Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project
The Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project began on 8 February 2008 to deepen the shipping channels leading to Melbourne, Australia. The project was to deepen channels in Port Phillip to 14 metres draught allow greater access for container ships. An estimated A$969 million was to be spent with $150 million funded by taxpayers; the dredging works were conducted by Dutch company Royal Boskalis Westminster for the Port of Melbourne Corporation, a statutory body established by the Victorian Government responsible for the running of the port, at a cost of $500 million and was expected to be completed before 31 December 2009, pending auditor reports and various legal actions against the project. The project was to be conducted under a controversial Public-Private-Partnership. Operating 24 hours a day, the project involved the removal of 22.9 million m3 of sand, fine river silt. The material removed was transported to designated "dump sites". According to numerous scientists, community representatives and community groups, the dredging would disturb marine plant and microbial life through large areas of the bay.
The project caused significant controversy among many communities throughout the Victorian population, was opposed by scientists such as biologists and geologists, the CSIRO, university academics and scientists including Monash University, many groups representing the community including the Dive Industry of Victoria, the Victorian Greens, the Australian Peak Shippers' Association, the Victorian National Parks Association. The amalgamated community group Blue Wedges held public rallies and several pickets from 2004–2008, involving surfers, kayaks and yachts who put themselves in the path of the dredging ship Queen of the Netherlands, which delayed the project for a time; the project began, although under limited conditions, after Blue Wedges won a reprieve in the Federal Court. The limited conditions were stripped from 28 March 2008 after ensuing legal proceedings saw the Blue Wedges case dismissed. Legal costs were pursued by the state government. In 2009 the Victorian Auditor-General's report was released.
The Auditor-General sourced information on what percentage of ships could and could not enter the bay, from the Port of Melbourne who had twice overestimated the number of ships that could not enter the bay prior to dredging. In contrast, in the Drewry Report, the more accurate calculation of ships that were not loading to full capacity in Melbourne was calculated to be between 10% and 4% -- this Drewry Report was commissioned by the Port of Melbourne Corporation in 2001, but was not made accessible to the public until the Victorian Greens obtained it under a Freedom of Information request in 2005—the Drewry Report concluded that, were the channel deepening project to be cancelled, the economic loss from this small percentage of ships unable to load to capacity would be in the vicinity of $13 million, rather than the $30 million, claimed by PoMC. Furthermore, the Drewry Report concluded that a dredge of 0.5 metres would be sufficient for 96% of vessels, the PoMC's planned dredge to 2.5 metres depth was "extreme" and "potentially disastrous" as well as expensive and unnecessary.
In addition all of the shipping companies that use Melbourne's ports stated that there was no need for dredging or channel deepening in the bay or around the ports Template:Australian Peak Shippers' Association. The government announced the completion of works in November 2009, ahead of schedule and $200 million under budget; the Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project was carried out by Dutch dredging company Royal Boskalis Westminster for the Port of Melbourne Corporation. The PoMC sought the assistance of Boskalis Australia Pty Ltd, a daughter company of Royal Boskalis Westminster. Prior to the completion of the works, ships entering the Port of Melbourne were restricted to 11.6 m draught. Larger container ships instead need 14 m to carry full loads; the PoMC estimated that in the 2006-07 financial year, 38.5% of ships visiting the port was potentially affected by draught limitations because the channel did not allow for the extra depth, with this figure rising to 44.3% in the December quarter of 2007.
The key objective of the Channel Deepening Project was to address these draught restrictions. The PoMC has specified four project'areas' of the bay to be completed progressively. Yarra River and Hobsons Bay North of Bay The second area to be dredged, dredging was expected to begin in this area but was delayed after a court injunction, with dredging instead beginning in the south of the bay. South of bay The first area to be dredged under limited conditions specified in a court injunction; the Entrance The Entrance was argued to be one of the more sensitive areas of Port Phillip Bay to be dredged, after a rockfall incident that occurred during trial dredging in 2005. Materials dredged in Port Phillip were disposed of in two areas. Contaminated dredged material from the Port Melbourne and Yarra River channels was disposed of in the existing Port of Melbourne Dredge Material Ground, which covers an area of about 9.36 km2. The site was expected to be extended to the south by an area of 2.7 km2 to accommodate the dredged material volumes as a result of the dredging project as well as to accommodate dredged material volumes from future maintenance dredging.
Uncontaminated dredged material from the South Chann
Charles Grimes Bridge
The Charles Grimes Bridge is a twin road bridge that carries the Docklands Highway over the Yarra River in Melbourne, Australia. It was named after New South Wales surveyor general Charles Grimes, the first European to see the Yarra River; as constructed in the 1975 it ran north–south over the river, connecting Footscray Road to the West Gate Freeway and Montague Street. The low height of the bridge above the water resulted in the closure of a number of the river wharves on the upstream side. However, with the Melbourne Docklands redevelopment of the 1990s, Footscray Road was closed as a through route and rebuilt as Harbour Esplanade. To replace the through route, Wurundjeri Way was constructed to the east. To connect to this new road Flinders Street was upgraded, the north end of the Charles Grimes Bridge was rebuilt on a curve to connect to it. Reconstruction started in June 1999, was completed by 2001; the bridge superstructure consists of five 33.5m long main spans the river, with five smaller spans between 12m and 24m in length over the existing wharf and riverbank.
Each of the bridges carries four traffic lanes in one direction, a footpath. Computer analysis was required during design due to the complex geometry of the spans; the Jim Stynes Bridge was opened in 2014 to carry pedestrian and cyclist traffic underneath the Charles Grimes Bridge, to connect the Docklands precinct to the Northbank area
Yarra River
The Yarra River or the Yarra Yarra River, is a perennial river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river are where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches. From its source in the Yarra Ranges, it flows 242 kilometres west through the Yarra Valley which opens out into plains as it winds its way through Greater Melbourne before emptying into Hobsons Bay in northernmost Port Phillip; the river was a major food source and meeting place for indigenous Australians from prehistoric times. Shortly after the arrival of European settlers land clearing forced the remaining Wurundjeri to neighbouring territories and away from the river. Called Birrarung by the Wurundjeri, the current name was mistranslated from another Wurundjeri term in the Boonwurrung language; the river was utilised for agriculture by early European settlers. The landscape of the river has changed since 1835; the course has been progressively disrupted and the river widened in places.
The first of many Crossings of the Yarra River to facilitate transport was built in Princes Bridge. Beginning with the Victorian gold rush it was extensively mined, creating the Pound Bend Tunnel in Warrandyte, the Big and Little Peninsula Tunnels above Warburton. Widening and dams, like the Upper Yarra Reservoir have helped protect Melbourne from major flooding; the catchment's upper reaches are affected by logging. Industrialisation led to the destruction of the marshlands at the confluence of the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers in the area around Coode Island in West Melbourne. Today, the mouth and including Swanson and Appleton Docks are used for container shipping by the Port of Melbourne, the busiest on the continent; the city reach, inaccessible to larger watercraft, has seen increased use for both transport and recreational boating. In recent years however recreational use of the river is threatened by high levels of pollution in its lower stretches; the upper reaches remain healthy. The annual Moomba festival celebrates the Yarra River's increasing cultural significance to Melbourne.
The river was called Birrarung by the Wurundjeri people who occupied the Yarra Valley and much of Central Victoria prior to European colonisation. It is thought that Birrarung is derived from Wurundjeri words meaning "ever flowing". Another common term was Birrarung Marr, thought to mean "river of mist" or "river bank". Upon European arrival it was given the name'Yarra Yarra' by John Helder Wedge of the Port Phillip Association in 1835, in the mistaken belief that this was the Aboriginal name for the river in the Boonwurrung language; however it is believed that'Yarra' means "waterfall", "flow", or refers to running or falling water, descriptive of any river or creek in the area, not just the Yarra. The name Yarra Yarra is said to mean "ever flowing river", but most refers to the Yarra Yarra falls which were dynamited. Of their contact with local Wurunderi people in 1835, John Wedge wrote: On arriving in sight of the river, the two natives who were with me, pointing to the river, called out,'Yarra Yarra', which at the time I imagined to be its name.
Sometime before 6000 BC, the Yarra river was joined with other tributaries such as rivers now called the Patterson, Werribee and drained directly into Bass Strait through what is now called the Rip. Between 8000 BC and 6000 BC, the basin flooded forming Port Phillip Bay and moving the "mouth" of the Yarra over 50 km inland. A dry period combined with sand bar formation may have dried the bay out as as between 800 BC and 1000 AD extending the Yarra to Bass Strait during this period; the area surrounding the Yarra River and modern day Melbourne was inhabited by Natives of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. It is believed; the river was an important resource for the Wurundjeri people and several sites along the river and its tributaries were important meeting places where corroborees were held between indigenous communities. The river's resources were utilised sustainably by the Wurundjeri until the advent of early European settlement in the early-mid-19th century. In 1803, the first Europeans sailed up the river, a surveying party led by Charles Grimes, Acting Surveyor General of New South Wales, sailed upstream to Dights Falls where they could no longer continue due to the nature of the terrain.
European explorers would not enter the river for another 30 years until, in 1835, the area, now central and northern Melbourne was explored by John Batman, a leading member of the Port Phillip Association, who negotiated a transaction for 600,000 acres of land from eight Wurundjeri elders. He selected a site on the northern bank of the Yarra River, declaring that "this will be the place for a village"; the river was instrumental in the establishment of Melbourne along its banks from 1835 onwards. The new settlement's main port was sited just downstream of Yarra Falls west of modern-day Queen's Bridge, the place where saltwater met freshwater. Ships would use one side of the falls while the other side provided fresh drinking water for the town and a convenient sewer. In the city's early days the
Swanson Dock
Swanson Dock is an international shipping facility in Melbourne, Australia. It was constructed between 1966 and 1972 by the Melbourne Harbour Trust, on the north bank of the Yarra River to alleviate congestion in the port and provide the first container shipping terminal in Melbourne, it is located about 2 km downstream from the Melbourne CBD and was named after Victor Swanson, Chairman of the Melbourne Harbour Trust between 1960 and 1972. The construction of Spencer Street bridge over the Yarra River in 1929 reduced the capacity of the river wharves, led to expansion downstream of port facilities with Appleton Dock. Swanson Dock was constructed in 1968 on the former Coode Island as Melbourne's first all-container shipping terminal, reflecting the rapid world-wide change at the beginning of the 1960s, from unit cargo where each product was loaded in different forms of packaging, to shipping cargo in uniform sized containers. Swanson Dock was opened on 7 March 1969, by the Governor of Victoria, Sir Rohan Delacombe, during the 6th biennial conference of the International Association of Ports and Harbors, hosted by the Melbourne Harbor Trust in Melbourne.
The first international ship to dock was the Encounter Bay. Swanson Dock East has a berth length of 884 metres serviced by six container cranes with 40 hectares of container storage and roadways and rail siding. Swanson Dock West has 944 metres of wharves with seven container cranes and 34 hectares of space, with the potential to expand as trade grows. Swanson Dock East and West can accommodate the largest container ships trading with Australia. Railway goods sidings serve both Swanson Dock East and West, permitting the transfer of shipping containers between sea and rail transport. Provided in the 1960s with the development of the port, they were removed. Rail facilities were restored between 2002 and 2003 with a new 1500 metre long siding and overpasses to separate road traffic. Swanson Dock was one site of the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute when dockworkers were locked out by Patrick Stevedores, replaced with non-union labour; the Maritime Union of Australia workers picketing East Swanson dock invited Wendy Lowenstein to record them "making history", incorporated into a second edition of her book Under the Hook.
Port of Melbourne History of Melbourne Docklands Kim Dovey: Fluid City: Transforming Melbourne's Urban Waterfront, London: Routledge, 2005
City of Maribyrnong
The City of Maribyrnong is a local government area within the metropolitan area of Melbourne, Australia. It comprises 10 kilometres from the Melbourne city centre, it was formed in 1994 from the merger of parts of the City of Sunshine. At the 2016 Census, Maribyrnong had a population of 82,288. According to Local Government Victoria, Maribyrnong has the second most ethnically diverse population in Victoria, with 40% of residents born outside Australia; the City of Maribyrnong is a place of diversity and challenges. The level and type of development occurring over the past ten years, to continue for the next ten to twenty years, is unique to inner Melbourne. Many of the City's former industrial sites have been replaced by residential developments and for the first time in ten years the City have witnessed population increases; this trend will continue and in the next twenty years Maribyrnong is expected to welcome an additional 16,000 residents. The social character of the community is changing.
New residents are more educated and classified as higher income earners. The City continues to attract new cultural groups. People are attracted by the close proximity to Melbourne CBD, period homes, public transport hubs, cultural diversity, the natural environment of the Maribyrnong River. Braybrook Footscray Kingsville Maidstone Maribyrnong Seddon Tottenham West Footscray Yarraville Figures below are drawn from the 2011 Census unless otherwise stated. For detailed demographics visit the City of Maribyrnong Community Profile. Population and Cultural Diversity The Estimated Residential Population at 30 June 2012 was 76,703 There were 323 people who identified as being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander 40% of our population were born overseas and 43% speak a language other than English Largest language groups include Vietnamese, Mandarin, Greek and Spanish 9.9% of the population do not speak English well or at allSocial and Economic Disadvantage Braybrook and the City of Maribyrnong are the 4th most disadvantaged suburb and municipality in the metropolitan area on the SEIFA index of disadvantage The unemployment rate is high.
As of the September 2012 quarter, the unemployment rate was 7.9% for the City compared to the Melbourne average of 5.5%, the national average of 5.2%. Unemployment is highest in Braybrook which has an unemployment rate of 15%Households and Housing Average household size is 2.4 people Average weekly household income is $1,258 25% of households are couples with children 26% of households are couples without children 25% of households are lone person 70.6% of households have an internet connection 35.5% of all households are renting Median weekly rent was $280 compared to $300 for Greater Melbourne The median monthly housing loan repayment was $2,167 compared to $1,810 for Greater MelbourneHealth and Wellbeing Top three chronic preventable lifestyle diseases for females are heart disease, type 2 diabetes and depression For males, the top three diseases are heart disease, lung cancer and stroke Females experience the poorest health in the Western Region sub-region Males have the lowest life expectancy in Victoria Approximately 1 in 5 people have a disability 7.1% of persons have experienced food insecurity Between 2003 and 2008, the city received a total of 4,769 new arrivals.
The majority arrived as skilled migrants, followed by family migration, humanitarian entrants. Key statistics: A large proportion of arrivals under humanitarian migration arrived with low to poor English language skills; the majority of new arrivals were in the 20–29 year age bracket, with the majority male. A large percentage of new arrivals are from India, China and Pakistan and are settling through the skilled migration stream. Over 90% of new arrivals from Burma and Sudan arrived in the City as humanitarian migrants. Family migration is significant from Vietnam and the United Kingdom, with persons settling in communities; the City of Maribyrnong is a dynamic economic entity. There are 5,392 businesses employing in excess of 35,000 people, yet the resident workforce is only around 28,246. Manufacturing was the largest employer of Maribyrnong residents with 3,451 employees, followed by retail with 2,668, health care 2,576. Maribyrnong's key employers include Victoria University, Western Health, Lonely Planet, Highpoint Shopping Centre, Western Bulldogs, Mobil Australia and Sugar Australia.
On average, 34% of the labour force has university qualifications, in some parts of the municipality the proportion is as high as 53%. The highest concentration of university qualified residents is in the Footscray, Yarraville corridor. Victoria University has two principal campuses located in Footscray with a student population of around 15,000 and staff of 1,200; this represents the largest concentration of tertiary activity in Melbourne's West. Victoria University is Maribyrnong City Council's largest employer, second only to Western Health. Maribyrnong's five secondary schools employ 530 staff and cater for over 4000 students; these figures are set to increase as Maribyrnong Secondary College completes its transformation into Victoria's first public elite sports school. The library service run by the Council has five branches: Footscray, Maribyrnong at Highpoint Shopping Centre, West Footscray and Braybrook. Reflecting the multiculturalism of the community, the li
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, it was the longest and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is used as an example of how intensely the world's economy can decline; the Great Depression started in the United States after a major fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929, became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession; some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II; the Great Depression had devastating effects in countries both poor. Personal income, tax revenue and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%.
Unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities around the world were hit hard those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was halted in many countries. Farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few alternative sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Economic historians attribute the start of the Great Depression to the sudden devastating collapse of U. S. stock market prices on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. However, some dispute this conclusion and see the stock crash as a symptom, rather than a cause, of the Great Depression. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time. John D. Rockefeller said "These are days. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have gone. Prosperity has always returned and will again." The stock market turned upward in early 1930. This was still 30% below the peak of September 1929.
Together and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the corresponding period of the previous year. On the other hand, many of whom had suffered severe losses in the stock market the previous year, cut back their expenditures by 10%. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S. By mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928. Prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930. A deflationary spiral started in 1931. Farmers faced a worse outlook. At its peak, the Great Depression saw nearly 10% of all Great Plains farms change hands despite federal assistance; the decline in the U. S. economy was the factor. Frantic attempts to shore up the economies of individual nations through protectionist policies, such as the 1930 U.
S. Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and retaliatory tariffs in other countries, exacerbated the collapse in global trade. By 1933, the economic decline had pushed world trade to one-third of its level just four years earlier. Change in economic indicators 1929–32 The two classical competing theories of the Great Depression are the Keynesian and the monetarist explanation. There are various heterodox theories that downplay or reject the explanations of the Keynesians and monetarists; the consensus among demand-driven theories is that a large-scale loss of confidence led to a sudden reduction in consumption and investment spending. Once panic and deflation set in, many people believed they could avoid further losses by keeping clear of the markets. Holding money became profitable as prices dropped lower and a given amount of money bought more goods, exacerbating the drop in demand. Monetarists believe that the Great Depression started as an ordinary recession, but the shrinking of the money supply exacerbated the economic situation, causing a recession to descend into the Great Depression.
Economists and economic historians are evenly split as to whether the traditional monetary explanation that monetary forces were the primary cause of the Great Depression is right, or the traditional Keynesian explanation that a fall in autonomous spending investment, is the primary explanation for the onset of the Great Depression. Today the controversy is of lesser importance since there is mainstream support for the debt deflation theory and the expectations hypothesis that building on the monetary explanation of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz add non-monetary explanations. There is consensus that the Federal Reserve System should have cut short the process of monetary deflation and banking collapse. If they had done this, the economic downturn would have been much shorter. British economist John Maynard Keynes argued in The General Theory of Employment and Money that lower aggregate expenditures in the economy contributed to a massive decline in income and to employment, well below the average.
In such a situation, the economy reached equilibrium at low levels of economic activity and high unemployment. Keynes' basic idea was simple
West Melbourne, Victoria
West Melbourne is an inner suburb of Melbourne, north-west and adjacent to Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Melbourne. At the 2016 census, West Melbourne had a population of 5,515. West Melbourne is bounded by Victoria Street and the Sunbury/Werribee railway lines in the north, Footscray Road, the Moonee Ponds Creek. Peel Street and the Flagstaff Gardens help form the eastern boundary, with the western boundary defined by the Maribyrnong River and Coode Island, a locality of West Melbourne, home to Victoria's largest toxic chemical storage facility. Being largely an industrial area, a significant portion of West Melbourne is occupied by the Port of Melbourne, the Dynon Railway Yards and the Melbourne Markets; these include the Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable and Fish Markets, as well as the National Flower Centre. It contains an increasing number of residential and commercial properties, consisting of a mixture of Victorian single and double storey terrace houses and converted warehouses at the north-west corner of the Melbourne CBD.
It is adjacent to the Queen Victoria Market, located on the east of Peel Street and to the south of Victoria Street. West Melbourne Post Office opened on 1 March 1937 and was replaced by the Queen Vic Market Newsagency office in 1990, which closed in 1996. In the 2016 Census, there were 5,515 people in West Melbourne. 42.3% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were China 7.4%, India 4.9%, South Korea 4.5%, Malaysia 3.7% and New Zealand 2.6%. 45.4% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 10.0%, Korean 4.3%, Cantonese 3.5% and Spanish 2.0%. The most common response for religion was No Religion at 44.8%. The North Melbourne railway station is located in West Melbourne, opposite the Railway Hotel on Ireland Street. 401 North Melbourne – University of Melbourne via Royal Melbourne Hospital, University of Melbourne. Operated by Sita Bus Lines; the 220 bus between Sunshine and Gardenvale passes along Dudley St. A number of tram routes run along the periphery of the suburb, along Victoria Street, Peel/William Street and La Trobe Street.
West Melbourne Baptist St Mary Star of the Sea Catholic St James Old Cathedral St Mary's Anglican Carron Tavern, Spencer Street McMahons Hotel, Spencer Street Railway Hotel, Ireland Street Royal Mail Hotel, Spencer Street Royal Standard Hotel, William Street Hotel Spencer, Spencer Street Three Crowns Hotel, Victoria Street Sarim's Cafe' Citrus Mint Kathmandu Cottage Warung Agus Le Taj Wild East Amiconi Fraus Tandoori Dhaba Festival Hall Witches in Britches The Looney Bin Flagstaff Gardens The Triangle Park The Pocket Park The area bounded by Railway Parade and Spencer Street has undergone significant change since 2000. While the region has always been mixed industry and residential, the industrial flavour of the area has diminished as West Melbourne's population increases. In Dryburgh, Ireland and Adderley Streets, the majority of the warehouses have been converted to townhouse developments; the development nearby of the Docklands has had a significant impact on the perceived prestige of the area, it is losing its status as one of the most affordable precincts with such proximity to the CBD.
West Melbourne lays claim to the southern side of Victoria Street, meaning that a small range of restaurants and shops lie within its boundaries. Otherwise it has no shopping area of its own; however the Direct Factory Outlet development on Spencer Street in the CBD, Errol Street, North Melbourne are just outside the boundary of West Melbourne. Coode Island is a locality in West Melbourne's industrial zone, it is unusual in that although it is a locality of West Melbourne, with the creation of Melbourne Docklands and the Bolte Bridge, the area has become disonnected from the main area of the suburb. It is the site of Victoria's major petrochemical storage facility; the area is named after engineer John Coode and retains the "Island" name, despite no longer being an island. Local history of West Melbourne http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=66&pa=779&pg=1386
