Everything about Port Phillip Bay totally explained
» "Port Phillip" may also refer to a Local Government Area called the City of Port Phillip.
Port Phillip, also commonly
Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just
the Bay, is a large
bay in southern
Victoria,
Australia. Geographically, Port Phillip is a large marine bay 1,930 km² (476,900 acres) in area which has a coastline length of 264
km (164
miles). The bay is extremely shallow for its size, but mostly navigable. The deepest portion is only 24 m (80 ft), and half the region is shallower than 8 m. Its volume is around 25 km³.
Melbourne, the
state's
capital city, is located at its northern end, near the mouth of the
Yarra River.
Melbourne's suburbs extend around much of the northern and eastern shoreline, and the city of
Geelong is located on
Corio Bay which lies at the end of the western arm of Port Phillip.
Bays and beaches
Port Phillip contains many bays and beaches including
Beaumaris Bay,
Corio Bay,
St Kilda Beach,
Brighton Beach,
Hobson's Bay and others. The narrow entrance to the bay, called
the Rip, between
Point Lonsdale and
Point Nepean, features strong tidal streams made turbulent by the uneven contours of the seabed. The best time for small craft to enter the Rip is at
slack water. Large ships require expert local guidance to enter and exit, provided by the
Port Phillip Sea Pilots. There is currently a proposal to deepen the entrance, to allow newer, larger
container ships to access Melbourne's docks.
The eastern side of the bay is characterised by sandy beaches extending from
St Kilda,
Sandringham,
Beaumaris,
Carrum, and down the
Mornington Peninsula to
Frankston,
Safety Beach/
Dromana and
Rye to
Portsea.
Longshore drift carries
sand from south to north during winter and from north to south during summer. Cliff
erosion control has often resulted in sand starvation, necessitating offshore
dredging to replenish the beach.
On the western side of the bay there's a greater variety of beach types, seen at
Queenscliff,
St Leonards,
Indented Head,
Portarlington, and
Eastern Beach.
Numerous
sandbanks and
shoals occur in the southern section of the bay, and parts of the South Channel require occasional maintenance dredging.
Swan Bay, adjacent to Queenscliff is an important feeding ground for
waterbirds and
migratory waders. The
Mud Islands, off
Sorrento, are an important breeding habitat for
White-faced Storm-Petrel,
Silver Gull,
Australian Pelican and
Pacific Gull.
Australian Gannets also breed on
navigation beacons in this area, and it also hosts
breeding colonies of
Australian Fur Seal.
Saltmarsh in the northwestern sections of the bay is listed as significant wetlands with the
Ramsar Convention and the critically-endangered
Orange-bellied Parrot is found at three wintering sites around Port Phillip and the
Bellarine Peninsula.
Transport
Two ferries travel across the mouth of the bay each hour, between
Queenscliff and
Sorrento. The service is known as the
Searoad ferry. Ferries also run from
St Kilda to
Williamstown, Victoria across
Hobsons Bay. These ferries, like the many recreational cruises, mostly operate for tourists and run around the bay in various locations.
Today, the
Port of Melbourne has grown to become Australia's busiest commercial port, serving Australia's second largest city and handling an enormous amount of imports and exports into and out of the country.
The
Port of Geelong also handles a large volume of dry bulk and oil, while nearby
Port of Hastings on
Western Port handles steel and oil products.
Recreation and Sport
Port Phillip's mostly flat topography and moderate waves make perfect conditions for recreational
swimming,
kitesurfing,
windsurfing,
sailing,
boating,
scuba diving and other sports.
Port Phillip is home to 36
Yacht clubs. It also hosts the Melbourne to
Hobart and Melbourne to
Launceston Yacht Races. Port Phillip is also home to a number of
marinas, including large marinas at St Kilda, Geelong and Brighton.
Dozens of
lifesaving clubs dot Port Phillip, especially on the east coast from
Altona to
Frankston. These clubs provide volunteer lifesaving services and conduct sporting carnivals.
Port Phillip is also known as a temperate water
scuba diving destination. The shore dives from beaches and piers around the Bay provide a wide variety of experiences on day and night dives. Boat diving in Port Phillip provides access to a remarkable variety of diving environments including wrecks, reefs, drift dives, scallop dives, seal dives and wall dives.
History
Port Phillip was formed about 10,000 years ago at the end of the last
Ice Age, when the
sea-level rose to drown what was then the valley of the Yarra, which flowed down what is now the eastern side of the bay. The
Aboriginal people were in occupation of the area long before the bay was formed, having arrived at least 20,000 years ago and possibly 40,000 years ago. Large piles of semi-fossilised sea-shells known as
middens, can still be seen in places around the shoreline, marking the spots where Aboriginal people held feasts. They made a good living from the abundant sea-life, which included penguins and seals. In the cold season they wore
possum-skin cloaks and elaborate feathered head-dresses.
The first Europeans to see Port Phillip were the crew of the
Lady Nelson, commanded by
John Murray, which entered the bay on
15 February 1802. Murray named the bay Port King after the
Governor of New South Wales,
Philip Gidley King, but King later renamed it Port Phillip, in honour of his predecessor
Arthur Phillip.
About ten weeks after Murray,
Matthew Flinders in the
Investigator also found and entered the port,
As a result of Murray's and Flinders' reports, King sent Lieutenant
Charles Robbins in the
Cumberland to explore Port Phillip fully. One of his party,
Charles Grimes, became the first European to walk right round the bay, and thus to discover the mouth of the Yarra, on
2 February 1803.
King decided to place a convict settlement at Port Phillip, mainly to stake a claim to southern Australia ahead of the French. In October 1803 a party led by Lt-Col
David Collins and consisting of about 400 people landed near the modern site of
Sorrento, where they established a settlement at Sullivan Bay which they called Hobart. Lack of fresh water and good timber, however, led this, the first attempt at European settlement in Victoria, to be abandoned in May 1804. Collins and party sailed to
Tasmania, where they established the modern
Hobart. Prior to abandonment one convict,
William Buckley, escaped from the settlement in a stolen canoe. Buckley later took up residence in a cave near Point Lonsdale on the western side of the bay's entrance,
The Rip.
Port Phillip was then left undisturbed until 1835, when settlers from Tasmania led by
John Batman and
John Pascoe Fawkner (who had been at the Sorrento settlement as a child) established Melbourne on the lower reaches of the Yarra.
John Batman encountered
William Buckley who then became an important participant in negotiations with the local indigenous tribesmen. In 1838 Geelong was founded, and became the main port serving the growing wool industry of the
Western District. For a time Geelong rivalled Melbourne as the leading settlement on the bay, but the
Gold Rush which began in 1851 gave Melbourne a decisive edge as the largest town in Victoria.
As Melbourne prospered its wealthy classes discovered the recreational uses of Port Phillip, and bayside suburbs such as
St Kilda and
Brighton were established along the coast southeast of the city. Later resorts further south such as
Sorrento and
Portsea became popular. The more swampy western shores of the bay were not so favoured, and have been used mainly for non-residential purposes such as the
Point Cook Royal Australian Air Force base and the
Werribee Sewage Farm. In recent decades however the population along the western side of the bay has grown more rapidly.
Channel Deepening Project
The southern section of the Bay near the Heads is covered by extensive sand banks, known as the "Great Sand". A shipping channel was dredged in an east-west direction from the Heads to near Arthur's Seat late in the nineteenth century, and maintained ever since. In 2004, the Victorian state government put forward plans for deepening of this existing channel and also of the lower Yarra to accommodate deeper draft vessels. The lower Yarra sediments were identified as likely to be contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals, and were to be contained within a sealed berm clear of the shipping chennels south of the Yarra entrance. The vessel chosen for the dredging is the
Queen of the Netherlands.
52 environmental groups, recreational fishing groups, and divers' groups formed the "
Blue Wedges" group to oppose the proposed channel deepening and dredging. Organised protests occurred in 2005. One of their concerns was the seabed sediments which are being disturbed when the entrance to Port Phillip is dredged, and won't settle again onto the seabed for a long time. This could damage the ecosystem of Port Phillip by preventing sunlight from reaching the algae on the seabed and thus stopping photosynthesis. This may then lead to a dramatic decrease in the dissolved oxygen content of water, for example
anoxia which can have devastating impacts on marine life.
In December 2007 it was announced that Blue Wedges took action in the Federal Court against the Commonwealth to stop it signing off on the project. The case was heard in January of 2008. On 15th January 2008 it was announced that their appeal was dismissed..
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