PORT PHILLIP Newsletter of Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc.
A0020093K Victoria ABN 46 291 17 191	PP2007A March 2007 www.vicnet.net.au/~phillip

Boundary Moves Threaten Mt Eliza Green Wedge along edge of the Bay

Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc, in 2005, urged the Premier of Victoria, Hon. Steve Bracks MLA, to seize the initiative to save the still-remaining open space land, between the edge of Port Phillip and the Nepean Highway and between Kunyong and Sunnyside Roads, Mt Eliza, from seemingly inexorable development.

PPCC Inc. said that the most reliable, long-term, way to secure the future of this vital clear break in the continuous built-up area between Melbourne and Portsea is for it to be bought by his Government for a State Coastal Park. Mr Bracks declined to support Government acquisition of the land – even the section of freehold land that has a boundary to the high water mark of Port Phillip!

View of the Mt Eliza land near the mouth of the Gunyong Creek

This large parcel of still rural land now has a Green Wedge zoning, but there are serious concerns about how effective that will be in the long term. A key part of this land, part of the estate of the late Lady Ansett, was bought last year for a record land price. The new owner of the land, which consists of several large lots, has applied to Mornington Peninsula Shire Council for permission to re-align certain boundaries of those lots.

A well-attended public meeting was called to enable local residents and others to discuss widespread concerns about more intensive development on the land that it was feared could be possible if such internal boundary re-alignment were to be allowed.

The President of Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc, Mr Len Warfe, told the meeting of the call by Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc, and its local Member Organization, Mt Eliza Association for Environmental Care Inc, for the establishment of a State Coastal Park on this coastal land. Mr Warfe pointed out that there were State Coastal Parks on the west coast of Port Phillip, much nearer central Melbourne than Mt Eliza is, but there were no such parks on the east coast of Port Phillip.

The Green Wedges Coalition is monitoring this case as it seems that weaknesses and loopholes in the Green Wedges legislation might be revealed and need to be corrected urgently.

The question of the future of this last chance for a durable open space buffer between the sprawl of metropolitan Melbourne and Port Phillip’s built-up Peninsula coast was the subject of an excellent article in The Age newspaper on 2nd January 2007.

Pernicious Route for Bicycle Road is proposed by Kingston City Council

As reported in the July 2005 issue of this newsletter, Kingston City Council has, most unfortunately, formed the view that the section of the bicycle road being built right around Port Phillip that would pass from Mordialloc to Beaumaris should be built, not alongside Beach Road, as Bsyside City Council did ten years ago, but instead be built in many places cutting through the middle of Kingston’s small, but good quality, stands of remnant coastal bushland.

The Council will build a section of bicycle road, with State funds, but it is divided on the site of the route.

Mordialloc-Beaumaris Conservation League Inc, one of the 16 Member Organizations whose representatives together make up Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc, has obtained a letter from two botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens that have examined the proposed route through the indigenous coastal vegetation involved.

Their letter describes the nature, extent and importance of the vegetation in detail, and states their view that the remnant vegetation is significant, and that it is most undesirable that it be lost, particularly when the standard bicycle road placement along the edge of Beach Road, as has been safely and successfully established for the adjoining Bayside municipality, is a clear option.

Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc. participated with Mordialloc-Beaumaris Conservation League Inc. and others in a presentation of the case for a roadside route to Kingston councillors and officers, and in delegations to each of the two MLAs whose districts include the bicycle road route, Ms Janice Munt, MLA for Mordialloc, and Mr Murray Thompson MLA for Sandringham.

MBCL Inc. has conducted a survey of local residents that shows some 75% of positive support for a roadside route, with the balance either being undecided, or supporters of the present Council view. Ms Janice Munt MLA has stated that she would not recommend release of State funds for the project without a consensus in the community as to the preferred route.

PPCC Inc. Member is elected to the Legislative Council of Victoria

Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc. congratulates one of its members, Ms Sue Pennicuik, who is one of the two representatives of Earthcare St Kilda Inc. on PPCC Inc, upon her election as a Member of the Legislative Council of Victoria for Southern Metropolitan Region.

Sue was standing as a member of the Greens party, and was one of the three MLCs in Victoria elected for that party. She was the fourth of the five MLCs elected, and gained 15.34% of first preference votes, which was very close to the quota of 16.67%.

Sue was of course well known in the St Kilda part of her electorate, but she very kindly accepted an invitation to be the Guest Speaker at the October 2006 Annual General Meeting of Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc. - a Member Organization of Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc. based at the other end of her electorate from St Kilda.

VCAT Approves Cafe part of new Seaford Life Saving Club Building

As reported in PP2006B, Friends of Seaford Foreshore Reserve Inc, a Member Organization of Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc, has opposed the inclusion of a 20-seat cafe in the redevelopment plans for the Seaford Life Saving Club building, which appears near the Station Street pier in the aerial photograph below.

Location of Seaford Life Saving Club House

PPCC Inc. followed its objection made to Frankston City Council, which agreed to the cafe plan in July 2006, with an appeal against the decision to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which sadly was disallowed, so the cafe will be built.

PPCC Inc. has warned that Life Saving Club buildings are tending to become Trojan horses in moves by commercial interests to gain a foothold on our public foreshore land. A classic case is the former Parkdale Life Saving Club building, which is now a restaurant, and it is understood that it will soon be applying for a liquor licence, as Ricketts Point Tea House has stated it wishes to do.

© 2007 Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc.

47 Bayview Crescent, BLACK ROCK VIC 3193 A0020093K Victoria

President: Len Warfe      Secretary: Jennifer Warfe

Tel: (03) 5987 1583              Fax: (03) 5987 2537