PORT PHILLIP Newsletter of Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc.
A0020093K Victoria		PP2002B October 2002              www.vicnet.net.au/~phillip

Submission to Victorian Government on EES Guidelines for Channel Deepening

Officers of Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc. have participated in recent consultation meetings with the Victorian Channels Authority on the issue of proposed deepening of the major shipping channel in Port Phillip. 

PPCC Inc. has made a submission on the Environment Effects Statement guidelines to Victoria's Department of Infrastructure. Our concerns concentrated on: 

· whether alternative more flexible goods transport to Melbourne, such as railways, would serve Victoria and Australia better in the future than the entrenched focus on the over-populated capital city that a major port entails, 

· more detail needed of the extra shore area that could be periodically inundated by the sea, and 

· more detail needed on turbidity and spoil disposal.

The Marine Parks Act, versus the Sale of Large Areas of Defence Land on the Coast

Two major undertakings this year by the Victorian and Federal Governments respectively have been of great portent for the future of the Port Phillip environment. One is good news. Unfortunately the other might well not be. 

The Victorian Government and Opposition acted responsibly and wisely in coming to a bipartisan position on the initially controversial Marine Parks legislation. Port Phillip benefited to the full extent that was originally proposed by the Environment Conservation Council and the State Government once the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary was re-instated in the Bill and the Bill became law. 

Two of our Member Organizations, Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc. and Black Rock and Sandringham Conservation Association Inc., worked  hard campaigning for the successful re-instatement of the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary at Beaumaris. 

Far less welcome is the Federal move to dispose of 311 hectares of former Defence land on the coast at Portsea, and the large RAAF airfield site at Point Cook. PPCC Inc. has joined other groups in writing to Federal MPs urging that the land not be sold in a way that could lead to its fragmentation or substantial development. Official replies have attempted to soothe concerns, but the issue will not end until these large sites are securely protected.

Mt Martha: Future of former Municipal Quarry, and Rebuilding of "Bathing Boxes"

MT MARTHA QUARRY SITE: Mornington Peninsula Shire Council has received opposition, from residents around the former large municipal quarry site overlooking The Esplanade at Mt Martha, to proposals for intensive development on the site. 

Although this quarry is 60 kilometres from central Melbourne, rampant house building near it has led to much of the land around it now being designated for, or having already succumbed to, virtually overnight suburban lot development. On that nearby land there is surprisingly little substantial plant or animal habitat beyond narrow coastal and creek reserves. 

 PPCC Inc. has informed the Shire Council that it is also opposed to unsympathetic development of that large coastal open space, which is now walled around by rocky cliffs that provide a great variety of plant and animal habitats and niches. These far better complement the adjacent foreshore reserve that the developments being proposed. The position of the quarry site makes it a pleasant refuge, as views from within the quarry site are mainly of its naturally revegetated walls, with Port Phillip visible from some places. Relatively little of the surrounding suburbia can be seen from within the quarry site. 

REBUILDING OF "BATHING BOXES":  After a large number of "bathing boxes" on the fairly unstable Mt Martha North beach were wrecked by storm action in 2000, officers of both the Department of Environment and Conservation, and Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, made written recommendations that rebuilding on that beach should not be permitted. PPCC Inc. agreed with that. 

Active representations by the owners of the wrecked structures succeeded in their obtaining a reversal of that decision, which PPCC Inc. objected to, unfortunately without success. The President of PPCC Inc., Geoffrey Goode, appeared on the ABC's television program Stateline giving our reasons why the rebuilding was considered inappropriate. 

The Committee of Management of PPCC Inc. has recommended to the October 2002 Annual General Meeting that it adopt a new Policy Statement on "Private Structures, such as 'Bathing Boxes', on Public Land and Waters".

Bayside Council Planning Amendment to Prohibit "Roof Terraces" along its Coast

PPCC Inc. has strongly supported an initiative by Bayside Council to introduce an Amendment C25 to its Planning Scheme that would prohibit future approvals for "roof terraces". 

These are floors, as yet unroofed, built over and at the roof level of houses, and intended for outdoor entertainment and relaxation, and to afford views of Port Phillip. Unfortunately these de facto extra storeys add to the height of buildings. They are  more liable to be seen from the coastal reserve and to intrude upon its ambience. Objectors to these "roof terraces" have also recognized the impact of unwanted noise and lights from them on users of the foreshore, and the potential for pressures to build up to allow the "terraces" to be eventually roofed over. 

Appeal to VCAT on Proposed Skateboard and BMX Facility on the Rye Foreshore

PP2002A reported that PPCC Inc. had written to Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, joining other objectors to the proposal for a Skateboard and BMX bicycle facility on the Rye foreshore. 

Since then our President, and Vice-President, Len Warfe, have attended a consultation meeting between objectors and representatives of the Shire Council to discuss concerns. After the Shire Council had resolved to proceed with the proposal, PPCC Inc., supported by other objectors, lodged an appeal against the decision with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which has yet to be heard.

Objections to Extension of Upper Storey of "Tea-house" at Ricketts Point, Beaumaris

Several conservation groups, along with individual objectors, have lodged objections to an application by the lessees of the Ricketts Point "Tea-house" for extensions to its upper storey. The groups include Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc.; one of its founding Member Organizations, Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc.; and an indigenous vegetation working group, Friends of Ricketts Point Landside, which works on that part of Beach Park, Beaumaris, on the inland side of Beach Road, directly opposite the "Tea-house". That Landside area is one of the very few places on eastern Port Phillip where there is foreshore reserve on both sides of the coast road.

Mt Eliza to Portsea Coast Action Plan

Des Berry, a member of our Committee of Management, who represents Mt Eliza Association for Environmental Care Inc. on PPCC Inc., drafted a forceful critique of this Plan that PPCC Inc. sent to the Central Coastal Board recently. 

Des, with PPCC Inc. Vice-President, Len Warfe, met senior staff of the Central Coastal Board to explain to them the serious weaknesses that PPCC Inc. considered were evident in the document.

ã 2002 Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc.

47 Bayview Crescent, BLACK ROCK VIC 3193 A0020093K Victoria

President: Geoffrey Goode

Secretary: Olwen Bawden

Telephone: (03) 9598 0554 Facsimile: (03) 9789 8025