PP2000B    July 2000              

www.ppcc.org.au

Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc. has written to the President of the Guggenheim Museum in New York to inform him that it does not agree with overtures being made by the Greater Geelong City Council to his Museum suggesting that the splendid Eastern Park on the foreshore of Corio Bay shown in the 1999 photograph below would be a suitable site for an Australian branch of the Guggenheim Museum.   

The letter to the Museum conveyed the text of a motion passed at the April 2000 General Meeting of PPCC Inc., which stated,
"That PPCC Inc. is opposed to the proposal by Greater Geelong Council for a large development, such as a museum or art gallery, on the foreshore side of Eastern Park, Geelong, as it is much more acceptable on landscape and public interest grounds that this public coastal land should remain in its present status as largely vegetated public open space forming part of the coastal environment of Port Phillip Bay, particularly as a large structure such as a museum or art gallery is essentially an indoor space, which does not require a coastal setting, whereas attractive coastal landscape, by definition, does require such a setting." 

PPCC Inc, whose views on this matter are supported by Geelong Environment Council Inc, a PPCC Inc. Member Organization, made it clear to the President of the Guggenheim Museum that it was not opposed to the general idea of a branch of the Guggenheim Museum being established in Victoria, or in Geelong in particular, but its opposition was solely to a proposal that would occupy foreshore open space. 

The Premier of Victoria, Hon. Steve Bracks MLA, while in New York recently, visited the Guggenheim Museum to support the proposal for a Branch to be established in Victoria, but it is reasonable to expect that he would not have made any commitments about specific sites for such a Branch. 
 

An overflowing public meeting in July, called by Bayside City Council to discuss its possible approval of plans for a 200-seat restaurant in the Middle Brighton Sea Baths building, was overwhelmingly critical of the scale of the proposed redevelopment. 

The 1998 photograph below shows the mainly single-storey Baths building, which is registered for its historic significance by the Australian Heritage Commission, and the vegetated, open space land inland of it, and to the south of it. 

Extension of Building: Representatives of the would-be group of developers outlined the scheme, and were subjected to intensive questioning by a large number of opponents of it. They included many nearby Middle Brighton residents, who criticized the proposed extension of the existing small second storey aspect of the building to cover the entire area the first storey now does, on the grounds that a pleasant view of sea and sky would be further intruded upon by a building outline and façade. 

Large Increase in Car Park: Many other speakers, including the President of Brighton Foreshore Preservation Association Inc., Professor Weston Bate OAM; a PPCC Inc. Councillor representing that Association (which is a Member Organization of PPCC Inc.) Mrs Elizabeth McQuire; the President of Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc., Mr Geoffrey Goode; and a former Mayor of Brighton, Mr Aubrey Sidaway, opposed the upwards extension of the building, and quite strongly opposed the very large area of extra paved car parking being introduced at the expense of established vegetated landforms. 

Removal of Waterside Bank: Bayside Council envisages some ninety additional car parking spaces in place of existing vegetated public open space. The main area of extra car parking would be immediately alongside the pedestrian promenade at the water’s edge south of the Baths. The paved promenade would be backed by an 18 metre wide stretch of paved car park for a distance along the very edge of the Bay of 130 metres, cars being free of constant salt spray from the sea wall in calm seas only. The flat area required would result from excavating and permanently removing from the edge of Port Phillip Bay some 5000 cubic metres of soil in the existing high coastal bank to a depth of up to 3 metres. 

PPCC Inc. Treasurer, Mr Stephen Calvert-Smith, asked why the car park was not alongside Beach Road, where no excavation was needed, rather than at the water’s edge. A Council officer said that it would not be visually attractive alongside Beach Road, to which Stephen replied that it was not attractive for people walking by the water’s edge. 

The point was made at the meeting that such substantial lowering of the foreshore ground level at the water’s edge was blatantly inconsistent with strategies supported at the two higher levels of government for measures to deal with likely sea level rises caused by Greenhouse Warming. 

Car Parking should be on Private Land: The PPCC Inc. President told the meeting that PPCC Inc. was not opposed to a restaurant that did not require an extension to the building or to the existing car parking provision. He drew attention to the group of shops just across Beach Road from the Baths that are now often untenanted yet are accessible via pedestrian controlled traffic lights, and suggested that purchase of such private sites would allow parking off the foreshore, without any impact on scarce and highly-valued public foreshore land. 

He also told the meeting that PPCC Inc. had written to the Hon. John Thwaites MLA, the Minister for Planning, and the Hon. Sherryl Garbutt MLA, the Minister for Environment and Conservation, indicating its objections, and suggested that those present should do likewise. 
 

The April General Meeting of PPCC Inc. was held at the Altona Civic Centre, by courtesy of Hobson’s Bay City Council. The approach to the Council had been kindly made on our behalf by Friends of Westona Wetlands Inc., which has recently become a Member Organization of PPCC Inc. 

As well as passing the motion on the Guggenheim Museum proposal, the meeting also resolved,
"That PPCC Inc. is opposed to proposals, including the current proposal, by Greater Geelong Council, for a road bridge or tunnel between Points Lillias and Henry, owing to the very substantial adverse environmental impact that either a bridge or tunnel would have on the land and coast around those Points, and to the Bellarine Peninsula environment.", and "That PPCC Inc. objects to proposals for obtrusive or high-rise structures to be built on or near Prince’s Pier, Port Melbourne, as such structures are grossly inappropriate over the waters of any part of Port Phillip Bay." 

The Guest Speaker at the meeting was Mr Victor Perton MLA, Opposition Spokesman on Environment and Conservation. He heard the reports of all our Member Organizations, and said that he was working closely on coastal matters with two of his colleagues, Martin Dixon, MLA for Dromana, and Murray Thompson, MLA for Sandringham. The latter was also present at our meeting. 
 

The proposal by Mornington Peninsula Shire Council for works on a significant sand dune at the junction of Point Nepean Road and St Johns Wood Road, Blairgowrie, reported in PP2000A, was modified to take account of the major concerns raised by PPCC Inc. We congratulate the Council for the sensible reconsideration it gave this issue.