page_title: Port Phillip
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Port Phillip / Shipping / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A very basic map of the port phillip plains approximately 10-12 thousand years ago, prior to sea level rise that filled the area of land now known as Port Phillip, and the course of the Yarra River as it emptied into Bass Strait. More exact details regarding the course of the Yarra River in the port phillip plains are needed.
context_page_description: Port Phillip, is a horsehead-shaped bay in the central coastline of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay is surrounded mostly by metropolitan Greater Melbourne in its main eastern portion, and the city of Greater Geelong in the much smaller western portion north of the Bellarine Peninsula. Geographically, the bay covers 1,930 square kilometres and the shore stretches roughly 264 km. Although it is extremely shallow for its size, most of the bay is navigable. The deepest portion is only 24 metres, and half the region is shallower than 8 m. The volume of the water in the port is around 25 cubic kilometres.
  Before European settlement the area around Port Phillip was divided between the territories of the Wathaurong, Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung Nations. Its waters and coast are home to seals, whales, dolphins, corals, and many kinds of seabirds and migratory waders.
  The first Europeans to enter the bay were the crews of HMS Lady Nelson, commanded by John Murray and, ten weeks later, HMS Investigator commanded by Matthew Flinders, in 1802. Subsequent expeditions into the bay took place in 1803 to establish the first settlement in Victoria, near Sorrento, but was abandoned in 1804.
context_section_description: The southern section of the Bay near the Heads is covered by extensive sand banks, known as the "Great Sand". A shipping channel was dredged in an east-west direction from the Heads to near Arthur's Seat late in the nineteenth century, and maintained ever since. Early shipping used piers at Sandridge (Port Melbourne), but later moved to various wharves along the Yarra River, which make up today's Port of Melbourne. The Melbourne Harbor Trust and Geelong Harbor Trust were responsible for the piers and wharves in their respective cities — they are now the government owned Port of Melbourne Corporation and the privately operated GeelongPort.
  Today, the Port of Melbourne has grown to become Australia's busiest commercial port, serving Australia's second largest city and handling an enormous amount of imports and exports into and out of the country. The Port of Geelong also handles a large volume of dry bulk and oil, while nearby Port of Hastings on Western Port handles steel and oil products.
  In 2004 the Victorian Government launched the Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project to deepen the existing shipping channels and the lower Yarra to accommodate deeper draft vessels. The lower Yarra sediments were identified as likely to be contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals, and were to be contained within a sealed berm clear of the shipping channels south of the Yarra entrance. The vessel chosen for the dredging is the Queen of the Netherlands. 52 environmental groups, recreational fishing groups, and divers' groups formed the "Blue Wedges" group to oppose the proposed channel deepening and dredging with organised protests carried out, culminating in the group taking action in the Federal Court in January 2008 against the Commonwealth to stop it signing off on the project. On 15 January 2008 it was announced that their appeal was dismissed, with dredging starting soon after. The government announced the completion of works in November 2009, ahead of schedule and $200 million under budget.
caption: The course of the Yarra River around 10,000 years ago, after the end of the last Ice Age, prior to the creation of Port Phillip.
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