Port Phillip Bay : Travel Victoria

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A beautiful boundless Bay

I can't imagine not living close to the vast expanse of Port Phillip Bay. It's Australia's largest tidal lagoon and covers around two thousand square kilometres with a maximum depth of over 30 metres.

It's surprisingly shallow, almost an inland sea, and it has only a narrow 3 and 1/2 kilometre-wide entrance.

Every year millions of people enjoy its vast coastline, world-class swimming beaches and coastal parks. Long before the network of roads grew around the perimeter, people crossed the Bay by steam and sail. Now they sail, and dive, for recreation.

The Grey Bay

Photos of the Bay almost always show it to be blue, but that's a trick of the light on a summer's afternoon, for the Bay is really a deep grey.

There are 254 shades of grey and the slow moving waters shift from a pale ash colour into a saturated cyan swirl then a warm yellowish tinge with flashes of silver. Each one moves, swirls and rolls over to the next. Just beautiful!

I challenge you not to be calmed by sitting and watching the play of light over the slow moving waters.

Just a submerged flood plain.

Very young by geological standards

Port Phillip is a young bay by geological standards. It was formed only about 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age, when the sea-level rose to drown what was then the Valley of the Yarra.

So essentially, the whole Bay is a flood plain, now submerged, with the river channel running through to the ocean in Bass Strait.

Melbourne, on the Bay

In Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria and my home town, Port Phillip is familiarly known as 'the Bay'. Its piers, jetties, islands and marine reserves are used all year round, the city is built along its gentle curves for best advantage.

The bay is huge, roughly the shape of a distorted diamond, seven kilometres from the Rip to the city of Melbourne, and eighty kilometres across from east to west.

I love the bay. It's certainly no Sydney Harbour, but there's a serene beauty in its grey vastness.

Early days on the Bay

My childhood memories are full of going out on the bay with my father.

He taught me to row the dinghy, and my job was to secure it when we reached the boat offshore. I learned to fish here, with a line made from a coca cola bottle and October was the busiest month - when the schnapper ran in immense shoals though the bay.

In Springtime the schnapper still run in the bay. As do flathead, whiting, bream, gummy sharks, squid and garfish -- but the mussels I used to scrape from the jetties have all gone.

St Kilda on the Bay

St Kilda is on the southern side of Melbourne, a short tram ride from the CBD.

The suburb takes its name from a ship called The Lady of St Kilda, which visited Melbourne in July 1841, five years after the founding of Melbourne. The ship itself was named for the island of St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides.

The Aboriginal people of the Kulin lived here until the Europeans, with their fashionable great stone mansions and palatial hotels, drove them out. You can still see the shellfish middens along the foreshore and turn up axes which were most likely sharpened on the sandstone cliffs behind the main beach.

Corroborees were held at an historic tree which still stands at St Kilda Junction

Who is the Port Phillip Baykeeper?

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St Kilda Penguins

Neil Blake, Baykeeper and Penguin Researcher, tends one of his charges

St Kilda is home to a colony of Little Penguins, about 1200 of the birds taking up residence on the Breakwater. A remarkable feat, given the close proximity (5 kilometres) to the urban centre of Melbourne.

Little penguins spend most of their time in the waters of the bay feeding on pilchards, anchovies and other small fish. At night they return quickly to the safety and protection of their burrows within the breakwater.

:Baykeeper Neil Blake, with a group of volunteers, has been researching this colony since 1986.

Everyone gets around on the Bay

Shipwrecks in the Bay

When Lt. John Murray first sailed through the notorious Rip into Port Phillip on 14 February 1802, he noted the turbulent seas and treacherous rocks and declared it to be a a formidable obstacle.

The bay itself is relatively safe, with few navigational obstacles -- it's the entrance that causes trouble.

The Rip is flanked by reefs to the west and to the east, with less than one kilometre of water between them. There's also a deep trough, one hundred metres deep, across the entrance, which creates turmoil as the tide surges into the bay, and more turmoil as the tide retreats. The end result is a short stretch of sea that is one of the most dangerous in the world.

There are almost 200 sunken ships in the waters of Port Phillip Bay.
The Steamer Kakariki sinks in Port Phillip Bay

The Steamer, Kakariki, going down in 1937

In 1904 the 6901 ton steamship Australia struck Corsair Rock and was totally wrecked off Point Nepean on the east of the Rip.

And the 3316 steamship Time was wrecked on the same rock in 1949.

The 415 ton three-masted barque Eliza Ramsden struck Corsair Rock in 1875 but managed to enter the bay before sinking.

To the west, on the other side of the entrance, a dozen ships of significant size were wrecked on the Lonsdale reef including the 2033 ton barque George Roper, magnificent 2237 ton barque Holyhead, and the 1071 ton barque Gange.

But there are many ships lost without trace around the Rip. The sea still has many secrets.

Port Phillip Sea Pilots


HMAS Canberra arrives in Port Phillip Bay assisted by Tugs

Because of the narrow entrance of the Rip, all vessels need to be navigated with extreme caution. Large ships require expert local guidance to enter and exit.

This is where the Port Phillip Sea Pilots are indispensable.

The pilots are experienced and qualified seamen possessing extensive local knowledge of the channels, the different depths of water, the shifting currents and all the dangers within and around the port. All of our pilots are expert sailors and experienced ship handlers.

The Ship Graveyard


From1913 to 1999 a total of 46 obsolete vessels were systematically and purposely scuttled in the Victorian Ships' Graveyard.

These vessels range in size from 50 tons to 3347 tons and include sailing ships, steam ships, barges, submarines, dredges, tugboats, a Paddle Steamer, and an Australian Navy Patrol Boat.

The Graveyard covers a 20-kilometre stretch of the Victorian coastline.

Guide to Melbourne

Lonely Planet Melbourne (City Guide)

Amazon Price: $19.23 (as of 02/13/2012)Buy Now

With sections covering `City Life', `Arts',' Food', `History', `Neighbourhoods', and, most importantly for the traveler, things to do such as `Eating', `Drinking', `Sleeping', `Walking Tours', `Entertainment', `Sports, Health, & Fitness', `Shopping', and `Excursions'.

Come and see for yourself

I hope you will come and visit Melbourne and see this lovely bay.

Visitors are beguiled by Sydney with its deep water harbour and iconic landmarks but I prefer the quietness of Port Phillip, the boundless horizon it offers me, the deep rolling waves and the daily sight of great ships being guided safely to port by colourful bustling little tugs.

It's a vista for reflection. And for counting your blessings.

Come along and explore Australia

Waltz your Matilda through Victoria with me

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About Susanna Duffy

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Sit and Dream by the Bay. Photo : Karen Duffy 

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susannaduffy

G'day! I live in Melbourne, on this beautiful boundless Port Phillip Bay.

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