THE state government has this week taken over the management of the Port of Hastings through the Victorian Channels Authority.
The port was run under contract until 30 June by Patrick Ports Hastings, also known as Linx Stevedoring.
As from 1 July the harbourmaster Captain Shane Vedamuttu and assistants Capt Chris Noon and Capt Martin Leavold will be responsible for shipping in and out of Western Port with the Port of Hastings Development Authority (PoHDA) managing the ports on-land requirements (jetties, land side infrastructure and port maintenance).
The port authority’s eight staff – down from a peak of 30 full time and 30 part time staff, including consultants – will now be based at Stony Point alongside the harbourmasters.
“The PoHDA will have responsibility for oil spill responses in the port and along the Victorian coast line between Cape Schanck and Wilsons Promontory and all emergency response within the port,” Capt Vedamuttu said.
About 100 ships have visited the port in each of the past three years, either picking up gas, crude oil or steel for export or importing petroleum products. In the 1970s and 1980s there were about 600 ship movements a year.
The port management moves follow a recommendation in May to the government by Infrastructure Victoria that the state’s next container port be built at Bay West, in Port Phillip north of Geelong and not at Hastings.
The Advice on Securing Victoria’s Ports Capacity report also states that it is unlikely there will be a need for a new container port until 2055, with detailed planning needed to begin in 2040.
While a previous state Labor government saw Hastings as its preferred site for a container port, this was changed after the subsequent Liberal state government established the Port of Hastings Development Authority.
Following Labor’s 2014 election victory the authority was stripped of finance and staff.
