VICTORIA’S peak recreational boating body and a group of engineers, architects, designers and bankers want to build an island in Port Phillip Bay.
EcoIsland Taskforce is pitching to use 34 million cubic metres of spoil created by the imminent channel deepening to create the island about 15 kilometres equidistant from Beaumaris, Docklands and Werribee South.
Boating Industry Association CEO Lindsay Grenfell said the island would provide safe mooring for boats and ferries and a “magical” vantage point to look back to the city, as well as a wildlife reserve and upmarket tourist hotel.
“We are not saying whether the channel deepening should proceed – that is a decision for the Supplementary Environmental Effect Statement process – but we are saying the spoil should be put to good use if it does proceed,” Mr Grenfell said.
Funded by a $100 million float on the Australian Stock Exchange, the island, which would be modelled on Perth’s Rottnest Island, would be located at an existing spoil ground site south of Williamstown, he said.
The group is proposing to move uncontaminated silt from the south of the bay, near Mount Martha, to the northern end of the bay to build upon.
Eco Island Taskforce presented its idea late last year to an independent panel during the channel deepening Environmental Effects Statement (EES).
Blue Wedges Coalition spokeswoman Jenny Warfe has slammed the idea, saying building anything artificial in the bay is contrary to government policy.
She said stirring up silt in the north of the bay could mean toxic elements reentering the food chain and threatening human health.
“There’s not a lot going for an eco island in the bay,” said Ms Warfe.
“Certainly digging it up and plonking it into the middle of the bay and then expecting people to live on it is not the answer,” she said.
“I think toxic towers would be the name of the units that would be built there.”
Port of Melbourne Corporation spokesman Peter Harry said the project would require its own EES and extensive community consultation.
“We received advice that it’s important to keep like with like – what’s taken in the south of the bay should stay in the south of the bay,” Mr Harry said.
However, Eco Island Taskforce head John Macdonald, a partner in ecologically sustainable architecture firm DesignInc, said the spot was perfect.
Mr Macdonald said that, as the sand is owned by the crown, he envisages the island run from a longterm government lease.
“It has tremendous branding opportunities and a chance for the government to offset the costs of dredging,” he said.
“It’s a winwinwin situation for the environment and the state’s tourism and economy.”
A Transport Department spokeswoman said the impact of moving silt from the south to the north of the bay would have to be investigated in a separate EES for its impact on marine life.
