Premier Denis Napthine, Ports Minister Hodgett, Minister for Education Martin Dixon, Mornington Peninsula Shire Mayor Antonella Celi, Port of Hastings CEO Mike Lean and possibly others are all on the public record claiming that the Port of Hastings is a “natural deep water port”.
Having sailed on Western Port for 20+ years I was aware that yachties came from all over the world to run aground in Western Port.
Running aground was probably the first thing I did when I started sailing Western Port, and something I’ve done on numerous occasions since, even after fitting a depth sounder!
My disbelief at the claim that it’s a “natural deep water port” could not have been greater had I read that “the earth is flat”!
The definition of a “natural deep water port” is a port which can accommodate the 12.4 meter draft of a Panamax ship without dredging.
A Panamax ship is the maximum ship dimensions that can fix into the Panama Canal, hence the name.
The water in the proposed container port, between the existing BlueScope jetty and Yaringa, is on average about 10.3 meters deep and will require extensive dredging to 16+ meters to accommodate the new Panamax ships, so clearly by no stretch of the imagination does it qualify as a “natural deep water port”!
Next step was to pop down to the Port of Hastings office and ask them to point out this mysterious “natural deep water port”.
The staff member was very helpful and immediately pointed out the channel in from Bass Straight between The Nobbies and Flinders.
I explained that this was an entrance channel and not to my mind a port, ‘but it’s within the port boundaries’ was the reply.
Apparently, to the very expensive $110 million Port of Hastings Development Authority thinking, if a small portion of a deemed port area is ‘natural and deep’ you can pretend that it’s all ‘natural and deep’!
The five-kilometre area to be dredged and concreted is currently sea-grass and mangroves, the foundation of Western Port’s marine environment and it’s within sight of the office of Federal ‘Environment’ Minister Greg Hunt.
I am utterly appalled that publicly elected officials and compliant public servants are so willing to deliberately promote a misleading myth, in order to gain public approval to build a mega container port (25 thousand containers per day) in the magnificent, fragile, globally listed Ramsar wetlands of Western Port.
Graeme Hanigan,
Cannons Creek.
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