Blue Wedges is a

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

organisation in conflict with

Australia's Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by a ...

Victorian

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

policy to deepen shipping channels in

Port Phillip Port Phillip ( Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, narrow channel known as The Rip, and is com ...

and the large scale development of

Ramsar Ramsar may refer to: * Places so named: ** Ramsar, Mazandaran, city in Iran ** Ramsar, Rajasthan, village in India * Eponyms of the Iranian city: ** Ramsar Convention concerning wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran ** Ramsar site, wetland listed in ...

listed Westernport. The Blue Wedges is a coalition of over 65

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

and bay user groups opposed to development in the Melbourne Bays that they deem to be unsustainable, such as the Port of Melbourne Corporation's Channel Deepening Project. The Blue Wedges Coalition includes

angling Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook or "angle" (from Old English ''angol'') attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techni ...

groups and peak bodies, professional fishing associations, diving and charter operators along with the more traditional coastal protection groups and bayside industry sectors. The Blue Wedges Coalition is supported in its goal to protect the bays by other environmental entities including the Victorian National Parks Association,

Australian Conservation Foundation The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability. One high-profil ...

, Friends of the Earth, The Wilderness Society,

Environment Victoria Environment Victoria, formerly the Conservation Council of Victoria, is an Australian not-for-profit, charitable group and Victoria's peak non-government environment organisation. It works in collaboration with over 150 groups Australia-wide to p ...

, Port Phillip Conservation Council and Western Region Environment Centre under a joint statement issued by these groups opposing the project and calling for action to stop the project from the Victorian Government. In Victoria, the name "Blue Wedges" was created after a previous "Green Wedges" government policy for rural and forest conservation around the edges of the expanding

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

metropolitan region. Green Wedges is an already existing part of the governments environmental policy. In December 2007 it was announced that Blue Wedges took action in the Federal Court against the Commonwealth to stop it signing off on the deepening shipping channels project. The case was heard in January 2008, with the Federal Court deciding against Blue Wedges on 15 January 2008. On 30 January 2008, Blue Wedges won a reprieve in the Federal Court with a hearing date of 20 February 2008. After mediation between Blue Wedges and the Port of Melbourne Corporation (the body responsible for the deepening operations) on 6 February 2008, limited operations were allowed to commence on 8 February 2008. Jenny Warfe, the president of the Blue Wedges was interviewed on local radio about the denials of the subsequent beach erosion removing sand from Portsea front beach after completion of the Port Phillip Bay's channel deepening dredging program.The Age Newspaper, ''7 July 2013''
Beach loss linked to dredging
/ref>

References

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External links

Blue Wedges
- ''Home Page''
Southern Victorian Community Action Group
- ''Home Page''
Government of Victoria
- ''Melbourne's green wedges''
Port Of Melbourne
- ''Channel Deepening Project'' Organisations based in Melbourne Port Phillip Environmental organisations based in Australia Environment of Victoria (Australia)

See also

References

External links