WPPC Inc. support and promote the protection of the environment of Westernport and the Mornington Peninsula. Founded in 1971
Is Westernport Bay a deep Bay?
No, If you are in a sailing ship, sailing west from Sydney, Westernport Bay is true to its name and can be seen as deep, and historically has been seen as deep. Big industrial ships are too big For Westernport Bay. Westernport Bay is so shallow 42 Percent of it is above the waterline at each low tide. Intertidal mud flats mean that the shipping channel is the only deep area in the north-western section. Myself; Karri Giles, Jenny Warfe, Catherine Manning, Simon Branigan and all the other attendees of the Westernport Catchment Committee were given a presentation including maps of Westernport Bay's shipping channel. Which showed the depth of it. It looked more like a chain of ponds, with many shallower bits than the average depth.We asked Shane from Patricks Ports for a copy of the maps and we were told that his bosses probably wouldn't want us to have them. Maunsell have reccomended dredging from 14.3m to 16m to allow ships to enter without awaiting the tides. Dredging would spoil the invertebrate communities that live in the deep area. 75 percent of the marine life in the Southern Australia are endemic and live no where else. Apart from the immediate effect of dredging,digging up seagrass which has a blanket of roots would have a long term effect of removing nature's erosion control blankets. You can see seagrass roots washed on our beaches, I can't imagine anything more important to protect than living seagrass. Dredging is enough to stir up turbidity to the point that algae blooms or eutrophication could result. The nutrients in Westernport Bay are a key environmental threat. It looks like Northern Pacific Sea-star has colonised in huge numbers in the Southern Peninsula's after the famous channel deepening there.Thousands of sea- stars have been seen for the first time in areas they have never been seen before.
WPPC AGM January 15th 2012 10.30am Balnarring Hall
Guest Speaker- Sue Penicuik MLC
We were honoured this year by having Greens MP Sue Penicuik to Speak at our AGM. she is a long time champion of the environment. She outlined the efforts she has gone to and the limits of political action, and gave us a few ideas for protecting Westernport Bay .It was a good day with a few new faces and a yummy lunch afterwards.
We were honoured this year by having Greens MP Sue Penicuik to Speak at our AGM. she is a long time champion of the environment. She outlined the efforts she has gone to and the limits of political action, and gave us a few ideas for protecting Westernport Bay .It was a good day with a few new faces and a yummy lunch afterwards.
Last event
40 Years of Westernport and Peninsula Protection Council Inc.
40 years of Ramsar- The International Wetland Convention
Somers Yacht Club
The
Boulevard Somers Mel 194 A10
Thursday 27th October 2011
Marny Bonner was the guest speaker at the seminar at Somers Yacht club organised this year by WPPC. She talked about her experiences as sea-bird rescuer attending the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. She had photos of birds and the precious coastline, covered in oil. Aspects of the coast making cleaning up very difficult, as it would in Westernport Bay. Her photos of oil-spill operations trucks commandeering the public open space on the coastline. The media trucks took up any remaining areas. She also said that before the oil spill the mouth of the Mississippi was a dead-zone due to stormwater pollution.Marny Bonner from Australian Sea-bird Rescue focussed
her attentions on teaching the locals how to clean birds, as every year now for
years as they return on their migration, it is expected that they will be oiled
by the oil still in the environment. Gordon Fraser-Quick environmental consultant gave a general address about oil spills, the frequency of oil spills and the myth of “clean up”.
Brian Cumming from WPPC presented oil spill modelling for Westernport Bay; and the fact that Westernport Bay is unsuited as an industrial port.
After Lunch, Jenny Warfe from Blue Wedges spoke about the different threats from shipping: including exhaust emissions, disabled ships and spills of chemicals and rubbish.
Catherine Manning introduced Wild about Westernport and campaign ideas including using you-tube clips and an on-line petition.
Matt Ruchel from VNPA discussed campaign ideas and announced the up and coming Going backwards Under Baillieu Rally and the need to raise money for an economic study of The Bay.
Karri Giles from WPPC tabled the report by Dr Jeff Ross which highlights the importance of benthic organisms for de-nitrification, or in other words why we need to prevent an oil spill or turbidity in Westernport Bay to keep the molluscs and crustaceans alive that play a role in cleaning the water.
We celebrated 40 years of Ramsar by showing the official you-tube clip about the importance and beauty of Wetlands around the World.
40 years of Ramsar
40 years of WPPC
Westernport Bay legislation sets Govt on collision course with environment and community groups
Thursday, 30 June 2011New legislation due to be debated in State Parliament today will set the Government on a collision course with environment and community groups over plans to expand the Port of Hastings in Westernport Bay.
The legislation will establish a new Port of Hastings Development Authority to fast-track plans to expand the port and transform the area into a highly urbanised industrial zone, projected to be busier than the Port of Melbourne.
“The primary purpose of this new legislation is to encourage the rapid expansion of the Port of Hastings into a container port, with little consideration of protecting and enhancing Westernport Bay’s immense environmental and recreational values,” said the Victorian National Parks Association’s Marine and Coastal Project Officer Simon Branigan.
“The new legislation for the Port of Hastings Development Authority should have the protection of the Bay’s environmental values as its core operating goal, not just fast-tracking development based on a projected growth in container shipping traffic.”
Blue Wedges Coalition spokesperson Jenny Warfe said once the development proceeds to the Environmental Effects Statement (EES) phase the proponents control the process, with economics being the focus, not the environment.
“EES assessments of major infrastructure projects have invariably relied on economic analyses which ignore any assessment of the costs of environmental services lost - nor have they objectively assessed the real economic benefits of the proposed development."
“According to a 2006 Port of Hastings Land Use and Transport Strategy Report, the port will have a capacity of 3.7 million shipping containers per annum by 2035, so it will be even more busy and congested than the Port of Melbourne which currently handles around 2.2 million containers per year.“
The Westernport and Peninsula Protection Council’s Karri Giles said the expansion plans could ruin the bay’s fragile marine environment, including internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetlands.
“It’s unbelievable that in the 40th anniversary year of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Government is proposing a massive industrial container shipping port that could result in the death of Westernport Bay as a healthy functioning ecosystem and place for recreation.”
Last November, 16 environment and community groups released a joint statement calling for a halt on Port of Hastings expansion plans based on the huge impact this development would have on Westernport’s environmental and recreational values.
For comment
- Simon Branigan, Vic National Parks Assoc8 Jenny Warfe, Blue Wedges Coalition, .
- Karri Giles, Westernport and Peninsula Protection Council,
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