Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) admitted that only 4% of ships cannot enter or leave Port Phillip Bay fully loaded. (Supplementary EES statement process and the hearings, and Report on Channel Deepening by the Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration released last September) The Auditor General's report relied on a figure of 50% which he told Greens Parliamentarian that he was given by PoMC. Elsewhere the report recommends that the Port of Melbourne Corporation start to collect figures on this.

The entrance to Port Phillip Bay, is recognized as one of the most difficult and dangerous port entrances world-wide. The often unpredictable cross currents in the entrance, at times exceed rates of 8 knots and flow diagonally across the Great Ship channel in two opposing directions, simultaneously. Frank Hart, former Harbour Master of the port of Western Port and Hastings shows that no account of the entailed risks were included in the business case used by the Victorian Government to justify its unpopular, costly and environmentally destructive channel deepening project.

See also: www.bluewedges.org and http://www.badevelopers.green.net.au.

Greens: "Which agency is pursuing the dredging company and the Port of Melbourne for polluting Port Phillip Bay?"

The Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) appears to be misleading the public about the extent of damage being inflicted by its dredging operations on Port Philip Bay's beautiful underwater environment.

See also: www.bluewedges.org.

“The dredging of toxic sediments from the Yarra River should stop until an investigation is carried out into the discovery of dead fish floating in the water at Newport on Saturday”, Victorian state Greens MP, Sue Pennicuik said.

See also www.bluewedges.org

The Australian Conservation Foundation claims sediment plumes from bay dredging in Victoria may be worse than predicted.

Victorians need proper representation from their government and journalists need absolute freedom to report. Time to turn off the Corporate Machine. Time to stop Brumby's New Army of developers. Time to slow the monster down, Mr Brumby, Mr Paluka, Mr Pallas. Time to listen to your employers and the owners of the Bay, the Victorian people.

Whilst former President of the Australian Conservation Foundation Peter Garrett, now Federal Minister against the Environment looks the other way, primary school children petition the Victorian Government to stop the destruction by dredging of the pristine marine environment at Port Phillip Heads.

See also www.operationquarrantine.com, www.bluewedges.org, "Time to 'count cost' in Bay" (Mornington Peninsula Leader, 7 Apr 08) "Port Phillip Bay dredge protesters fight fines" (Herald Sun, 10 08)

Operation Quarrantine is organising a land and sea protest on Saturday 5 April to prevent the destruction of the pristine marine environment at Port Phillip heads.

See also: Police see red as dredge fight deepens The Age, 6 April
Protesters defy channel deepening zone The Age, 5 April
Dredging will  kill marine life: Greens SMH, 4 April

Murdoch's Herald Sun puts pro-dredging spin on its coverage of the Blue Wedges court challenge against dredging.

Recreational fisherman Trevor Buck says the claim by the Port of Melbourne Corporation echoed by Murdoch's Herald Sun newspaper "that water is now clearer at Rosebud than before the $1 billion project began" is rubbish.

See also More pro-dredging propaganda from the Herald-Sun

The Port of Melbourne Corporation has agreed at a Federal Court hearing on 6 February to delay the dredging of toxic sediment from the mouth of the Yarra River, and, instead, until after the case is heard in the Federal Court on 20 February, limit its operations to the less damaging dredging of clean sand from the south channel.

Blue Wedges has won the right to challenge Mr. Garrett's decision to approve the channel deepening project in a full Hearing of the Federal Court on 20th February.

Blue Wedges, which is campaigning to prevent the destruction of the pristine marine environment beneath Port Phillip Bay scheduled to commence as early as Friday 1 February, rejects an assessment by US Naval Intelligence agency which lists their group alongside Somali pirates, Peruvian raiders and Gulf terrorists.

"Victorians, are in shock that the destructive act of channel deepening in Port Phillip Bay has been approved so easily by the Federal Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett after the considered, prolonged and justified opposition to this project over the past 3+ years by environmentalists" said the President of Sustainable Population Australia's Victorian branch (S.P.A. Vic.) Ms.Jill Quirk.

Channel deepening approval by Victorian Environment Minister Gavin Jennings is scandalous. The paltry $100 million bond equals the value of only one day of exports through the Port. Is that how little our Bay is worth? (Read full media release at www.bluewedges.org or read copy here.)

The first round in the legal battle to save Port Phillip Bay has Peter Garrett - one time charismatic enviromental hope now Environment Minister and strangely silent - in court to represent the Federal Government's position on the undemocratic, uneconomical and environmentally shocking project to continuously dredge Melbourne's Port Phillip bay.

Blue Wedges Coalition is fighting in court tomorrow (Wednesday 5th December) to keep the Boskalis dredge ship, Queen of the Netherlands from beginning work on the channel deepening project early next year. Will the judiciary remember what they are there for and represent the people of Melbourne's rights?

Blue Wedges needs money to mount a legal challenge to save the marine wonders beneath the entrance to Port Phillip Bay from the threat of channel dredging.