An aspect of our action regarding the north-west coast of the Bay continues to be the one kilometre stretch of 159 sheds on the Werribee Crown Foreshore Reserve that appear to have no right to be there, but the Secretary, Stephen Morey, who has been writing about that, is also writing about siltation in Altona Bay, and we are likely to be much better informed about other problems along that coast if the Committee’s recommendation to admit Friends of Westona Wetlands Inc. as a Member Organization is accepted by the Council. PPCC Inc.’s submission on the Point King beach foreshore land dispute, and actions over private works on various public foreshores, have not been assisted by a draft policy for Mornington Peninsula Shire that would encourage new private foreshore sheds there. 

The State election and expected change of Government will probably bring the life of Bringing the Bay to Life to an end, at least in the form it has had to date. Concerns expressed in last year’s Annual Report, and proposals such as the Queenscliff marina extension, and an associated road on the foredune there, the Frankston Marina proposal, ‘teahouses’ at Hampton and Middle Brighton baths, and a restaurant at Green Point, Brighton - all examples of the ideology of commercialization of public land - might not happen, although the municipal elections in March 2000 will be instrumental. Nevertheless both major parties’ campaigns did feature benign general promises about Port Phillip. A major achievement of the Kennett Government was its discontinuance of scallop dredging in Port Phillip. 

The fourth flight in PPCC Inc.’s  project of aerial photography of the Port Phillip coast, funded by Coastcare/Coast Action, took place in February. A display of prints, and the list of the subjects photographed, linked to the print and negative numbers for each flight, that appears on the PPCC Inc. Web Site above, with examples of photographs there, and an ordering form for the sale of prints, was kindly launched in March by the then Conservation Minister, Hon. Marie Tehan MLA, before an appreciative audience. Although our grant was not renewed, we are planning a flight for March 2000. We also strengthened contact with the Shadow Minister, Mrs Sheryl Garbutt MLA, when she accepted our invitation to be the Guest Speaker at our April General Meeting. 

Alan Clark and Olwen Bawden ably represented PPCC Inc. in appearances before the Independent Panel that inquired into the EES for the proposed marina at Oliver’s Hill. Unfortunately our appeal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal over the proposed groyne at Rye was unsuccessful. An outcome of the investigation into the Blairgowrie Yacht Harbour proposals is still awaited. 

Prompt consultation by Black Rock and Sandringham Conservation Association Inc. with Bayside Council and with  the Sandringham Life Saving Club, which wanted to rebuild on an area with indigenous bushland, fortunately led to that plan being abandoned. Proposals for sections of bicycle road at Brighton and Beaumaris to be on the foreshore reserve, rather than on the road reserve, or that reserve widened by land acquisition, are still before Bayside Council. 

The Committee drafted Policy Statements Nos. 1 and 9, which were adopted by the April General Meeting, and it now submits a Draft Policy Statement No. 10, and amendments to No. 2, to this Annual General Meeting. It has also put out the first issue of our newsletter, Port Phillip, which it is hoped will appear twice a year from now onwards.