A snapshot of the history of the Safe Harbour project and diagrams of the plans.
The
existing Portarlington pier and harbour needed an upgrade to become a Safe Harbour.
In
2006 the then Labor State Government announced that a Safe Harbour would be
built at Portarlington and that planning would start immediately and would
include full community consultation.
Short term emergency work was undertaken
on the existing pier in 2007/8 to extend its life for a further 5 years to
allow time for the new pier to be constructed.
Consultants were hired, initial
plans were drawn up, public comments sought and final plans were released by
the then Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Minister
Jennings in October
2009.
It was our understanding that Parks Victoria, who was the state government department in charge of the project, applied for funding to build the harbour but failed to obtain the required funding. No further work on the new harbour has been undertaken since then.
The new
harbour is urgently required.
The short term repairs extended the existing
pier life only until 2012. New work began in February 2015.
Coupled with this fact is that the state’s mussel
industry which is centered in Portarlington cannot grow to take up the pending
release of new aquaculture areas in Port Phillip.
In addition the state
government has nominated Portarlington to be a safe harbour on the Bellarine in
times of rough weather for recreational boats which cannot now happen until the
new harbour is constructed.
The new harbour has nominated ferry berths included in its plan but this service cannot begin until the first stage of the new harbour is complete.
First released plan for the new Portarlington Safe Harbour below.
