Cars, planes and now ships: heading towards the Port Some anniversaries are so significant because of their unfolding ramifications they are worth recording even though the date has passed. In March 1969, Melbourne's first container dock was completed, in time for the arrival of the first …
Webb Dock & Port of Melbourne
Two ships – two stories
Two brand new and almost identical ships can now be seen moving across the horizon from the shore. Toll's Tasmanian Achiever 11 and the Victorian Reliance 11 entered the Bass Strait service on 1 March. They are the first new Australian flagged vessels to have been commissioned for a very long …
Station Pier
A recurring complaint in Port Melbourne is that Station Pier is off limits to locals - even though that is only partly true. It is open except on cruise ship days - the number of which increase each season. But like a restaurant that is closed on the day you visit, the impression lingers. This is …
Excluded
There is a snag in the Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017. Snags - sticks, logs, trunks, trees and roots - were once a feature of the Yarra River. Snags made the River difficult to navigate and were part of the rationale for digging the Coode Canal. To facilitate and …
Two stories of the River
Benjamin Hoare’s Jubilee History of the Melbourne Harbor Trust 1877 - 1927 is essential reading here at Port Places. I'm charmed by his expression and the presentation. The tome includes tablecloth sized maps, friezes of ships decorate the pages, and each chapter leads with a Port themed …
Shipping News
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Special Climate Statement 65 confirms the uneasy feeling that April has been unusually warm. The Bureau found that the heat was more characteristic of mid-summer than mid-autumn and "was unprecedented in many areas in April for its intensity, its persistence or both". …