New structure set to tower over harbour

Andrew Mathieson
A 27metre high navigational tower is set to stand over Queenscliff’s redeveloped harbour.
Port of Melbourne Corporation wants to build the tower as part of a series of upgrades to navigation aids around Port Phillip Bay.
Queenscliff Harbour developers’ spokesperson Jenni Coutts said Port of Melbourne had told her employer’s board the tower was essential.
“What we’ve done is incorporate it into the development so it doesn’t just sit there in the middle like an eyesore,” she said.
Queenscliff Harbour said many residents who saw the plan during a public meeting were enthusiastic about the “striking tower element”.
Borough of Queenscliffe is set to vote on planning approval for the plan in the next few months.
The harbour project has been in place since 2004 but the final stage did not go to council until April.
Ms Coutts said the first two stages had approval, with new roads and parts of the infrastructure work completed.
Final plans for stage three, including a ground floor café and a finedining restaurant, were altered to incorporate the navigational tower.
Mrs Coutts believed the delay was “a matter of expediency”.
“We had the designs worked on and they were finished without the tower and then we found out about it later, so rather than hold the whole stage three up we kept the restaurant back and redesigned it to incorporate the tower,” Ms Coutts said.
The tower would include an observation lookout for visitors.
“The tower will be another tourist attraction within a tourist attraction,” Mrs Coutts said.
The redevelopment project is a public/private partnership between State Government and Queenscliff Harbour, under management of Parks Victoria.
Ms Coutts said the harbour would also release premium drystack berths as part of its latest plans.
“There have been no drystack options anywhere on the peninsula before this,” Mrs Coutts said.