Port Phillip
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- "Port Phillip" may also refer to a Local Government Area called the City of Port Phillip.
Port Phillip, also commonly called Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just the Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia. Geographically, Port Phillip is a large marine bay 745 square-miles (1,930 km² or 476,900 acres[1]) in area which has a coastline length of 164 miles (264 km). 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 (26+ ft). Its volume is around 25 cubic kilometres.
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, a subsidiary bay in the southwest.
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[edit] 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 is 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, so that the shipping channels from the Rip to the deeper northern section must be continually dredged. 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.
[edit] 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 the country. The Port of Geelong also handles a large volume of container traffic, as does the nearby Port of Hastings in Westernport Bay.
[edit] Recreation and Sport
Port Phillip's mostly flat topography and moderate waves make perfect conditions for recreational cycling, running, swimming, kitesurfing, rollerblading, windsurfing, sailing, boating 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 numerous 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 lifeguard services and conduct sporting carnivals.
[edit] 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 bay, unaware Murray had been there. The official history of Nicholas Baudin's explorations in Le Géographe claimed they too had sighted the entrance at that time (30 March 1802) but this is almost certainly a later embellishment or error, being absent from the ship's logs and Baudin's own accounts.[1]
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 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 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.
[edit] Dredging proposal
In 2004, the Victorian state government tabled plans for deepening of the shallow port to accommodate supertankers.
The plans are aimed at maintaining Victoria's shipping status. The Victorian economy relies heavily on the import and export of goods, manufacturing and other ancillary industries. Northern deepwater ports which are capable of catering for supertankers, such as Port of Brisbane and Port of Darwin and with better access to the markets of Asia are a large threat to the Port of Melbourne's market share.
Concerns have been raised by environmental groups and the plan to deepen the shipping lanes of Port Phillip has been criticised, with a few organised protests in 2005. The gunk, which rises when we dig the entrance to Port Phillip Bay, will not settle again onto the seabed for a long time. This could damage the ecosystem of Port Phillip Bay.
[edit] References
- ^ Ernest Scott. Terre Napoleon: A history of French explorations and projects in Australia, available at Project Gutenberg.
[edit] See also
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