Point Wilson Victoria | |||||||||||||||
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Coordinates | 38°01′16″S144°31′44″E / 38.02111°S 144.52889°E Coordinates: 38°01′16″S144°31′44″E / 38.02111°S 144.52889°E | ||||||||||||||
Population | 0 (SAL 2016) [1] [2] | ||||||||||||||
Postcode(s) | 3212 | ||||||||||||||
Elevation | 18 m (59 ft) | ||||||||||||||
Location | |||||||||||||||
LGA(s) | City of Greater Geelong | ||||||||||||||
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Point Wilson is a locality located on the northern shores of Corio Bay, Victoria. it is approximately 60 kilometres by road from Melbourne, and 25 kilometres by road from Geelong.
The locality is bounded by Pousties Road to the west, the Princes Freeway to the north west, Little River to the north east, and Corio Bay to the south. Point Wilson is sparsely populated, and public access to the area is restricted due to the explosives facility located in the area. Other nearby land uses include the Murtcaim Wildlife Area and Melbourne Water's Western Treatment Plant.
The Point Wilson area is environmentally sensitive. It forms part of the Port Phillip Bay (Western Shoreline) and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar Site as a wetland of international importance. [3] It contains important habitat for the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot that uses the coastal salt marsh as a wintering site. [4] The site is part of the Werribee and Avalon Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for wetland and waterbirds as well as orange-bellied parrots. [5]
The area surrounding the jetty consists of salt marshes, a low basalt bluff, and shelly ridges. The environment is considered in good condition due to the lack of human disturbance. [6]
Point Wilson has been used as an explosives magazine since 1962, when the facility was relocated from the Altona explosives storage near Laverton. [7] Owned by the Commonwealth of Australia, the Point Wilson Explosives Area is 326 hectares in size.
A 2,700 metre long steel and concrete jetty and wharf structure was constructed in the late 1950s for the importation of explosives. Four explosives storage and handling buildings were constructed in 1981. Commercial ships are used to transport ordnance and explosives from Europe and the United States to Australia, where they are offloaded at facilities including Point Wilson.
1994 saw the East Coast Armaments Complex proposal made by the Commonwealth of Australia, which involved the upgrade of the facility to handle the loading of explosives to naval ships. The proposal was deferred, [8] although the facility continues to handle the import of explosives for the defence forces.
ICI proposed a chloralkali-based petrochemical complex for Point Wilson in the 1970s. [9] This proposal did not succeed.
The Victorian State Government in 1994 proposed that the Coode Island bulk liquid chemical storage facility be relocated to the adjacent Point Lillias. [10] The proposal was dropped in June 1997. [11]
Point Wilson is the location of a Bureau of Meteorology weather station that opened in 1990. [12]
Some of the shooting locations featured in the film Mad Max are on Point Wilson Road. [13]
The City of Wyndham is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the outer south-western suburbs of Melbourne, within the Melbourne Metropolitan Area, between Melbourne and the regional city of Geelong. It has an area of 542 square kilometres (209 sq mi). The city had a population of 255,322 in June 2018. For the year to 2018 the City of Wyndham increased its population by 14,251, the largest number of any LGA in Victoria, as well as being the second most populous and the second fastest growing at a rate of 5.9 per cent.
Point Cook is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 22 km (14 mi) south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Point Cook recorded a population of 66,781 at the 2021 census.
Altona is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 13 km (8.1 mi) south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hobsons Bay local government area. Altona recorded a population of 11,490 at the 2021 census.
Laverton established in 1886, is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 17 km (11 mi) south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Hobsons Bay and Wyndham local government areas. Laverton recorded a population of 4,760 at the 2021 census.
Princes Freeway is a 159-kilometre (99 mi) Australian freeway, divided into two sections, both located in Victoria, Australia. The freeway links Melbourne to Geelong in the west, and to Morwell in the east. It continues beyond these extremities as the Princes Highway towards Adelaide to the west and Sydney to the northeast. The freeway bears the designation M1.
Laverton, originally known as British Flag, is a town in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, and the centre of administration for the Shire of Laverton. The town of Laverton is located at the western edge of the Great Victoria Desert, 957 kilometres (595 mi) north-northeast of the state capital, Perth, and 124 kilometres (77 mi) east-northeast of the town of Leonora, with an elevation of 461 metres (1,512 ft).
Altona North is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 10 km (6.2 mi) south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hobsons Bay local government area. Altona North recorded a population of 12,962 at the 2021 census.
Altona Meadows is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 17 km (11 mi) south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hobsons Bay local government area. Altona Meadows recorded a population of 18,479 at the 2021 census.
The Port of Melbourne is the largest port for containerised and general cargo in Australia. It is located in Melbourne, Victoria, and covers an area at the mouth of the Yarra River, downstream of Bolte Bridge, which is at the head of Port Phillip, as well as several piers on the bay itself. Since 1 July 2003, the Port of Melbourne has been managed by the Port of Melbourne Corporation, a statutory corporation created by the State of Victoria.
West Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km (1.2 mi) north-west of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. West Melbourne recorded a population of 8,025 at the 2021 census.
The Geelong line is a regional passenger rail service operated by V/Line in Victoria, Australia. It serves passengers between state capital Melbourne and the regional city of Geelong.
Coode Island is a former island at the convergence of the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers, 4 km west of central Melbourne, Australia. The island was formed by the excavation of the Coode Canal in 1887, and became connected to the mainland in the 1930s. Today the low-lying land is part of the Port of Melbourne, and is used as the site of Swanson and Appleton Docks and their associated container storage and rail yards, as well as a number of chemical storage facilities.
Seaholme is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 km (7.5 mi) south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Hobsons Bay local government area. Seaholme recorded a population of 2,067 at the 2021 census.
Colleen Mildred Hartland is a former Australian politician, and a Greens member of the Victorian Legislative Council from 2006 to 2018.
The Port of Geelong is located on the shores of Corio Bay at Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The port is the sixth-largest in Australia by tonnage.
The City of Altona was a local government area about 13 kilometres (8 mi) west of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The city covered an area of 40.18 square kilometres (15.51 sq mi), and existed from 1957 until 1994.
Port Phillip, sometimes referred to as Port Phillip Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia, 1,930 km² in area, with a coastline length of 264 km (164 mi). The bay is extremely shallow for its size, but mostly navigable. The deepest portion is only 24 m, and half the region is shallower than 8 m. Its volume is around 25 km³. The city of Melbourne is located at its northern end, near the mouth of the Yarra River.
The Truganina Explosives Reserve was a secure storage facility near Altona in the Australian state of Victoria. It was in operation from 1901 to 1962 to store mainly civilian explosives for mining and construction. The camp included several storage sheds and a jetty, which were connected by a narrow-gauge horse-drawn tramway. Like the Dry Creek explosives depot at Port Adelaide, the site is a testimony to history and transportation in Australia.
The Port Phillip Bay and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar Site is one of the Australian sites listed under the Ramsar Convention as a wetland of international importance. It was designated on 15 December 1982, and is listed as Ramsar Site No.266. Much of the site is also part of either the Swan Bay and Port Phillip Bay Islands Important Bird Area or the Werribee and Avalon Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of their importance for wetland and waterbirds as well as for orange-bellied parrots. It comprises some six disjunct, largely coastal, areas of land, totalling 229 km2, along the western shore of Port Phillip and on the Bellarine Peninsula, in the state of Victoria. Wetland types protected include shallow marine waters, estuaries, freshwater lakes, seasonal swamps, intertidal mudflats and seagrass beds.
Point Lillias is a narrow peninsula jutting southwards from the northern coast of Corio Bay, north of the city of Geelong, in Victoria, Australia. It was formed by a southward-trending tongue of lava from the volcanic flows of the Werribee Plains. The seaward end of the peninsula forms a low cliff fringed by shelly beach ridges. Forming the end of the same lava tongue, 500 metres to the south, is a small basalt island known as Bird Rock, connected by a submerged shoal to the peninsula. Point Lillias adjoins the evaporation ponds of the Cheetham saltworks at Avalon. It is listed as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention as part of the Port Phillip Bay and Bellarine Peninsula Ramsar Site.