Portland is a city in
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seyche ...
, Australia, and is the oldest European settlement in the state. It is also the main urban centre in the
Shire of Glenelg
The Shire of Glenelg is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 19,665. It includes the towns of ...
and is located on
Portland Bay
Portland Bay ( Dhauwurdwurrung: ''Kardermudelar / Pathowwererer'') is a small bay off the coast of Victoria, Australia. It is about west of Melbourne. The city of Portland is located on the bay. The western end of the bay is marked by the head ...
. As of the
2021 census the population was 10,016,
increasing from a population of 9,712 taken at the
2016 census.
History
Early history
The
Gunditjmara
The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. T ...
, an
Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Island ...
people, are the
traditional owners of much of south-west Victoria, including what is now Portland, having lived there for thousands of years. They are today renowned for their early
aquaculture
Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...
development at nearby
Lake Condah
Lake Condah, also known by its Gunditjmara name Tae Rak, is in the Australian state of Victoria, about west of Melbourne and north-east of Heywood by road. It is in the form of a shallow basin, about in length and wide.
The lake is loca ...
. Physical remains such as the weirs and
fish traps
A fish trap is a trap used for fishing. Fish traps include fishing weirs, lobster traps, and some fishing nets such as fyke nets.
Traps are culturally almost universal and seem to have been independently invented many times. There are two mai ...
are to be found in the
Budj Bim heritage areas
Budj Bim heritage areas includes several protected areas in Victoria, Australia, the largest two being Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape and the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape. Within the latter, there are three Indigenous Protected Areas: the ...
. The Gunditjmara were a settled people, living in small circular weather-proof stone huts about high, grouped as villages, often around
eel
Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...
traps and aquaculture ponds. On just one hectare of Allambie Farm, archaeologists have discovered the remains of 160 house sites.
19th century European settlement
Portland was named in 1800 by the British navigator
James Grant, who sailed in the ''Lady Nelson'' along the Victorian coast. "I also distinguished the Bay by the name of
Portland Bay
Portland Bay ( Dhauwurdwurrung: ''Kardermudelar / Pathowwererer'') is a small bay off the coast of Victoria, Australia. It is about west of Melbourne. The city of Portland is located on the bay. The western end of the bay is marked by the head ...
, in honour of His Grace the
Duke of Portland", wrote Grant. The bay, the only
deep sea port between
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
and
Melbourne, offers a sheltered anchorage against the often wild weather of
Bass Strait
Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterw ...
.
By the early 19th century, whalers and sealers were working the treacherous waters of Bass Strait, and Portland Bay provided good shelter and fresh water, which enabled them to establish the first white settlement in the area. Whaling captain
William Dutton is known to have been resident in the Portland Bay area when the Henty clan arrived, and is said to have provided seed potatoes for the Henty garden.
The
Convincing Ground massacre, in which 20 native owners of the land were massacred by whalers, occurred in Portland Bay in 1833 or 1834, following a dispute about a
beached whale between whalers and the ''Kilcarer gundidj'' clan of the
Gunditjmara
The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. T ...
people.
[''Scars on the Landscape: A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859'' by Ian D. Clark, Aboriginal Studies Press, Acton (ACT) 1995, pp. 17–22 . An excerpt was also published o]
Museum Victoria website
when accessed on 26 November 2008.
In 1834, the year before Melbourne was founded,
Edward Henty
Edward Henty (28 March 1810 – 14 August 1878), was a pioneer British colonist and is regarded as the first permanent settler in the Port Phillip district (later known as the colony of Victoria), Australia.
Early life and family background
E ...
and his family, who had migrated from England to
Western Australia in 1829, and then moved to
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...
, ferried some of their stock across the Strait in search of the fine grazing land of the
Western District. After a voyage of 34 days, the ''Thistle'' arrived at Portland Bay on 19 November 1834. Henty was only 24 years old, and, early in December, cultivated the land using a
plough he had made himself. He was the first white man to turn a sod in Victoria. The next voyage of the ''Thistle'' brought his brother Francis, with additional stock and supplies, and in a short time houses were erected and fences put up.
In his diary entry for 3 December 1834, Henty wrote:
''Arrived at 6 p.m., made the boat fast in the middle of the river, and started three days' walk in the bush accompanied by H Camfield, Wm Dutton, five men, one black woman and 14 dogs, each man with a gun and sufficient quantity of damper to last for the voyage.''
In the 5 December entry Henty wrote:
''On descending the hill we saw a native. He immediately ran on seeing us. He was busily employed pulling the gums from the wattle trees.''
Henty sowed the first Victorian
wheat crop on clifftop land, known today as "The Ploughed Field".
The Hentys were "discovered" in Portland by the explorer
Thomas Mitchell in 1836. The
squatter settlement was illegal since, at that time, the
British Colonial Office policy was to contain colonial settlements in Australia within geographic limits. It had been still considering how to deal with the rights to the land of
Aboriginal Victorians. The Hentys also farmed in areas known as ''"
Australia Felix
Australia Felix (Latin for "fortunate Australia" or "happy Australia") was an early name given by Thomas Mitchell to lush pasture in parts of western Victoria he explored in 1836 on his third expedition.
On this expedition Mitchell was instruct ...
"'', around
Casterton.
By 1838, land auctions had been authorised from
Sydney, and
Charles Tyers
Captain Charles James Tyers RN FRSV (13 September 1806 – 20 September 1870) was a 19th-century Anglo-Australian surveyor and explorer, and the Commissioner of Crown Lands for Portland (1842–43) and Gippsland (1844–67).
There are many Au ...
surveyed the Portland township in 1839. "It was government policy to encourage squatters to take possession of whatever land they chose". A Post Office was opened on 4 December 1841, the third to open in the Port Phillip District after Melbourne and
Geelong.
During the 1840s the
Eumeralla Wars
The Eumeralla Wars were the violent encounters over the possession of land between British colonists and Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in what is now called the Western District area of south west Victoria.
The wars are named after the region a ...
between Europeans and
Gunditjmara
The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. T ...
took place in the area between Portland and
Port Fairy
Port Fairy (historically known as Belfast) is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the ...
.
At
Wesleyan Mission meeting in 1841, Rev. Benjamin Hurst (missionary to Aboriginal people at Port Phillip) noted that in the Portland bay area "it was usual for some to go out in parties on the
Sabbath with guns, for the ostensible purpose of kangarooing, but, in reality to hunt and kill these miserable beings".
Around 1842 a
Presbyterian church and school were founded by the Rev. Alexander Laurie (c. 1817–1854), who later ran the ''Portland Herald''. His widow Janet Laurie (Black) and two sons founded ''
The Border Watch'' in nearby
Mount Gambier
Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia, with an estimated urban population of 33,233 . The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier, a volcano in the south east of the state, about south-east of the capital A ...
.
From the time of European settlement, the region around Melbourne was known as the
Port Phillip District
The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria.
In September 1836, NSW Colonial Sec ...
, and this gained some administrative status prior to separation from
New South Wales and the declaration as the
Colony of Victoria
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...
in 1851.
1985: Proclamation as a city
Portland was proclaimed a city on Monday 28 October 1985, in the presence of the
Prince and
Princess of Wales.
Governance and demographics
Portland is in the
Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne.
The presid ...
electoral district of
South West Coast, the
Western Victoria Region
Western Victoria Region is one of the eight electoral regions of Victoria, Australia, which elects five members to the Victorian Legislative Council (also referred to as the upper house) by proportional representation. The region was created i ...
of the
Victorian Legislative Council and the
federal Division of Wannon. It is in the
local government area of the
Shire of Glenelg
The Shire of Glenelg is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the south-western part of the state. It covers an area of and in June 2018 had a population of 19,665. It includes the towns of ...
. Its postcode is 3305.
On 30 March 2007, the Gunditjmara people were recognised by the
Federal Court of Australia
The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...
to be the
native title-holders of almost of
Crown land
Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. ...
and waters in the Portland region. On 27 July 2011, together with the
Eastern Maar
The Eastern Maar people are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples whose traditional lands are in the south-western part of state of Victoria, Australia. It is a name adopted by a number of Aboriginal Victorian groups who identify as Maar, incl ...
people, the Gunditjmara People were recognised to be the native title-holders of almost of Crown land in the
Yambuk
Yambuk is a town in Victoria, Australia.
The name Yambuk is an Aboriginal word thought to mean "red kangaroo", "full moon" or "big water".
Shell middens in the limestone cliffs to the east of the town indicate that Aboriginal people had liv ...
region, including
Lady Julia Percy Island
Lady Julia Percy Island, known as ''Deen Maar'' or ''Dhinmar'' in the Gunditjmara language, lies off the coast, in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia in Bass Strait. The island is an unincorporated area under the direct adminis ...
, known to them as ''Deen Maar''. The Gunditjmara People are represented by the
Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation
The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Thei ...
.
, after a question raised at a council meeting by resident Shea Rotumah, who is of the ''kilcarer gundidj'' clan of the Gunditjmara people, the council is undertaking an audit of their colonial monuments, to assess the "nature and magnitude of monuments and place names across the shire". The mayor, Anita Rank, sees it as "an amazing opportunity for our community to be better educated".
At the Portland had a population of 10,016 people.
Economy
Port
Through the 19th century Portland developed to become an important fishing port providing for the town and later, with the connection of the railway, to the region as far afield as Ballarat and eventually Melbourne.
Barracouta,
Australian salmon
''Arripis trutta'', known as kahawai in New Zealand and as the Australian salmon in Australia, is a South Pacific marine fish and one of the four extant species within the genus '' Arripis'', native to the cooler waters around the southeastern ...
and crayfish (now
southern rock lobster) were the main catches with many fishermen working the bay, around the
Lawrence Rocks and in the season,
Bridgewater Bay.
Portland's harbour enabled the development of the wool growing industry of the Western District, however it has since lost its primacy to facilities at
Geelong. Even in western Victoria, Portland fell behind
Warrnambool as the main commercial centre. In the 20th century Portland's role as a port revived, and its economy was also boosted by the tourism industry and an
aluminium
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...
smelter.
The port of Portland was sold in 1996 by the State Government to a group including the listed New Zealand company
Infratil & the Scott Corporation (owned by
Allan Scott), the first privatisation of port facilities in Australia. Since then, it has been traded a number of times and is now owned by two institutional investors – the publicly listed Australian Infrastructure Fund and Utilities Trust of Australia, a private infrastructure fund – both of which are managed by Hastings Funds Management.
As new
supertanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cru ...
s have emerged, Portland, along with
Hastings in
Western Port Bay was proposed as an alternative to the controversial plans for deepening of Melbourne's shallower
Port Phillip. The plans are aimed at maintaining Victoria's shipping status (since Melbourne has become Australia's busiest port, the Victorian economy relies heavily on the import and export of goods). Due to environmental reasons, the plan to deepen Port Phillip has been heavily criticised, whereas Portland offers some of the necessary infrastructure with minimum environmental impact.
The Port of Portland has received major assistance through public funding of an A$18 million overpass which gives better access to the port for heavy traffic The Glenelg Shire Council has recently adopted a plan for the redesign and development of the foreshore precinct including a new multi purpose marina in the north-west corner of the harbour.
Portland Aluminium
Alcoa
Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for Aluminum Company of America) is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary ...
is Victoria's largest exporter. The
Portland aluminium smelter
The Portland aluminium smelter is located at Portland, Victoria, Australia. The smelter has a production capacity of 345,000 tonnes of aluminium per year The smelter is a joint venture owned by
Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals (55%), CITIC (22.5 ...
is located in Portland in South West Victoria. The smelter was commissioned in 1987 and is managed by
Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals
Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals is a joint venture between Alumina Limited (40% share) and Alcoa (60% share) and is abbreviated to AWAC. AWAC's business is the mining of bauxite, the extraction of alumina ( aluminium oxide) and the smelting of a ...
for Portland Aluminium (a joint venture project between Alcoa (55%), CITIC (22.5%) and Marubeni (22.5%)).
Portland is Australia's third largest aluminium smelter, with a capacity of around 352,000 tonnes of aluminium per annum. The majority of Portland's production is supplied to the export market.
The Portland Aluminium smelter, in conjunction with Alcoa's
Point Henry smelter
The Point Henry aluminium smelter was located near Geelong, Victoria in the suburb of Moolap prior to its closure in 2014. The smelter had a production capacity of 185,000 tonnes of aluminium a year. It was operated by Alcoa World Alumina and C ...
which closed in 2014, produced about 30% of Australia's total aluminium.
The fishing industry today
Portland today is the home of a varied professional fishing fleet of approximately 60 vessels, harvesting a wide variety of sustainable, commercial species. During the austral summer (November to May), the Bonney Upwelling (part of the larger
Great South Australian Coastal Upwelling System
The Great South Australian Coastal Upwelling System is a seasonal upwelling system in the eastern Great Australian Bight, extending from Ceduna, South Australia, to Portland, Victoria, over a distance of about . Upwelling events occur in the aus ...
) brings nutrient-rich deep ocean water to the surface in the Portland area, supporting a rich abundance of marine life. Trawlers target deepsea finfish such as
rockling,
hoki, blue eye
trevalla and more, while
Southern rock lobster,
giant crab,
blacklip and
greenlip abalone, arrow squid,
wrasse and others are also landed in significant quantities.
[Butler, A. J., F. Althaus, D. M. Furlani, and K. R. Ridgway]
Assessment of the Conservation Values of the Bonney Upwelling Area: A Component of the Commonwealth Marine Conservation Assessment Program 2002–2004: Report to Environment Australia.
Published by CSIRO Marine Research (now CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere (O&A) is one of the current 8 Business Units (formerly: Flagships) of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's largest government-supported science research agency.
Histo ...
) and Environment Australia, Dec. 2002. Accessed 12 July 2013. The industry is a significant employer and directly generates approximately $30 million in export and domestic earnings for the town with major flow-on benefits through local seafood processing (both export and domestic), transport & engineering services, fuel supplies and other ancillary industries. An abalone hatchery has been established on the shores of Portland Bay and apart from some current difficulties, is likely to be an indicator of future seafood production. Easy access to prime locations supports a flourishing amateur angling fraternity, with many locals and tourists regularly enjoying a fresh catch of King George Whiting, Snapper, Kingfish, Flathead, Morwong and in recent times,
Southern bluefin tuna
The southern bluefin tuna (''Thunnus maccoyii'') is a tuna of the family Scombridae found in open southern Hemisphere waters of all the world's oceans mainly between 30°S and 50°S, to nearly 60°S. At up to and weighing up to , it is among ...
.
Vestas Portland
The first blades from the
Vestas
Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Un ...
Portland plant were produced in July 2005 and the plant was officially commissioned in August 2005. The facility cost $9 million, and has a capacity of 225 blades (75 blade sets) per annum.
Vestas
Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Un ...
began manufacturing wind turbines in 1979. Their core business comprises the development, manufacture, sale, marketing and maintenance of wind power systems. The blade manufacturing facility in Portland worked in conjunction with their assembly plant in
Tasmania which has since been closed down. In August 2007, Vestas announced the closure of its near new Portland blade manufacturing plant with the loss of 130 jobs.
[ ]
Portland Wind Project
The Portland Wind Energy Project, PWEP
involves the development of four wind farms at Cape Bridgewater, Cape Nelson, Cape Sir William Grant and Yambuk in south-west Victoria. As one of the biggest wind farm developments in the Southern Hemisphere, the 195MW project proponents claimed that it will deliver major environmental, economic and social benefits.
The four Portland sites are considered by the proponents of the project to be ideal wind farm locations, with consistently strong winds, access for construction vehicles and machinery, a nearby connection to the National Electricity Grid, compatible farming activities and a large land area. By August 2007 construction was underway but there is still ongoing substantial resident opposition to the project regarding the planning process enabling this development and the visual impact of towers and the power lines.
The 195MW project will produce enough clean electricity to power about 125,000 homes each year, equal to more than 7 per cent of Victoria's residential electricity demand, or powering a city the size of Geelong. The project is being developed by
Pacific Hydro
Pacific Hydro is a renewable energy company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1992 and was soon floated on the Australian Stock Exchange, it was later bought by a consortium of industry superannuation funds and d ...
.
Geothermal power
Geothermal heating
Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for some heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ of ...
was used to heat more than 19,000 square metres of municipal buildings, a motel and the town 2000m³ swimming pool in Portland. Commissioned in 1983, naturally hot groundwater (58 °C) was extracted from a bore (1400m deep) at a rate of 90 litres/second.
The total capacity of the Portland facility, operated by the Glenelg Shire was 10.4 MW before being closed down prematurely in April 2006.
Tourism
The
Great South West Walk
The Great South West Walk is a / 262-kilometer (163mi) walking track, established in 1981, located in South West Victoria, Australia. The track passes through the Lower Glenelg National Park, the Cobboboonee National Park, the Discovery Bay ...
is a walking track that begins at the Visitor Information Centre, Portland. Designed as a long distance walking track, it is also ideal for short walks and day walks. The walk travels through forests, river gorges, cliff tops and sublime bays. Established in 1981 the walk is administered, maintained and promoted by 'The Friends of the Great South West Walk Inc', a wholly volunteer organisation, in partnership with
Parks Victoria.
The
Portland Cable Tram
The Portland Cable Tram is heritage tramway in Portland, Victoria, Australia. It opened on 2 March 2002. Although the rolling stock in use are replicas or restored models of cable trams, they now run with diesel motors.
History
In 1996, t ...
was established as a community organisation in June 1996, with the view to laying light rail to carry refurbished diesel powered trams, as both an outlet for rail and heritage enthusiasts and a tourist venture. The tram carries passengers along the scenic route from Henty Park to the World War 2 Memorial Lookout, at the old North Portland Water Tower. The route takes in the natural wetlands (tidal) of Fawthrop Lagoon Park, the foreshore, cliff tops and botanic gardens. The Portland Cable Tram Group is planning additional tram carriages and engines, for greater capacity and to provide more reliability and maintenance support options. Volunteer drivers and conductors provide a commentary about Portland's significant past and present-day buildings, harbour and sights. Over 12,000 passengers were carried on the tram during the 2006–07 financial year.
Portland Maritime Museum
The Portland Maritime Museum was developed to house the Portland Lifeboat built in 1858. The Lifeboat is one of the oldest lifeboats remaining in the world. Famous for rescuing 19 survivors of the ''
Admella'' shipwreck in 1859, and the Julia shipwreck in 1863. The ''Admella'', a steamship of 392 tons, was sailing from Adelaide to Melbourne when it was smashed onto a reef off
Carpenter Rocks in South Australia with a loss of 89 lives. The Portland Lifeboat and crew were taken to the scene, and were pivotal in the rescue operations. On display is a real whale skeleton, and the famed 'Portland Lifeboat' used in the ''Admella'' rescue.
Transport
Road
Portland is west of
Melbourne via the
Princes Highway. It is connected to
Hamilton by the
Henty Highway.
Rail
Portland is served by the standard gauge
Maroona-Portland line, which branches from the main
Western standard gauge line
The Western standard gauge railway line is a standard-gauge railway line in western Victoria, Australia. Completed in 1995, it forms part of the Melbourne–Adelaide rail corridor and serves as the principal interstate rail link between Victor ...
. Until 1995 the line was
broad gauge
A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways.
Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
, the line having been opened on 19 December 1877. Passenger movements are by coach to Warrnambool where passengers transfer to rail, the last direct passenger train between Ararat and Portland was on 12 September 1981 operated by a
DRC railcar.
Grain is the most common commodity delivered by rail from the
Wimmera
The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Aust ...
.
Transport Minister
Peter Batchelor, opened a $15m overpass in Cliff Street constructed for
VicRoads in October 2006. The government committed to the project in May 2003, and work began in 2005. The overpass allows road transports and trains continuous access to the port; moving commodities like grain, fertiliser, wind-farm blades, aluminium ingots and woodchips. Port activity is projected to increase significantly and the overpass, which had been discussed since 1991, was finally installed. The project was completed three months ahead of schedule because of the drought and less than the expected delays due to rain.
Freight operator
Pacific National indefinitely suspended all rail services to the town of Portland in 2004, impacting local companies including
Portland Aluminium, transport company
Kalari
A kalari is a gymnasium or training space primarily associated with the martial art of Kalaripayattu. The word ''kalari'' comes from Malayalam. In the past, village schools in Kerala, typically run by the traditional astrologer families, were kn ...
, and freight broker Anchor Logistics. Portland container traffic was conveyed between Maroona and Portland on grain services twice a week, but Pacific National said that due to the drought there were no trains to attach the loading to. On the route the price differential between rail and road is $12.97 per tonne in rail's favour. Pacific National closed their Portland operations in March 2008, with
GrainCorp leasing a limited number of locomotives and rolling stock from them, but favour transporting grain to the
Port of Geelong
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.
Major commodities handled by the port include crude oil and petroleum products, export grain and ...
instead. In September 2008 it was announced that freight traffic would restart using the line from Portland, with operator
El Zorro signing a multi-million deal with miner
Iluka Resources
Iluka Resources is an Australian-based resources company, specialising in mineral sands exploration, project development, operations and marketing. Iluka is the largest producer of zircon and titanium dioxide-derived rutile and synthetic ruti ...
to carry containerised
mineral sands
Heavy mineral sands are a class of ore deposit which is an important source of zirconium, titanium, thorium, tungsten, rare-earth elements, the industrial minerals diamond, sapphire, garnet, and occasionally precious metals or gemstones.
Heavy m ...
to
Melbourne, with Iluka saying rail transport was cheaper than road.
Aviation
Portland is served by the
Portland Airport .
Sharp Airlines
Sharp Airlines is a regional airline founded in Hamilton, Victoria, Australia in 1990. Sharp operates scheduled airline services in the southern states of Australia. Its main bases are Essendon Airport, Adelaide Airport and Launceston Airport. ...
provided a regular service to Portland and Warrnambool airports from
Essendon airport
Essendon Fields Airport , colloquially known by its former name Essendon Airport, is a public airport serving scheduled commercial, corporate-jet, charter and general aviation flights. It is located next to the intersection of the Tullamarin ...
up until 30 June 2019.
Sharp Airlines started operations in Portland by flying staff and employees from Portland Aluminium to
Avalon Airport
Avalon Airport is an international airport located in Avalon in the City of Greater Geelong in Victoria, Australia. While located outside the Melbourne metropolitan area, it is the second busiest of the four airports serving the state capit ...
, so they could link to the Point Henry Smelter near Geelong. With significant demand and the support of the community, non-charter, passenger flights were also added. Sharp has established a maintenance hub at Portland Airport, so support staff could service the growing commuter and tourist airline.
Community
Radio
Community radio station 3RPC-FM 99.3 is located opposite The Arts Company, on the corner of Richmond Street, and broadcasts to the majority of the Shire of Glenelg. This too lends itself to the promotion of the city's various performances, exhibitions and cultural events. Each week volunteer presenters write and produce many hours of on-air entertainment covering arts, culture, sport, community news and special interest programs.
Portland tourist radio station is WAVE-FM, broadcasting easy listening music, news and information about local attractions.
Arts & culture
Portland has a vibrant cultural diversity, with many potters, painters, musicians, quilters, lead lighters, wood-turners, photographers, cinematographers, multi-media artists, print-makers, jewellers, sculptors, actors and writers. Many of these talents come together under the banners of CEMA Inc (Council for Encouragement of Music and the Arts), or the associated The Arts Company.
The Portland Art Centre, on the corner of Glenelg and Bentinck Streets, incorporates a gallery and theatre, where local and visiting performances are regularly staged.
The Arts Company is located in the heritage precinct of Portland in refurbished old buildings in Julia Street. Along with community workshops and studios, local artists' works are also for sale. The Arts Company also has accommodation and studios for the ''artist in residence'' programs.
Sport
The town has an
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
team competing in the
Hampden Football League
The Hampden Football Netball League is an Australian rules football and netball league based in South-Western Victoria, with clubs located in towns along or near the Princes Highway from Camperdown to Portland.
The league is a major country l ...
. The club is known as
Portland Football Netball Cricket Club
The Portland Football Netball Cricket Club, nicknamed the ''Tigers'', is an Australian sports club based in the city of Portland, Victoria. The club's football and netball teams currently compete in the Hampden Football Netball League, with the ...
.
The Portland and District Cricket Association is the local cricket association, with 6 clubs competing from the local area.
Golfers play at the course of the Portland Golf Club on Madeira Packet Road.
The Portland Hockey club plays in the Lower South East Hockey Association. Games are mainly played in Mount Gambier on an artificial turf pitch. However, some games are played in Portland at Nelson Park on grass pitches. Training is at Flinders Park.
Portland also has a soccer team, the Portland Panthers, and they play most of their games with the Mount Gambier Sides.
Schools
High schools
* Portland Secondary College (PSC)
*PSC Re-engagement Program
* Bayview College
Primary schools
*Bundarra Primary School
*Portland Primary School
*Portland North Primary School
*Portland South Primary School
*Bolwarra Primary School
*All Saints Parish Primary School
*Narrawong District Primary School
*St Johns Lutheran Primary School
*Portland Bay School
Climate
Portland has a warm-summer
mediterranean climate that is transitional with the
oceanic climate (
Köppen climate classification ''Csb/Cfb''). Its summers are moderated by its shoreline position, whereas the rainy winters have moderate lows.
References
Further reading
*Jan Critchett, (1990), ''A distant field of murder: Western district frontiers, 1834–1848'', Melbourne University Press (Carlton, Vic. and Portland, Or.)
*Ian D Clark (1990) ''Aboriginal languages and clans: An historical atlas of western and central Victoria, 1800–1900'', Dept. of Geography & Environmental Science, Monash University (Melbourne),
*Ian D Clark (1995), ''Scars in the landscape: A register of massacre sites in western Victoria, 1803–1859'', Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (Canberra),
* Ian D Clark (2003) ''That's my country belonging to me' – Aboriginal land tenure and dispossession in nineteenth century Western Victoria'', Ballarat Heritage Services, Ballarat.
* The Gunditjmara People with Gib Wettenhall, (2010) ''The People of Budj Bim: Engineers of aquaculture, builders of stone house settlements and warriors defending country'', em Press, Heywood (Victoria)
* E Noel T Henry (2016), ''The First 8 Years: A History of the Portland Municipal Council, 1855–1863'' (Glen Iris, Victoria)
External links
Glenelg Shire CouncilPort of PortlandPortland Business*
{{Authority control
1834 establishments in Australia
Coastal cities in Australia
Populated places established in 1834
Port cities in Victoria (Australia)
Whaling in Australia
Whaling stations in Australia
Fishing communities in Australia