Keefer’s Boatshed and Jetty

Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc.
notes recent press reports that the jetty at the formerKeefer’s Boatshed

near Banksia Street,
Beaumaris, is to be demolished and removed from the
site, and that the shore base for the mussel farm will
be relocated to the Mordialloc Creek. There is also
mention in such reports that Bayside Council is
considering constructing a “viewing platform” in place
of the structures to be removed.

We consider that any additional
viewing position should not be created anywhere near
sea level in this locality, and that any such
viewing point associated with the existing
pedestrian ramp should be close to the top of that
ramp. Access to the section of the ramp lower than
it should be made unavailable. That lower majority
length of the ramp should be revegetated with
indigenous cliffside plants. Our reasons are as
follows:

• The fossil beds should be conserved as a
  scientific resource restricted to authorized and
  qualified investigators. Their vulnerability to
  indiscriminate plundering by members of the
  public, which can significantly further deplete
  the resource, as well as interfere with the
  marine life and general appearance of the site,
  should be reduced. Bayside Council should
  request the Australian Heritage Commission to
  include the former Keefer’s area in its
  registration of the Beaumaris
  FossilSite,

  as that area was only excluded from
  the registered site because of the lease, which
  we presume will soon have lapsed.

• The shallow indentation of the sea, near the
  foot of the present pedestrian access ramp to
  the shoreline, is a favoured shelter area for
  significant numbers of large, heavy sea-birds,
  such as Australian Pelicans, and PacificGulls

  , to swim and rest in windy weather.
  These birds need to be protected from people
  coming threateningly close to them. Each such
  approach disturbs them and prompts them to take
  off. That stresses them unnecessarily,
  decreasing the area’s value as shelter. Limiting
  public access to a higher point is needed.

• Public access to the very small strip of
  beach near Keefer’s former site has already been
  removed by Council owing to the continuing
  danger of a repetition of a recent cliff
  collapse causing a fatality. Moving the boundary
  between the accessible and prohibited areas
  further up will enhance the exclusion needed
  here.
• The scenic values of this cliffy coastline
  and its rocky shallows will be maximized by
  reducing development and the physical signs of
  access such as bare ramp surfaces and rails as
  much as possible.

We ask for any comment you may
have, and to inform us of the Council’s proposals
for a viewing site, please.