08 November 2011
Mr MORRIS (Mornington) — Tonight I raise a matter for the Minister for Environment and Climate Change.
It relates to the effectiveness of navigation lights on Mornington pier, and the action I am seeking from the minister is that he urgently request Parks Victoria to assess the condition and effectiveness of the lights and get them working effectively as quickly as possible.
Mornington pier has a long history of association with the township going back to the days before it was Mornington, when it was Snapper Point. It was built in order to ferry firewood from the township to the fledgling town of Melbourne back in the 1840s.
The pier has been a bit like grandpa’s axe; it has had a new deck and new piers, and it has existed on that spot for well over 160 years.
In recent times the pier has survived a couple of ferocious storms. It is in an exposed area, and the water is very deep. Consequently the beach shelves up quickly, so that the waves that come through also ramp up quickly and can do a considerable amount of damage in a short time. In the storm in 1985 and again in 2007 the deck was severely damaged.
The former government, to its credit, proceeded to rebuild the pier, and we now have an excellent pier which I had the pleasure of inspecting and driving a few bolts into with Parks Victoria staff a few weeks ago.
The new concrete deck pier is covered with timber, which retains the heritage look and feel. Unfortunately the former government made funds available to do only half the pier, so we now have the remaining 70 metres of the pier standing out in the bay, no longer safe enough for people to travel or walk upon.
At the end of that outer section of the pier there is a navigation light which is either not working particularly well or not working at all.
When sailors and people in motorboats and so on are approaching the harbour at night they are doing so looking at the lights on the new section of the pier and the lights of the town behind it, but there is no effective lighting on the outer section of the old pier.
Unless this is fixed reasonably quickly we are likely to have a navigation incident, so I urge the Minister to ask Parks Victoria to get it sorted out.
Legislative Assembly 8 November 2011
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