Life on the Waterfront
A mecca for fishos and comprising Australia’s busiest container port, Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay is always moving, above and below the water
Around 16,000 years ago, when sea levels were some 100m lower than they are today, the Yarra River meandered across the middle of a broad plain, picking up tributaries from east and west, before flowing through a deep gorge at the present-day Port Phillip Heads.
At the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, the sea level rose, flooding the plain to form the bay we now call Port Phillip.
ABORIGINAL HERITAGE
These dramatic changes to the landscape would have been witnessed by tribes of the Kulin Aboriginal nation who had inhabited the region for more than 20,000 years up to that time.
The creation of the bay, which they call Nairm, features in their oral histories and Dreamtime stories.
Long before the bay was formed, the Wathaurong, Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung clans hunted and gathered across the grassy plain and reaped the bounty of the freshwater and marine environments. Almost 600 archaeological sites in the region provide evidence of their activities.
COLONIAL EXPLORATION
In 1802, Lieutenant John Murray sailed HMS Lady Nelson into the bay and named it Port King after the New South Wales Governor, Philip Gidley King. King renamed it in honour of his predecessor, Arthur Phillip.
After a more detailed exploration by Lieutenant Charles Robbins, King dispatched Captain David Collins with 400 people to stake a claim on the bay and forestall possible incursion by French mariners.
In October 1803, a settlement was established at Sullivan Bay, near present-day Sorrento, but was abandoned after only three months due to harsh conditions and a lack of fresh water.
In 1835, settlers from Tasmania led by John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner (who had been at Sullivan Bay as a child) established an unauthorised settlement on the lower reaches of the Yarra.
The Port Phillip Association, as it was known, also established an outpost on nearby Point Gellibrand.
These settlements were acknowledged by Governor Bourke in 1837, naming them Melbourne and William’s Town respectively, and appointing Captain William Lonsdale as his representative and Police Magistrate in the Port Phillip District of the colony.
Geelong was founded in the following year at Corio Bay.
In the early days of settlement, Port Phillip was the major access point to hinterland pastoral leases and both Williamstown and Geelong flourished as ports serving the growing wool industry of the Western District.
The gold rush of the 1850s firmly established Melbourne as the pre-eminent town on the Bay and later the capital of the new Colony of Victoria.
THE BAY AND ITS CATCHMENT
Port Phillip Bay is the largest marine embayment in Victoria, covering an area of 1930 square kilometres, semi-enclosed by a coastline of 300km and a narrow entrance at Port Phillip Heads.
It is shallow for its size, with an average depth of 13m and 24m at its deepest. In the southern section, there are numerous sandbanks and shoals and five significant islands — South Channel Fort, Popes Eye Annulus, Mud Islands, Duck Island and Swan Island.
Tidal range within the bay is restricted by the narrow entrance to less than a metre, with tidal flow of about 8kt at the Heads, decreasing to about 3–5kt in the South and West Channels and a minimal rate in the north where river inflow is more noticeable.
While there is no swell, except near the entrance, the long fetches generated by prevailing southwest winds over the shallow basin can sometimes lead to short, sharp waves of 2–3m.
Port Phillip is fed by 8800km of freshwater rivers, creeks and estuaries across a catchment spanning nearly 10,000 square kilometres.
It is the most densely populated catchment in Australia with more than five million people living in urban sprawls that include metropolitan Melbourne, the City of Geelong and large communities on the Bellarine and Mornington peninsulas.
THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
The Bay contains many different natural habitats — open sandy beaches, rocky intertidal reefs, sheltered mudflats, saltmarshes, mangrove estuaries, submerged reefs, seagrass meadows, sponge gardens, seaweed forests, unvegetated soft sediments (sands and silt), and beautiful pelagic waters.
Large areas of the bay environment are protected by the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park and the Point Cooke, Jawbone and Ricketts Point marine sanctuaries.
Sections of the marine national park also abut conservation areas on land, including Point Nepean National Park, Point Lonsdale Foreshore Reserve and Swan Island.
These diverse communities support a rich abundance of terrestrial and marine plants and animals.
More than 1300 species have been documented in the Port Phillip region, including more than 100 species of fish and several hundred species each of molluscs, crustaceans, jellyfish, marine worms and sea anemones.
The Bay is also home to sea turtles, dolphins and breeding colonies of Australian fur seals and Little Penguins. In recent years, humpback and southern right whales have been visiting Port Phillip in increasing numbers.
Several Ramsar-listed wetlands around the Bay provide vital feeding and roosting grounds for thousands of waterbirds and up to 80 species of migratory seabirds.
ECONOMIC VALUE
The Bay incorporates Victoria’s largest commercial ports and centres for maritime industry.
The Port of Melbourne is Australia’s busiest container port, with more than 3000 annual ship visits handling more than a third of national container trade, worth an estimated $90 billion each year.
Geelong port is Victoria’s second largest, managing in excess of $7 billion of trade in bulk commodities (about 25 per cent of Victoria’s export), with more than 600 ship visits annually.
Station Pier at the top of the Bay is the terminus for the Spirit of Tasmania, the daily passenger ship between Melbourne and Devonport in Tasmania (although this will relocate to Geelong) and also hosts as many as 60 visiting cruise ships throughout the year.
Searoad Ferries operates a vehicular ferry service across the mouth of the bay between Queenscliff and Sorrento using two roll-on roll-off vessels. Passenger ferries also run from St Kilda to Williamstown and from Melbourne Docklands to Portarlington on the Bellarine Peninsula. These ferries operate not only for commuting locals but also as recreational cruises for tourists.
Commercial fishing has operated in the Bay for more than 170 years.
Annual production of finfish averages around 1200 tonnes, with a market value of about $3.5 million, but the industry is expected to decline due to the phasing out of netting by 2022 and a buy-back of commercial licences.
Aquaculture, predominantly in blue mussels, produces around 900 tonnes per year at seven farms in the Bay.
Port Phillip Bay and its catchment waterways are popular recreational areas for Melburnians and tourists, attracting more than 100 million visits each year.
Recreational fishing is a major contributor to the Victorian economy, worth an estimated $420 million, while Bay tourism and eco-charters make an annual contribution to the economy of more than $320 million.
The land-based hospitality industry also benefits from the Bay’s amenity.
MANAGING THE BAY
Port Phillip Bay is a dynamic port, constantly traversed by myriad commercial and recreational vessels and personal watercraft.
With so many users across a wide spectrum of activity, the competition for space on the water needs to be managed.
Within the Bay, commercial shipping is managed by the Victorian Ports Corporation (Melbourne) for Port Phillip Bay and Melbourne, and Geelong Port manages wharf and land-side infrastructure in Corio Bay.
The Victorian Regional Channels Authority is responsible for channel management and navigation of commercial waters in and around Geelong.
Parks Victoria is the managing body of the Local Port of Port Phillip, comprising Port Phillip Bay, the Yarra River downstream of Victoria Dock and the navigable rivers and creeks flowing into the Bay.
In that role, Parks Victoria is responsible for operational safety, shipping control, channel management (excluding the commercial ports and shipping channels of the Port of Melbourne and Geelong Port), the provision and maintenance moorings, berths and navigation aids, marine environment protection and security. Parks Victoria also manages 195,000ha of marine national parks and sanctuaries within Port Phillip Bay.
Maritime Safety Victoria regulates the safe operation of vessels (sailing, human-powered, and motor craft) in the Bay, working closely with vessel operators and port managers to provide expert knowledge, education and support for the boating public.
The Victorian Fisheries Authority is responsible for the sustainable management of Victoria's fisheries, and regulates commercial and recreational fishing and aquaculture in the Bay.
Commonwealth Defence facilities are located at Point Wilson, Point Cook and Swan Island, and some areas are either permanently or periodically declared ‘Naval Waters’ to exclude civilian vessels.
PORT PHILLIP HEADS AND 'THE RIP'
The entrance to Port Phillip Bay between Point Lonsdale and Point Nepean (the Heads) is considered one of the most hazardous stretches of water in the world.
It is 3.5km wide but rocky reefs projecting from the Points reduce the navigable width to about 1km.
The passage straddles a submerged plateau about 12–20m deep, either side of which the seabed drops to 30m to the south and 90m to the north.
This bathymetric variation, combined with tidal streams running up to 8kt, causes significant turbulence called ‘The Rip’.
At full flow, the standing waves can be dangerous and unpredictable; with strong wind-against-tide they can be extreme, making this a designated hazard area in which it is mandatory to wear a PFD.
The best time for small craft to enter The Rip is at slack water (about 15 minutes’ duration three hours after high water or low water) and worst on an ebb tide with strong SE–SW winds, swells or waves.
Vessels with a draught of 14m or less can be navigated through the Heads during any tide.
The entrance to Port Phillip is well-marked by sectored high-intensity Port Entry Lights defining the east and west limits of the main channels.
The Queenscliff Low Light (‘white lighthouse’) and Queenscliff High Light (‘black lighthouse’) form a leading line to guide ships through the main channel, in conjunction with the Hume and Murray Towers that show red and green lights respectively.
Commercial shipping through the Heads is managed by the Point Lonsdale Signal Station and qualified pilots operating out of Queenscliff.
NAVIGATING WITHIN THE BAY
Having entered Port Phillip, large ships must navigate a precise S-shaped course, first steering east along the South Channel for 11nm through the sandbanks, then north around the Hovel Pile to follow the fairway approach across the Bay to Melbourne, 29nm away.
The channel is maintained at a depth of 15.5m and may be used by recreational craft, taking care to avoid commercial vessels.
Once in the channel, however, it is advisable to stay in it until exiting at Hovel Pile as the water over sandbanks on either side is less than a metre.
After passing Hovel Pile and clearing the shallows immediately to its west, a cruising vessel may head to anywhere in the north end of the Bay in depths typically around 15m.
Inside the Heads, at the western end of South Channel, recreational vessels may opt for other channels to various points around the Bay.
They can steer ESE along the Sorrento Channel to destinations on the southern shores of the Mornington Peninsula, or northward through the West Channel and Coles Channel to skirt around the Bellarine Peninsula towards Geelong and Melbourne.
The Sorrento Channel is easily navigated along the lee side of Point Nepean past Portsea and Point King, where it turns toward Sorrento. Keep a lookout for frequent ferries in transit to and from Queenscliff.
Just east of Point King there is an isolated danger mark at the final resting place of the Wauchope, a 269-tonne steamship that sank here in 1919.
Between Point King and Sorrento,1.5nm to the SE, anchorage is possible in sand, keeping clear of moorings, launching ramps and the ferry terminus.
There is some tidal flow and little protection from NW through N to SE winds.
There are five Parks Victoria courtesy moorings 0.2nm southeast of the Sorrento Pier, which is accessible to the public and may have room to tie up.
Just east of Sorrento are The Sisters, two headlands embracing the site of the attempted colony in 1803 (marked by a plaque which is located on the east headland).
South-east of The Sisters, Camerons Bight is a shallow bay that bends towards Blairgowrie and may provide anchorage clear of moored boats in S–SW winds.
The Camerons Bight Boat Club has a jetty in shallow water and the Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron is just to the east.
The West Channel extends north from The Rip, passing the Popes Eye Annulus (marked with a sectored light to starboard), and ends off the Bellarine coast near St Leonards.
It is well marked and easily navigated, with a least depth of just over 4m.
After exiting the channel into deeper water, a course may be set north and east into the Bay, or alternatively northwest to clear Prince George Light and enter the Point Richards Channel to Geelong.
Coles Channel runs parallel to and west of the West Channel along the Bellarine coast from Swan Point (the northeast tip of Swan Island) to St Leonards 4.5nm to the north, and may be used by keeled vessels with care.
Without local knowledge, a vessel heading to Geelong should keep east of the red pile near Governor Reef, east and north of Prince George Light, and north-west towards Point Richards near Portarlington.
The Point Richards Channel merges with the Wilson Spit Shipping Channel, heading west through the outer harbour that separates Point Wilson and Point Henry.
Continuing west, the Hopetoun Channel enters Corio Bay and Geelong on its south-western shore.
The main Geelong channels are dredged to 12.3m for commercial shipping. While Corio Bay typically has 7–10m depths, its entrance between Point Henry and Point Lillias is shallow and vessels without local knowledge should stay within the well-marked Hopetoun Channel.
Beyond Point Richards, the north-oriented Melbourne, Williamstown and Port Melbourne Channels cross Port Phillip and Hobsons Bay towards Station Pier and the entrance to the Yarra River. The main channel is dredged to a depth of 15.5m and may be used by recreational craft, keeping clear of large ships that travel at speed to maintain steerage.
Look out for part two of this feature on Port Phillip Bay in our next issue.