MMHN November 2022 Update

Should summer ever arrive in Victoria and should the weeks of the wind and rain cease, may you enjoy the Festive Season ahead. Perhaps commence with a wonderful invitation to gladden the hearts of maritime enthusiasts:Exhibition of Marine and Maritime Art

And there is more! Opportunity – Maritime Painting in Watercolour 

 

Contents: 
(Click on the headings below for specific items, or scroll down for the full Update)

1. Central Pier Saga
2. King Street Bridge Collapse
3. The Fish Market – The real tragedy of the King Street Bridge collapse
4. Point Gellibrand Pile Light
5. Nova Scotia Mystery Seafarer with a Melbourne Connection
6. Water water everywhere – fortunately in some ways
7. Fisheries Research and Development (FRDS)
8. Who’s really watching Port Phillip Bay? The ‘beating blue heart’ of Victoria
9. Floods mean rubbish
10. Spirit of Tasmania exits Station Pier
11. MMHN Vision for Station Pier – Gateway to ‘Maritime Melbourne’ 
12. A Ferry in Docklands?
13. Campaspe Port Enterprise
14. Melbourne’s 60th Boat Show
15. Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) Certification
16. Melbourne Osaka Double-handed Yacht Race – March 2025- Update
17. Painters and Dockers – maritime stakeholders are very colourful
18. Tug Boat Trouble
19. Cargo by Sail: Ideology and Practicality
20. Maritime Men of the Asia-Pacific
21. Where would you rather be? Perhaps the Antarctic?

1. Central Pier Saga

Overwhelmed by the enormity of the West Gate collapse, the collapse of the King Street Bridge is seldom noted. There was no loss of life. With the boom in car ownership traffic, in 1954 Country Roads Board plans for a bridge were implemented by the Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW). The works were subcontracted to Utah (Aust) by 1957. In 1962 the collapse commenced when a truck was crossing under the bridge. The hapless driver stopped on the bridge, jumped out, saw what was happening, jumped in and quickly drove on. Girders cracked with a noise so alarming that it was heard all over town. A disastrous descent into the Yarra was averted as girders fell to rest on concrete pylons. A Royal Commission found fault not with the design, but in technicalities around mis-handling specific materials.This excellent video explains the incident with great footage of mid 20th century Melbourne.
See: https://youtu.be/MHfv6laHo-Y

From the MMHN perspective, while acknowledge the importance of bridges as maritime infrastructure, the real tragedy attached to the King Street Bridge collapse is the inexplicable demolition of Melbourne’s splendid brick edifice along the Yarra, on the corner of Flinders and Kings Street. It was destroyed to enable construction of the King Street Bridge. The fisheries industry played a crucial role in Melbourne in the splendid brick building crowned with a clocktower, turrets and copper spires. Fish was Big Business then – as it is now.

Image: Fish Market. City of Melbourne Collection circa 1900.

MMHN congratulates all concerned at Seaworks at the restoration of this iconic maritime infrastructure and the Launch of the new Interpretative Exhibit at Seaworks. In 2019 the National Trust gifted the Gellibrand Pile Light to Seaworks. In partnership with the Williamstown Historical Society, Hobsons Bay City Council and others, the Point Gellibrand Pile Light has been restored to its former ‘glory’. The project involved stabilising metal work, repainting, reglazing the light bell, new illumination, and interpretive signage, bringing this iconic structure back to life.MMHN recommends a fascinating source of further information, ‘Lighthouses of Australia Inc.’ which describes the treacherous reef off Williamstown, the series of lights, beginning with three separate lightships over the mid-late 1800s, to a pile light which lasted seventy years before it was dramatically destroyed when hit by a ship. The Gellibrand Lighthouse stood at the head of Melbourne Channel from 1906, lying off Williamstown’s Point Gellibrand until on the foggy morning of 21 June 1976, the pile light was hit by the vessel Melbourne Trader. The force of the collision snapped the piles at waterline.

We encourage you to see for yourself and discover the extent of the restoration works and the other maritime treasures at Seaworks The launch for the restored Pile Light will be held at Seaworks on Wednesday 7 December.

See: https://lighthouses.org.au/vic/point-gellibrand-pile-light/

 

Image: Gellibrand Pile and the vessel Melbourne Trader which struck it

5. Nova Scotia Mystery Seafarer with a Melbourne Connection  

While visiting an excellent regional museum The Age of Sail – Museum and Archive at Port Greville outside Wolfville, Nova Scotia, an interesting question was put to me: Could I find any information regarding the ancestor of the Director, Oralee O’Byrne? Scant information below. Thoughts anyone?

• Ship Captain John E Collins
• Born 1855 in the town of Advocate, Nova Scotia
• Died 1890 or 1891 – thought to have died at sea, October 1890. However, a letter from a great nephew claims he died in hospital in Melbourne in 1891.
• Supposedly his daughter Neaty saw a stone or cairn marking his grave in Melbourne in the early 1900s.

The Age of Sail is operated by the Greville Bay Shipbuilding Museum Society dedicated to the conservation of the lumbering and shipbuilding history of Parrsboro at Minas Port on the shore on the Bay of Fundy. For almost 200 years it was a major shipbuilding area for Tall Ships, pleasure boats and the fishing fleet. Over 700 sailing vessels were built. However, Wagstaff and Hatfield Draggers still operate today in the Maritime Provinces.

See: https://archives.novascotia.ca/communityalbums/agesail/archives/?ID=200

 

6. Water water everywhere – fortunately in some ways

Mangroves, seagrass beds and tidal marshes are now understood as Blue Carbon Ecosystems and as such are among the most efficient carbon sinks on earth. Protecting and restoring wetlands is critical for mitigating and adapting to #climatechange. #COP27

Diagram below shows Blue v green ecosystems carbon burial rate (Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent).

 

Image: Wetlands Website

Yet another acronym to take on board! But an important one for the maritime sector. A statutory corporation responsible to the Minister for Agriculture; co-funded partnership between the federal government, fisheries and aquaculture tasked with playing a key role in fisheries research planning and investment; support sustainable aquatic sector and aquatic ecosystems in four main areas: Indigenous, aquaculture, commercial, and recreational fishing. Here are links to three interesting reports produced so far: A digital future for fishing and aquaculture about the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange initiative Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning uses historic and current data from multiple sources to provide predictions on the highest value and largest accumulations of target species, with minimal risk of interaction with Threatened, Endangered and Protected Species.Tuna Champions How are recreational fishers to know how to catch, handle, release, keep and prepare Southern Bluefin Tuna to make the most of every fish caught.

Circular Economy Opportunities for fisheries and aquaculture in Australia There are opportunities to reduce waste and carbon in Australian fishing and aquaculture, e.g., cooperative resource sharing, particularly equipment energy, cost savings and waste reduction, longer-life span packaging, recycling of bio-fouled plastics and plant-derived plastics.

 

MMHN thanks Troy Muir of Polperro Dolphin & Sea Swims, one of three maritime tour operators for sharing the following insights. All tour operators are utterly dependent on sustaining this amazing ‘beating blue heart’ of Victoria and all are keenly aware of the need for vigilance. Threats to this tremendous body of water and the sea life within it are real. Research and monitoring through organisation such as FRDC are an important investment certainly, but protecting their livelihood also focusses the mind. Commercial dolphin tour operators have been dolphin watching for 40 years. Even before that, dolphins regularly surfed the bow wave of the old Sorrento-Portsea-Queenscliff passenger ferries.While most new species are generally identified in remote wilderness areas, the habitat of the Burrunan dolphin (Tursiops Australis) is the Bay – in the heart of our major metropolis. In 2011 the Victorian State Government confirmed what many of us already knew; Port Phillip Bay’s dolphins are special, arriving soon after the area was inundated. Dolphin sponge gardens, vast sandy plains and rocky reefs are part of the Bay’s unique habitat.

The presence of dolphins is regarded as a ‘litmus test’ for the health of the waters in which they live. Dolphin tourism in Port Phillip began in earnest when the Port Phillip Bay Dolphin Research Group, now known as the Dolphin Research Institute, engaged the Muir family and their Pompei built dive charter vessel, ‘Polperro’, initially as a research vessel and later to conduct swims. Other operators joined this burgeoning Cetacean-based tourism industry. Predictably the Bay’s dolphins were adversely impacted by unfettered engagement. Responsible operators stepped up, lobbied government and became actively involved the legislative process in order to ensure a level of protection was implemented to sustain the dolphins, as well as the future viability of the industry. Operators agreed to be bound by a voluntary code of conduct while awaiting the legislative changes necessary for a permit system; strict regulation around the conduct of operators, necessary to protect the dolphins and the industry. Early operators developed practices that have contributed to the safety and protection and many aspects of the current dolphin swim permits are based on initiatives in operation today. From the uncontrolled early days, the system has evolved; limit on the time spent around dolphins on a tour – number of ‘approaches’ that a tour vessel can make within 100 metres on any given day designed to minimise disruptions to the dolphins’ daily lives. Dolphin Tour Permits issued via a tender process by DWELP. capped at 4 operators and valid for 5 years. Permit renewal is through a tender Process. Further, a Parks Victoria License and Advanced Eco-Certification are mandatory requisites.

Polperro sees its role as ethical environmental stewardship in which everyone contributes to the management, conservation and protection of our marine environment and the species it supports. Polperro recognises that conserving the ‘whole’ is necessary to protect the ‘parts’ and that dolphins are part of the intricate tapestry of interwoven relationships on the Bay. The dolphin swim industry in Port Phillip Bay is not adventure tourism, but ecotourism. This is an important distinction and guides the work they do.

 

MMHN member, and Committee member of Yarra Riverkeepers, Janet Bolitho, alerted us to the massive task underway to clear out Bandalong litter traps along the waterways. Parks Victoria is largely responsible – but ultimately it is our problem and it is far from resolved.

If you are interested in the technicalities via an interesting video. See https://www.bandalong.com.au

MMHN Member Janet Bolitho reports a poignant moment for maritime afficionados in the evolving maritime ‘story’ of Station Pier on Saturday, 22 October when A band, appropriately named ‘Lost Port’, played sad farewell songs and people waved their flags in time with the music as the Spirit departed with generous blasts of its familiar horn.See: https://www.portplaces.com/after-the-spirit/

Our thanks to WSS for pointing out that vessels Spirit of Tasmania 1 and 2 now travel to Devonport from Geelong, instead of Station Pier. Their familiar appearances will be missed. Their journey from Geelong to the Rip now takes 3 hours instead of two hours from Station Pier.

 

Images: Station Pier and adjacent Freight Yard: Janet Bolitho

MMHN has been refining our vision ‘Re-imagining Station Pier’. The exit of the ferry reinforces our conviction that Station Pier is an undervalued state heritage asset – the cultural value is simply being squandered. Recent experience at the International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM) conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia in September provided an inspirational ‘model’ for Melbourne for what can and should be done to optimise the cultural and commercial $ value of Melbourne’s cruise terminal which is languishing and neglected.

Pier 21 on the wharf in Halifax is the equivalent of Station Pier. The community stepped up and advocated to government for an up-grade which converted it into an infrastructure asset which now generates $3 billion p.a. to the city. Pier 21 has all of the features that MMHN argues would turn-around Station Pier. Passengers disembark into the foyer of the Immigration Museum, a Genealogical Centre where migrant families can trace their arrival at Halifax, and an aisle of market stalls offering locally made goods, cafes and restaurants on the wharf, ferries across Halifax Harbour, local bus transport to the CBD, on-off tour buses ‒ all available to passengers on the actual wharf. Pier 21 is buzzing and has also become a destination for domestic tourists.

See: https://pier21.ca
See what MMHN advocates for Station Pier: https://mmhn.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/MMHN-Opportunity-7-Station-Pier.pdf
Anyone interested in helping to pursue this ‘vision’ contact: info@mmhn.org.au

MMHN has persistently advocated, given that we have more navigable waterways than Sydney, that ferries should rightly be incorporated into our pubIic transport system. It is hard to fathom why ferries are denied the same level of public funding as any other forms of public transport – buses, trains and trams.

See below – NO this neither a tram or a ferry. It is a novel cruise option, the Melbourne Tramboat. It is NOT a ferry, but it was moored near the new ferry terminal during the recent Boat Show. It is described as
‘The World’s First Floating Tram”.

See: http://www.tramboat.com.au/

Image: Tramboat website

14. Melbourne’s 60th Boat Show 

Image 1: Ross Brewer, a notable artist, and Steve Walker
Image 2: Exhibiting at Magnet Gallery

Consultations on amendment to a range of AMSA certifications have just concluded. Revised Marine Order 505 (Certificates of Competency) will be implemented from 1 January 2023. The new CoCs include:

16. Melbourne Osaka Double-handed Yacht Race – March 2025- Update

17. Painters and Dockers – maritime stakeholders are very colourful

18. Tug Boat Trouble

19. Maritime Men of the Asia-Pacific

20. Cargo by Sail: Ideology and Practicality

21. Where would you rather be? Perhaps the Antarctic?

 

As 2022 draws to a close, best wishes from the MMHN Board.