Protest opposes bay dredging

MELBOURNE — Around 120 people dressed in red rallied outside parliament house in Melbourne on February 22 in opposition to the state Labor goverment's plans to dredge Port Phillip Bay and deepen the channel. In six weeks, 20,000 signatures were collected on a petition condemning the dredging plans. According to Jo Samuel King, a local GP and spokesperson for Earth Care St Kilda, 3 million cubic metres of Yarra toxic mud containing DDT, lead, mercury and arsenic is buried in the seabed of the bay. Dredging would disturb the mud and make the bay highly dangerous to people and the environment. Protest organiser Jenny Warfe from the Blue Wedges Coalition said the project was motivated by profits and would benefit international companies to the detriment of the community and the highly diverse marine life of the bay.

From Green Left Weekly, March 2, 2005.

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From GLW issue 617