Developing sustainable communities : the case for Port Phillip Heads historic towns, Sorrento and Queenscliff

The Victorian towns of Sorrento and Queenscliff are located either side of Port Phillip Heads. Using these towns as case studies, this paper examines what happens to historic coastal townships caught up in the phenomenon of sea change. Both towns are currently facing huge planning battles and are trying to argue a case for heritage in the rush for expansion and modernisation. Newcomers like to emulate the metropolis in the seaside towns. Planners in the metropolis are asked to make decisions by developers who are thwarted by local municipalities. These towns encapsulate something of the dilemma that comes with a demographic shift from the metropolitan centre to coastal townships and demonstrate that the transition from urban life and built environment does not translate without cost to a fragile coastal environment. It is place itself that has attracted humans to Sorrento and Queenscliff over centuries. The seascape, the landscape, the environment drew the indigenous peoples here centuries ago. It provided abundant food and was inspiring. Europeans came at the very beginning of the 19th century seeking new lands. By the late decades of the 19th century Europeans discovered the seaside and its health giving qualities and built substantial Victorian edifices to house the influx of visitors and holiday-makers who arrived by ferry. However, not until the second half of the twentieth century did development begin to intrude significantly on the landscape. And by the twenty-first century evidence is mounting that development is destroying the sense and character of place, which initially enticed people to come here.

The suburbanisation of the coastal communities of Sorrento and Queenscliff : measuring the effects of overdevelopment.

Architecture is often read as a marker of change. The Victorian towns of Sorrento and Queenscliff are undergoing immense change as a result of rapid modernisation and building due to the ‘sea-change’ phenomenon. It has been argued that this is adversely affecting place, diminishing ‘sense of place’, destroying neighbourhood character and leading to unsustainable development. Planning strategies such as Melbourne 2030 have exacerbated this trend by advocating increasing population densities without regard to specific local environmental or historical conditions. Richard Neville comments generally that ‘Architecture is a lightning rod for passions about community, development, taste and lifestyle. Few issues engage and enrage people more than development – whether a prominent public site … or a more local issue such as housing design or density.’ Anecdotally the increase in building footprint is one measure of cultural lifestyle change that has occurred in the last half century in the coastal areas of the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas. While the change from the 1950s ‘fibro shack’ to the 2000s supersize ‘McMansion’ in Sorrento and Queenscliff demonstrates increasing prosperity and sophistication, these developments show little awareness of the local coastal landscape or place identity. If the impacts of this ‘sea change’ phenomenon on place are to be considered as more than anecdotal, ways of evaluating these impacts are required. Monitoring and documenting the impact of changes to place will enable the researchers to quantify overdevelopment as site specific and recommend that modern planning schemes need to value and address place differently.

From fibro shacks to McMansions: considering the impact of housing change on the sense of place in the historic Victorian coastal towns of Sorrento and Queenscliff

Eighty per cent of Australians now live within 50 kilometres of the coast.1 While most of the population remains concentrated in the large capital cities, some people have chosen small coastal towns as their permanent and or second-home destination. Greater mobility and income has increased the feasibility and attractiveness of living in these once overlooked and forgotten towns. The arrival of these new residents has changed the towns in both positive and negative ways. Declining traditional industries have been replaced by tourism and service sectors, providing a much-needed economic revival. The expectations of new residents, both permanent and non-permanent, however, have also brought challenges to the towns. Metropolitan value systems sometimes impact negatively on the unique sense of place and neighbourhood character of these towns. This paper presents both quantitative and qualitative evidence of the impact on character and sense of place in two historic coastal towns, Queenscliff and Sorrento, in southern Victoria. Census data shows how employment and the number of permanent residents have changed radically over the last 50-60 years, altering the social fabric of the towns. An analysis of the building footprint over a similar timeframe shows a growth in building size as larger houses become more common, and a growth in planning appeals for the towns is indicative of a clash of expectations between the council, long-time and new residents. While these indicators demonstrate the impact on the character of the towns as defined by their built environment, some oral accounts of local residents are used to show the emotional impact of these changes on the traditional sense of place associated with these towns. Some specific examples of changes to the built environment are provided to demonstrate that local planning schemes are not always successful in protecting neighbourhood character and that further measures are required in order to safeguard the uniqueness of coastal towns from the negative aspects of development.

A tale of two Victorian historic coastal towns : dilemmas of planning and conservation in Queenscliff and Sorrento

Change has engulfed the coastal fringe of Australia. In balancing the built and natural environment, community needs, cultural significance and economic sustainability, planners aim to improve quality of life and create vibrant communities. Yet managing place change, particularly in coastal areas, is fraught with tensions. Most planning discussions about the rapidity of change, the impact of the Sea Change process and increased development have focused upon the extensiveness of residential expansion and the housing styles that challenge the essence of the character of these coastal towns. Character and sense of place qualities are the very reasons that sea changers desire to engage with and reside within these communities. One aspect missing from this discussion and analysis is the impact that large-scale transformations of iconic buildings are having upon these places. This paper examines the consequences that major commercial development projects have upon the communities of Sorrento and Queenscliff. It considers changes (proposed or realised) to four landmark historic hotels: The Koonya and Continental in Sorrento; and the Ozone and Vue Grand in Queenscliff. This paper focuses on issues of planning, social engagement and community debate.

Quantifying changes in building footprint in the historic coastal town of Queenscliff

The sea change phenomenon has attracted new residents to Australian coastal towns and brought with it expectations of residential housing formed in metropolitan settings. Consequently, the traditional ‘identifying’ neighbourhood character of these towns is changing. Much larger houses are now being built and site coverage has increased. To date, changes in character have been measured using data based on the subjective judgement of residents through surveys and interviews. More objective information would be beneficial in understanding change. This paper describes a methodology that has been developed to quantify the change in the building footprint in the historic coastal town of Queenscliff in Victoria. Using selected aerial photographs, the building footprint of the town's residential buildings has been estimated at four intervals from 1957 until 2006. This footprint has been compared to the block size at each interval so that changes in house-to-block ratio may be compared. Over 20% of the residential homes were assessed. Building footprint has risen from 30% to over 38% in the documented 50 years. The method developed here is a low-cost method of tracking footprint change over an extended period and informing local planners and residents of when and where the changes have occurred.

Appendix 8: Quantifying the effects of environmental factors on catch rates in South-East fisheries: 1986-2006

The collection of basic environmental data by industry members was successful and offers a way of overcoming the problems associated with differences in scale between the environment and fisheries datasets. A simple method of collecting environmental data was developed that was only a small time burden on skippers, yet has the potential to provide very useful information on the same scale as the catch and effort data recorded in the logbooks. The success of this trial was aided by the natural interest of fishers to learn more about the environment in which they fish. The archival temperature-depth tags chosen proved robust, reliable and easy to use. While the use of large scale environmental data may not yield significant improvements in stock assessments for most SESSF species, fine-scale data collected from selected vessels using methods developed during this project may, in the longer term, be useful for incorporation into CPUE standardisations in the future...

Ecology of fish inhabiting the inter-tidal zone of Swan Bay, Victoria, Australia

Swan Bay is a shallow marine embayment of Port Phillip Bay, just north of Queenscliff, Victoria. It has been part of the Harold Holt Marine Reserves since 1977 and is a seagrass habitat. This study investigated the species of fish present in the inter-tidal zone of Swan Bay, collected information on their ecology, investigated the importance of Swan Bay compared to Port Phillip Bay as a nursery and/or breeding area and compared these results with those of similar seagrsss habitats. Field work was carried out monthly over a two year period, from April 1981 to April 1983, using beach seine nets at Swan Bay and Portarlington. Forty four species of fish were identified from Swan Bay and nineteen from Portarlington. Fish were most abundant during the summer and autumn months when seagrass growth was at a maximum and least abundant during winter due to the absence of seasonal residents and decreased numbers of permanent residents. Swan Bay was found to be an important nursery ground for two commercially-caught species: the Yellow-eye Mullet and the King George Whiting. Juvenile Yellow-eye Mullet were more numerous in Swan Bay than at Portarlington. Smell juvenile King George Whiting were more abundant at Portarlington than in Swan Bay where older juveniles were more numerous. The fish fauna of Swan Bay was found to be similar to western Port but the abundance of species varied. Atherinosome microstoma was the dominant species in terms of abundance and biomass. Diet was found to be different from that reported by Robertson (1979) at Western Port due to the different range of prey items.

Molecular identification of marine yeast and its spectroscopic analysis establishes unsaturated fatty acid accumulation

Marine microbes are competent organisms, some of which can accumulate large amounts of lipids. A yeast strain, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa AMCQ8A was isolated from the marine water of the Queenscliff region, Victoria, Australia. The yeast isolate was identified by sequencing 18s rDNA genes. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed scars on the surface of the yeast cells. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy microspectroscopy studies demonstrated the presence of unsaturated fatty acids by differential microscopic analysis. The sharp band at 1745 cm^-1 was represented by ν(C=O) stretches of ester functional groups from lipids and fats, and therefore indicated the presence of total lipids produced by the cells. Over 65% of the fatty acids from the yeast strain were analyzed as C¹⁶ and C^18:1 with omega-3 content from about 6% to 7%. Thus, this marine-derived yeast could be a potential source of lipids, including omega-3 fatty acids. 2012, The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. All rights reserved.

Mother of Pearl (in memorium Liz Evans, 1971-2014)

This artwork is a paitning which was accepted for exhibition in the Art for Wellbeing 2016 Queenscliff Vic., which was curated by the CENTRE FOR THEOLOGY & MINISTRY, Parkville. The Exhibition ran from 29 April to 27 May 2016.