7.1 OVERVIEW OF VICTORIAN PORTS

Victoria has four commercial ports. These are the ports of Melbourne, Geelong, Hastings and Portland (Figure 4).

Victorian Channels Authority (VCA) manages the port waters of Melbourne and Geelong. Melbourne Ports Corporation is a corporatised government agency which manages the land at Melbourne, while TNT Geelong owns and manages the privatised Geelong port. TNT Western Port manages the Port of Hastings land for the Government and the port waters for the VCA. Port of Portland Pty Ltd owns the Port of Portland and manages Portland port waters on behalf of the VCA.

FIGURE 4
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Source: After Walters, S. (1996), Ballast Water, Hull Fouling and Exotic Marine Organism Introductions via Ships - A Victorian Study, Publication 494, Environment Protection Authority (Victoria),

Geelong, Hastings and Portland are predominantly "bulk" ports whilst Melbourne trade is focused on import and export of cargo in containers³⁵⁶ Table 8 provides a summary of major trades for each port.

The Port of Melbourne is Victoria's largest port, and Portland the smallest.
A summary of the number of ship visits and gross import/export tonnage for each Victorian port for 1995/96 is provided in Table 9.