons they provide for that being their first preference. 

Option 2 "Re-aligned Coast Road" is a misconceived attempt to reconcile two strong viewpoints. It seeks to soothe people that will miss the drive alongside the edge of the sea. It also tries, by moving the impact somewhat inland, to give some consolation to people that realize how the road on the edge has degraded, and will keep degrading, that edge. Both of those attempts have a very short-term, expedient focus. The proper long term, stable solution is to have a Park that meets the high standards that Victorians expect Parks Victoria to implement, as Option 1 would produce. 

Option 3 "Retain Battery Road" would short-change the people of Victoria. Their coastal Crown land is held in trust for bona fide coastal values, and not to have the precious coast as a superficial "drag strip" for offhand drivers too indifferent to bother to interact with it by getting out of their automotive cocoons and experiencing some reality. 

PPCC Inc. considers that the proposed Amendment C24 needs to achieve the protection of a substantial area of foreshore from influences that would otherwise greatly detract from its coastal ambience and quality. The worst such influence is the use of motor vehicles and the effect that that use has on the land and its surroundings. The prime measure for offsetting that here would be as large a move as possible for the present road that is parallel to and little removed from the high tide mark of the coast. 

The location of that road, far too close to the water’s edge, and the resulting gross intrusion on and degradation of the low, vulnerable margin of the land is an unpleasant shock when first sighted. It is particularly striking to a large number of Victorian, and other, visitors that do not live at Williamstown and only see the area occasionally. One’s first reaction is to wonder how such a poor situation is tolerated, but one then realizes that areas with a long urban past have often passed through eras of severe neglect, which can be hard to remedy later. Amendment C24 should help to remedy that neglect by providing for a "No Road" option for the Point Gellibrand Coastal Heritage Park, as proposed by Parks Victoria. 

With the present road no longer there the coastline will be far less affected by the visual intrusion of the road surface, and the vehicles passing along it and parked near it. In places, the run-off onto the beach, and into the Bay, of storm water containing the inevitable oil, tyre rubber, and brake pad wastes associated with motor vehicles, will be avoided. The volume of litter, the vehicle noise and loud amplified music, that vehicle users are far more likely to bring to the coast than walkers, and those in wheelchairs, will be greatly reduced. Other benefits will be a safer, more natural and more genuinely coastal environment, which will provide a far more satisfactory contrast to the surrounding very urban, and vehicle-intensive, environment than exists at present. 

Coastal planners, and critics of some past coastal management, have long recognized that roads parallel to and close to the coastline seriously detract from, and relentlessly degrade, the very asset that originally attracted their construction. It is a very well accepted precept of modern coastal planning that such roads should be phased out, and that coastal access be gained by roads at right angles to the coast at suitably wide intervals. 

Bicycle Roads and Car Parking: We draw your attention to PPCC Inc. Policy Statements, No. 8 "Bicycle Roads around Port Phillip" and No. 9 "Parking and Access of Vehicles on Public Foreshore Land". We ask you to consider these succinct and definitive statements in relation to bicycle road and car parking issues for the proposed Point Gellibrand Coastal Heritage Park. 

Removal of Exotic Plants and Replacement of Indigenous Species: It appears from Parks Victoria’s proposals for the Park that exotic and pest plants and environmental weeds are to be removed and plants indigenous to the site (and not just pretty Australian plants) are to be planted. As indicated in PPCC Inc. Policy Statement No. 5 "Vegetation in and around Port Phillip", we support that aspect of plans for the Park, and consider that it should be regarded as a very high priority. 

Yours sincerely, 
 

Geoffrey Goode 
President 
Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc.