Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc.: INDEX

Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc.

A0020093K Victoria ABN 46 291 176 191 Founded in 1970

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INDEX

Major Campaign No. 5: Ethane Pipeline across Port Phillip

Click on a blue hyperlink of interest, or 1973 Supreme Court case, 2008 pipeline rupture, 2010 Federal Court cases.

* The route of the pipeline above was opposed because it was:

An ad hoc decision to introduce an industrial facility into a large natural area not previously industrialized, and one made in the total absence of any provision or forethought about the need to create a safe, accessible common pipelines corridor around Melbourne, and
The foreshore reserves and seabed of Port Phillip should not be disrupted on such a scale for commercial or industrial purposes.

* See details of this early PPCC campaign on the Kingston Council history website.

Public attendance at PPCC's rally opposing an ethane pipeline across Port Phillip

John Iggulden, PPCC President, at microphone above addresses the rally opposing an ethane pipeline.

Public protest on Sunday, 18th June 1972, at Mordialloc Life Saving Club
against Port Phillip Bay becoming an industrial pipeline route

Photos by the late James Quirk, a former VNPA President [Click on photos to enlarge them]

* Read the December 1973 judgement of the Supreme Court of Victoria that found that the Victorian Government had exceeded its lawful powers by charging a legitimate user of the public foreshore reserve with trespass, ordering him to move, and arresting him, in order to facilitate the digging up of part of the reserve to bury the private pipeline underneath it, and that a magistrate had wrongly convicted him. Justice Sir John Norris, In his written judgement, cited the landmark 1959 High Court of Australia case on public land of Randwick Corporation vs. Rutledge.

* The person ultimately ruled by Victoria's Supreme Court to be the legitimate user was the inaugural President of the Port Phillip Conservation Council, John Iggulden, who was arrested and removed from the site by police, temporarily placed in custody, and placed on a good behaviour bond by a magistrate. His appeal to the Supreme Court led to his total vindication, and the Court found that he should not have been interfered with. The Government did not appeal against the Norris judgement.

* A nearby part of the foreshore is named the Peter Scullin Reserve, after a then Mordialloc councillor that prominently opposed the pipeline route.

* In December 2008, a ship's anchor ruptured the ethane pipeline, causing damage of more than 100 million dollars, and cessation of ethane flow until March 2009.

* In March 2010, a Federal Court judgement criticized the Port of Melbourne Corporation and a Port Phillip sea pilot over the disaster.

* In June 2010, a second Federal Court judgement found against both the owner of the pipeline and the owner of the ship.