PP2000A    March 2000       www.vicnet.net.au/~phillip

PPCC Inc. has told Mornington Shire it opposes its proposal to remove part of a coastal sand dune and its indigenous vegetation on the Crown foreshore reserve at Blairgowrie, including a very old Moonah (Melaleuca lanceolata) tree. It has also told the Riding Councillor, Cr Margaret Bell, and the Ministers for Planning, and Environment and Conservation, of its concern. 

Site: The 1998 photograph above shows how thickly-vegetated the threatened dune on the Crown land foreshore reserve at the south-eastern corner of St Johns Wood Road and Point Nepean Road, Blairgowrie (left of photo) is, how close it is to the shore of Port Phillip, and how it is very much a part of the local coastal landform. 

Proposal: Work would remove vegetation and sand from some 100 m² plan area of a sand dune of great landscape importance, and kill a very old Moonah tree (Melaleuca lanceolata). The proposal includes a 2 metre high ‘textured’ concrete retaining wall against that distinctive and attractive remnant vegetated sand dune, and a concrete footpath along Point Nepean Road between St Johns Wood Road and Revell Road (Melway 167G1). 

Major Concerns: The stable vegetated dune is a significant geomorphological and scenic component of one of the significant remaining natural features of the Port Phillip coastline. It is the western-most remaining part of a unique 3 km stretch of Point Nepean Road between White Cliffs and St Johns Wood Road where the Crown land foreshore reserve is on the inland side of the road and gives users of the road a most pleasing appreciation on both sides of the road, free of the general sight of roadside development, of what the coastal vegetation and landscape was like before the otherwise ubiquitous residential subdivision right along the coastal road from Melbourne to Portsea. There is no remotely similar feature anywhere else on the entire Mornington Peninsula coast of Port Phillip. The next largest example of such a feature on the entire Port Phillip coastline is the 500 m stretch of Coastal Banksia (Banksia integrifolia) habitat on the inland side of Beach Road between Reserve and Haydens Roads, Beaumaris. 

Planning Issues: This prominent sand dune on public land and its associated indigenous vegetation is next to an area of the Bay’s coastline of widely acknowledged beauty and natural significance. It should be protected by those strategies in the planning scheme that appear to give protection to such irreplaceable community assets. 

Feeble Rationale for Proposal: The proposal seeks to remedy alleged inadequate sight lines for traffic approaching the junction. That could be done without intruding into an important remnant natural landscape feature by shifting the lanes that contact Point Nepean Road at an acute angle further west, moving them into the already modified open land to the west, thus also making the angle of contact of St John’s Wood Road less non-standard, and closer to a right angle. 

The proposed footpath between the sand dune and Point Nepean Road would be better built on the inland side of the dune, away from busy Point Nepean Road with its fast moving traffic right alongside it, and would be a safer, and more pleasant alternative for all concerned. 

Some of the motives for the proposal seem related to attitudes of some owners of nearby shops that their shops should be more conspicuous. In a scenic area such as this coast, that is definitely not in the public interest. 

We suggest readers listen to this worthwhile program. It is on 3RPP every Thursday from 4-6 p.m. It is a pleasing initiative by Mount Eliza Association for Environmental Care Inc. – a PPCC Inc. Member Organization. 

VicRoads now appears to be the only body whose approval is still needed before the last link in Bayside Council’s bicycle road, between Cromer and Charman Roads, Beaumaris, can be sited within the road reserve for Beach Road, rather than intruding into Beach Park. That piece of Beach Park is within the Beaumaris Bay Fossil Site, now registered as part of the National Estate. 

That siting, which would require a small extension to the existing narrowing of Beach Road, is supported by PPCC Inc., Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc., Bayside Council and, as she has informed us, Sherryl Garbutt, the Minister for Environment and Conservation - provided VicRoads considers it acceptable on safety grounds etc. 

In March 2000, all seats on five of the nine Councils around Port Phillip went to election for a 3-year term. 

Conservation-oriented candidates were elected to four of those Councils. Candidates that were prominent in, or supported by, or that rightly identified themselves with, one or more Member Organizations of PPCC Inc. are listed below. The Mayors of both Kingston and Bayside Councils were defeated by successful candidates below. The 7 people elected are in bold type with an asterisk*. 

¶ Exchanged preferences with supported candidates that were elected  
# Bayside Conservation Alliance is an umbrella body for the PPCC Inc. Member Organizations speaking on Bayside Council issues. 

The appointment of a new Premier, who is also the MLA for Williamstown, and a new Planning Minister, who is also the MLA for Albert Park, has not been bad news for the campaign, reported in PP1999A, against the high rise housing that the former Liberal Planning Minister, Hon. Robert Maclennan, was considering appropriate for former railways land near the historic Timeball Tower on the Williamstown coast. That land is now open space. The new ALP Government has vetoed such high rise, which is consistent with its similar position on coastal high rise just east of the Yarra, and is most admirable. 

Unfortunately, a development proposal has been reported for the derelict hulk of Prince’s Pier. The hulk is on the Victorian Heritage Register as H981. The proponent hopes to build high rise buildings on the pier site, and it has been suggested that the vetoes against high rise on land do not necessarily apply to this proposal. Such an anomaly would be absurd, as any high structure on that pier would be extraordinarily conspicuous, and utterly at odds with the rationale for the Heritage registration. 
 

Under ‘WHAT’S NEW’ there has been promptly added, in most months recently, details of the main issues PPCC Inc. has been dealing with. These have included our submission on the Environment Conservation Council’s ‘Marine Coastal and Estuarine Report December 1999’, in which we put a case against the three large aquaculture proposals for eastern Port Phillip. We show a letter sent to Hon. John Brumby, Minister for State Development, congratulating him and the Government for their position against relocating the Coode Island Chemical Storage Facility to any part of the coast of Port Phillip. 

Under ‘PHOTOS’ the lists of the subjects of our photographic flights around the Bay coastline now have a much larger number of links to captioned colour photographs viewable on the screen, of many areas. 

Finally under ‘MEMBERSHIP’, the aims, history, office-bearers, membership application form, certain records, and other details of two more of our 15 Member Organizations can now be accessed by a mouse click from anywhere in the world. PPCC Inc.’s 8 Member Organizations that are not yet so accessible are urged to supply similar details to our Webmaster, Geoffrey Goode, (details below), so that we can have all our members listed in that open and welcoming way.