PORT PHILLIP CONSERVATION COUNCIL INC.

 

          Tel +61395891802, +61429176725

 

47 Bayview Crescent, BLACK ROCK VIC 3193

        Fax +61395891680

 

ggd@netspace.net.au

          A0020093K Victoria

 

www.vicnet.net.au/~phillip

          ABN 46 291 176 191

 

23rd  October 2003

 

 

 

President's Report to 2003 Annual General Meeting

 

 

 

 

 

 

Channel Deepening: This issue - first mentioned in the October 2001 President's Report - is as alive as ever. Had the Federal Environment Minister, who had consented to be our Guest Speaker tonight, not been required, at short notice, to instead attend a Special Sitting of Federal Parliament to hear the Presidents of the USA and China, we would have had the benefit of him as Guest Speaker, and a worthwhile opportunity to hear his views on the Federal aspect of this issue at first hand. Dr Tim Low, an Invasive Species campaigner, was invited as a substitute speaker, but was unavailable. As requested by our April General Meeting, the Committee of Management has given the channels issue high priority. Len Warfe met the Transport Minister for 15 minutes recently. Len and I were contacted by Carlo Carli MLA, the Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, with a view to discussion with him, and we last month spent two hours with Mr Carli and Damien O'Brien of the Port of Melbourne Corporation, which is the new proponent of the proposal. The disposal of the 30 gigalitres of spoil is a major unresolved question, with disposal in Bass Strait being too expensive. Mr Carli did not reject our proposal that Government should fund publicity and venues for debates between spokespeople of the proponents and their leading questioners. We were told that the 10 mm peak rise in sea level (originally estimated at 20 mm) would be just inside the Heads, and little elsewhere. The economics of rail versus road transport were considered by the Government, and it realized that a rail option might need to be considered if the EES ruled out the deepening option. 

Marina Proposals: The relentless push for marina developments at Brighton, Frankston and Tassell's Creek, Safety Beach, persists despite progress such as a shift to a less pro-marina stance by Frankston Council, partly thanks to the re-election to its Oliver Ward this year of a Councillor that opposes filling of the Bay, and buildings etc, in front of the Oliver's Hill cliff. A major obstacle to proper protection of the sea and coast here, the misconceived designation, in the Victorian Coastal Strategy, of Frankston as a Safe Boat Harbour site, requires revocation. Royal Brighton Yacht Club's long-term plans conveyed to Bayside Council became public, and revealed an ambition to double the number of berths. An appeal by Brighton Foreshore Preservation Association Inc. and PPCC Inc. to the VCAT against a 30 metre extension to the rock breakwater was unsuccessful. PPCC Inc. has opposed dumping of spoil from excavation along Tassell's Creek on farm land further inland. Parks Victoria, the successor to Victoria's highly respected National Parks Service, confirmed in August 2003 its planned $20 million "Queenscliff Harbour Redevelopment" involving slipways, fuelling berths, and 80 megalitres of sand dredging per year. 

Planning Scheme Matters: Our Member Organizations have all dealt with planning scheme matters, and are aware of the massive adverse impact of the Melbourne 2030 Plan, and the 1,000,000 increase in population it envisages, on planning around Port Phillip. The Green Wedge legislation is a benign aspect of that plan and  has assisted the work of Friends of Edithvale-Seaford Wetlands Inc. Mt Eliza Association for Environmental Care Inc. has worked with PPCC Inc. in supporting the Green Wedge zoning that reaches the Bay at Mt Eliza as advocated in PPCC Inc. Policy Statement No. 12 "Remnant Large Open Space Land Parcels in Port Phillip Catchment Area". We have not heard yet of how the Planning Minister intends to deal with the vexed issue of retention or otherwise of the unfortunate road right on the coast at Point Gellibrand Heritage Coastal Park. 

A recent enthusiasm for building "roof decks", a de facto or potential third storey, is emerging in Bayside as a way around the coastal height controls there. Bayside Council's proposed Amendment C32, to control such "roof decks", has been with the Planning Minister for some time, but still awaits her approval. Meanwhile the VCAT continues to approve such "roof decks". A current proposal, to replace a single Beach Road house with a conspicuous two-storey, seven-flat building, with a number of "roof decks", and an inner-city-style underground car park with sixteen spaces, opposite the prominent Table Rock Point, is the worst of several that threaten to greatly spoil the view of the Beaumaris Cliff from Kingston foreshores, and eventually lead to most of the two-kilometre-long skyline along the Beaumaris Cliff being of structures, not trees, in the day; and lights, not darkness; at night. The responsibility for the cumulative effect of the unappealable decisions of the VCAT rests with nobody but the Governments that have allowed it to continue operating in the way it has, and the electors that have elected those Governments, most recently with an absolute majority in both Houses.. 

Other Matters: Disposal of Commonwealth defence land at Portsea and Point Cook remains contentious and retrograde. We have aided the VNPA-National Trust approach, rather than Environment Victoria's. Our messages to MPs have continued to stress the need for public open space. The missing links in the Bayside Bicycle Road, at Brighton and Beaumaris, remain of concern, especially as Bayside Council persists with its proposed waterfront structure. Greater Geelong City Council seems to have reluctantly accepted that its bid for a Guggenheim Museum at Geelong, at one stage seemed to be touted for the foreshore at Eastern Park, has failed. Adrian Cerbasi has been appointed to fill a vacancy on our Committee. We thank Penny McGuire-White, who is not standing again, for her work on the Committee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geoffrey Goode, President