Shipping
The Port of Geelong is located on the shores of Corio Bay, and is the sixth largest port in Australia by tonnage.
Before the initial settlement of Geelong, a sandbar across the bay from Point Lillias to Point Henry prevented ships from entering the inner harbour. Ships were required to drop anchor in the bay, and cargo was brought into Geelong on small barges. At times it was possible to walk across the bay on the sandbar at low tide.
The first channel through the sandbar was started in 1853, providing less than 4 metres draught for ships. This channel was straightened out and dredged at a depth of 6 metres in the 1860s. In 1881 a new channel started that took 12 years to complete. It was named the Hopetoun Channel after Lord Hopetoun who opened it on December 20, 1893.
Management of the channels and port was the responsibility of the Geelong Harbour Trust that was formed in December 1905. In 1981, the Port of Geelong Authority took over from the trust. The authority was privatised by the State Government in mid 1996, being sold to TNT Logistics for $49.6 million. It was later re-branded as 'GeelongPort'.
Read more about this topic: Corio Bay
Famous quotes containing the word shipping:
“I need not tell you of the inadequacy of the American shipping marine on the Pacific Coast.... For this reason it seems to me that there is no subject to which Congress can better devote its attention in the coming session than the passage of a bill which shall encourage our merchant marine in such a way as to establish American lines directly between New York and the eastern ports and South American ports, and both our Pacific Coast ports and the Orient and the Philippines.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Talk of a divinity in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared with the shipping interests?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)