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no to dredging scheme in Port Phillip bay

by Debra Broughton — last modified 2008-01-21 12:15

At the beginning of February dredging will begin at Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne, Australia) by Dutch company Royal Boskalis Westminster, putting marine life in the bay at risk. The southern waters of Australia, including Port Phillip Bay, have the highest diversity of marine species anywhere in the world.There are 5000 species in the bay, 90% occur nowhere else on Earth and many have never been fully studied.

help stop environmental destruction from dredging scheme in Port Phillip bay

At the beginning of February dredging will begin at Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne, Australia) by Dutch company Royal Boskalis Westminster, putting marine life in the bay at risk.

The southern waters of Australia, including Port Phillip Bay, have the highest diversity of marine species anywhere in the world.There are 5,000 species in the bay, 90% occur nowhere else on Earth and many have never been fully studied.

Scope of the Project

Up to 48 million tonnes of sand and silt habitat will be dredged from the sea bed and Yarra River. Rock removal at entry to the harbour (The Rip) using approx. 50 tonne drag head to break up and remove rock, and hydro-hammering. When maintenance dredging is added over 30 years, a total 78 million tonnes with total volume equivalent to a 15x4 metre trench from Melbourne to Sydney (950km’s), will be dredged.

At least 2 years duration – up to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The spoil will be dumped in huge new spoil grounds within the bay, including up to 3 million tonnes of contaminated spoil from the Yarra River Bed – some highly toxic.
Turbidity sedimentation - murky water - at levels never before experienced in the bay.

Port Phillip bay

Port Phillip bay at 30 metres before the "trial" dredging in 2005. (c) Greg Blair

The Port of Melbourne Corporation is asking Australians to sanction a range of environmental, social and economic risks, so that just a few of the world’s oversized container vessels and oil tankers can enter Port Phillip Bay more fully loaded. The Port corporation has refused to reveal the contents of the contract which has been awarded to Dutch company Royal Boskalis Westminster NV.

act now

Blue Wedges and Friends of the Earth Melbourne need your support.

Dredging Port Phillip Bay is to commence in February after the Federal Australian Court on January 15 ruled against the Blue Wedges court challenge. But it's not to late to stop this ill-thought out scheme. Please email the Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett (ex lead singer of environmental rock band Midnight Oil), who approved the project in late December 2007.

It only takes 2 minutes and could help put a stop to this damaging project using the form below.

Over 800 people from 40 countries have already taken part.

Find out more on the Bad Developers website

News coverage - Peter Garrett admits that dredging will lead to permanent water level rise

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To: Peter Garrett, Australian Federal Government Environment Minister
cc: Royal Boskalis Westminster
cc: Julia Gillard, Australian Deputy Prime Minister
cc: Friends of the Earth Melbourne
cc: Friends of the Earth International

Dear Mr Garrett,

I would like to express my alarm at the decision to approve the Port Phillip Bay deepening proposal, made last December.

As a former president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, I cannot understand why you have approved a project that will result in:

* the loss of over 100 species that occur nowhere else on Earth, including unique and beautiful sponges, corals and seagrasses.

* damage to the habitat of penguins, dolphins, seals, sharks, whales and thousands of marine plant and animal species that interactively rely on Port Phillip Bay.

* threaten the many thousands of jobs in tourism, fishing and diving and their support industries by this sustained assault on the health of the bay.

* release industrial contaminants and toxicants, trapped in Yarra silt, into the water which would then be dumped in the bay. Because of this, heavy metals such as Cadmium, Mercury, Zinc, Lead and Arsenic and Ammonia would re-enter the food chain.

* provide less in benefits than the current sustainable Bay related industries. The diving industry alone provides $70 million per year, the same amount as the figure for estimated benefits of channel deepening.

I support the action being taken by Blue Wedges in the Federal Court, and call on you  as a distinguished environmental campaigner and Minister elected to protect Australia's unique environment, to ensure that this disastrous project does not go ahead. Please revoke your decision to allow dredging to occur, by implementing the EPBC Act s 146.
Yours sincerely,

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