2024 – a year in Port places
January
The floating wetlands at Yarra’s Edge in a very brown Yarra following 37.8 mm of rain on 8 January.
On 22 January, Todd Road was the flashpoint for a clash between police and people protesting the arrival of the container ship ZIM Ganges at the Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT). ZIM is a shipping company that is controlled and partly owned by the Israeli government.
February
24 February: second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
A calm day on the Bay.
March
Lagoon Reserve is turned inside out and upside down and endless layers are added to prepare a new playing surface.
April
Dolphins and a seal are observed off Princes Pier, Port Melbourne.
May
Flares and coronal ejections shooting off from the Sun’s surface struck the Earth overnight, causing a severe geomagnetic storm. It was the strongest such event in about 20 years. (ABC News 11 May)
June
Hot air balloons drifted to land at Murphy’s Reserve. They prompted the post Below and above Williamstown Rd on the challenges of growing trees because of above and below ground infrastructure.
P & O Cruises announced their withdrawal from Australia. Carnival, its parent company, said that it was too expensive to operate the brand in Australia. They cited the small market and higher operating and regulatory costs in Australia.
Faithful Port Melbourne Icebergers gathered in large numbers to mark the winter solstice.
July
Submarine tender USS Emory S. Land AS 39 berthed at outer west Station Pier. 30 Royal Australian Navy officers and sailors have spent five months on the tender in Guam, integrating with US sailors and building knowledge, skills, and experience in how the US conducts nuclear-powered submarine maintenance.
Planning approval was given for the redevelopment of the Barak Beacon estate in July.
Cootamundra wattle enveloped North Port tram stop and turned the Railway Reserve between Bridge and Raglan Sts golden.
August
Yellow-tailed black cockatoos ignored the traffic on Pickles St to feast on pine cones.
A vehicle crashed into a hair salon on Bay St in the early hours of Monday 19 August. The shop and car were totally destroyed by the fire. Residents above the salon had to evacuate. The incident was associated with Melbourne’s ‘tobacco wars’.
September
Protests outside the Land Forces expo at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Spencer St.
7 October: first anniversary of Hamas attack on Israel
Throughout October candidates campaigned for the local government elections. The City of Port Phillip returned to nine single member wards after a brief period of 3 x 3 multi-member wards. Many Port Melbourne residents found themselves in the Montague ward. The election was held by post only. Post boxes are increasingly thin on the ground. Alex Makin was elected in Montague, and Heather Cunsolo was returned in Port Melbourne.
The tall ship Cuauhtémoc and her 261 member crew, 53 of them women, visited Melbourne in October.
Seaspan Breeze is the largest ever vessel to call at the Port’s Swanson Dock at 337 metres in length and 48.2 metres in beam.
November
5 November: Donald Trump won the US election.
Docklands residents and passers by keep an eye on the floating wetlands where four cygnets hatched in late November.
Relief all round as the new owners of 1 – 7 Waterfront Place, Casa Property, begin clearing the site for redevelopment.
December
The attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea on Friday 6 December, in our City of Port Phillip, casts a deep shadow over December.
Thank you to Jaime Lapwood, Roger Tall, Ziggy Katana, Ron Cassano, Brian Bell and David Thompson for their observations and permission to use their photos to put together this review. All other photographs are by Janet Bolitho
Anne Garrow
Thank you Janet for another year of faithfully keeping the Port Places chronicles. Always very interesting with surprises when you look back over the year.