View Poll Results: Do you support the dredging of Port Phillip Bays shipping channel

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  • Yes

    14 58.33%
  • No

    8 33.33%
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    2 8.33%
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Thread: Dredging of Port Phillip Bay shipping channel

  1. #1
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    Default Dredging of Port Phillip Bay shipping channel

    For those non victorians that arent aware , we have a bit of a shit fight going on in regards to the topic.

    Melbourne depends on shipping for a lot of import and export goods....without shipping Melbourne would lose thousands , probably hundreds of thousands of jobs.

    The current shipping channel is not deep enough to accomodate larger container vessels and even fully laden vessels which means we lose some shipping to other ports. The channel itself does of course eventually but slowly become more shallow over time as well. Due to how vital shipping is to jobs and the economy , the shipping channel is being dredged by a Dutch ship , Queen of the Netherlands which basically sucks up sand deepening the channell and dumping the sand at another location. I believe there will also be some explosive charges used at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay.

    Below is a satellite picture which shows the narrow opening to Port Phillip Bay and you can clearly see 2 paths through the sand , with Mud Island in the middle. You can click on it for a larger view.



    The process has been dragging on for a couple of years due to a protest group who have done their best to disrupt proceedings court injunctions. Just last week they cost tax payers about 2 million dollars with an injunction that kept the Queen of the Netherlands being confined to port for over a week

    Their complaint is that dredging will " bugger the bay " in that the water will be cloudy for a period of time due to the dredging and that fish/dolphins/sharks/penguins will be killed when charges are let off.

    Port Phillip Bay is pretty good condition these days with clean water and a good and improving range of fish , seals , dolphins and sharks. The protestors believe dredging will cause irreparable damage etc etc and most seem to be unemployed hippies and surfers who live in fantasy land and havent taken any notice of the bigger picture.

    Around 15 years ago , Port Phillip Bay was absolutely rooted. If you went fishing , all you would catch would be a few undersize flathead and nothing else. Scallopers went open slather destroying the bay dredging it until they had destroyed it , yet surprisingly , there wasnt a single protester that I ever saw. In the end , it was the Kennett Liberal Government who bought out the scallopers licences at a huge cost and went about restoring the bay to its former glory.

    Although dredging is underway , the protest group is organising some mass protest and intend to lodge another injunction which will no doubt cost tax payers even more. What I find funny is that if these Greenies got their way , Melbourne would be crippled , there would be mass unemployment and the line of trucks bringing goods in to Melbourne would cause so much pollution we would all probably die of respitory diseases.

    So my question is to Melbournians , do you support dredging the shipping channel ? Feel free to post comments , if you dont agree with me I wont bite your head off , but I would be interested to hear what your concerns are and whether they are false information which the protest group is spreading or whether its based on fcats , such as the enviromental impact study that was commissioned.



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  • #2
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    I am guessing the Gangsters won't be happy
    When you do things right, people won't be sure that you have done anything at all

  • #3
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    obviously unless the dredging takes place it will be lake phillip eventually.

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    Dig it up. If it does cause any damage, it'll fix itself soon enough.

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    Dig Dug.

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    I was a yes person until i started reading Lindsay Foxs point of view.

    Yes shipping going by rail from western port bay means $ in his pockets, but it also means no dredging, no playing with the marine enviroment, saving victorians $1billion and less trucks in the cbd.

    Even after dredging its still not deep enough for supertankers.

    Most ports world wide dock in deep water and rail the containers in.

    It just makes common sense.

    Side note; im not a greeny, infact far from it.

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    No trade = no work = no money = no time on the forum. So Dig It

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    i say dig it up, dolphins sharks can be channeled away and quarentined. damage to the bay i say big deallll its worth it if it means keeping more victorians with jobs and probably more people will be in jobs now that bigger ships can be brought in.

    FTO King

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    Senior Member global88's Avatar
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    By not dredging and using the western port bay, jobs would still be there, just they would be distributed by some degree to the Mornington district.

    More containers=more jobs. They dont have to land in the city. Im sick of all the container trucks in the CBD.


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    Its not even a case of digging the whole bay up , just to deepen the shipping channel itself. All ships must enter and leave Port Phillip Bay between shipping channel marker buoys . They are currently working off my home town of Rosebud as the main channel swings around to the right ( if looking at the supplied map ) and follows the coast.

    As I mentioned earlier , scallopers absolutely desimated the entire bay and it took about 7 years after the scallopers left for it to return to a decent state.
    One small strip of channel isnt going to cause any major long term damage if the scallopers didnt cause long term damage.

    I see the protesters have been hard at work today. It looks like they have stolen a heap of white interior doors ( new ) from building sites and have used sprat can on them to advertise their protest day on the weekend by tying them to trees on the side of the road.

    Top stuff

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    Quote Originally Posted by global88 View Post
    By not dredging and using the western port bay, jobs would still be there, just they would be distributed by some degree to the Mornington district.

    More containers=more jobs. They dont have to land in the city. Im sick of all the container trucks in the CBD.

    I hate trucks in the CBD as well even though I rarely go there ( especially in the tunnel...nothing like being surrounded by 3 B doubles ) BUT>>>

    I think Mr Fox is wrong. It would cost a fortune to turn Westernport in to the Port of Melbourne with rail upgrades , traffic upgrades.....roads around Hastings would need some pretty major upgrades , not to mention the infrastructure like warehousing that would have to be built.

    I think its guaranteed at a future stage that it will all permanently move to Westernport as it all eventually gets to big and busy for Melbourne , but its something that needs to go on the planning table with proper planning and enviromental and infrastructure impact studies carried out. I dont think its something that can ( or should ) be done without proper consultation and research over a decent period of time.

  • #12
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    Its not just about the digging up of a channel, its about the fact that its not the most inteligent long term solution.

    Sure the bay will recover, without a doubt.

    Keep in the back of your mind that tankers are getting bigger and bigger.

    We need a deep sea port.
    Rail can then be used to distribute the containers.

    I think Fox has a good point.

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    Remember the term :- "bottom of the harbour scheme" ?

    Dig it out and make room for more ! (end of silly)

    The Harbour will recover, marine environments do, the greenies just need to hear their own voices...again. Next thing will be a howl about foreign organisms in ballast water...again.....you know, zebra mussels etc.

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    Spending this money now on dredging, and more again in 20 to 30 years in the western bay area does not make sense to me.

    IMO it may have been better to spend $3billion now, once and do it right the first time.

    Its an investment in the state, not a short term bandaid.

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    Dredging would still have to happen either way.

    Cruise Liner popularity is booming at the moment with Cunard Line running Queen Mary , Elizabeth and the brand new Victoria and numerous other lines with bigger and better ships on order and being built. Although those 3 can squeeze in ( Victoria visits next month I think ) , there are now a couple of massive permanent living liners which cruise the globe which I dont think we can accomodate.

    If it gets to the point that we cant get large ocean liners and and allied war ships in , it will also cost Melbourne badly. The crew of one US warship spends an absolute fortune when stopping over for a few days and each year there is an increasing number of cruiseliners.

    Either way , none of its cheap and idiot protestors who keep getting pointless court orders just to cost taxpayers millions does not help the situation.

    Nature itself also dictates that it has to be done with tides washing sand back in to the channel over time , so it is something that does have to be done regradless of where Melbourne decides to operaate its main freight port from.

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    well i`m not happy with the dredging, bad enough already that I cant catch fish there. But I dont wanna see any floating bodies come up from under the westgate either. But then again, might attract more fish that way.
    Blown Humax 5400Z, Strong SRT 4658X, Strong 4663X and DM 518.

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