Mount Martha - Mornington Foreshore

There is physical evidence of Aboriginal use of the coast in the form of middens; most of these are damaged, and the people themselves were effectively wiped out following contact with the settlers of the Port Phillip area.

Early exploration of the area occurred in 1802 and 1803, but extensive European activity did not begin until the late 1830s. In those early days the locality was of importance for timber for Melbourne, fishing, and pastoral activity including cows and sheep.

The area then gradually became an important resort to which Melbourne people came for holidays and day trips, arriving first on steamboats, then the train and buses and, from the 1920s, by private car. The importance of the land abutting the coast was recognised early by the Council and Government, with the retention of reserves, prohibition of tree felling and development of public facilities on the foreshore.

Urban development of the land adjacent to the foreshore gained pace in the 1940s, bringing with it many pressures on the narrow strip of coastal land in the reserve.

How is it significant?

The Mornington Mount Martha foreshore is significant for aesthetic, historic, social and scientific reasons at the State level.

Why is it significant?

Within Port Phillip Bay the Mornington Mount Martha foreshore has a high relative visual quality and historical, geological, cultural and ecological interest.

Aesthetic Value

The area is recognised for its high scenic value, having significant natural vegetation together with high visual quality associated with diversity of landform.

Historical Value

The area contains several Aboriginal midden sites.

There are the remains of an early industrial activity; the lime kilns at Fossil Beach.

The pattern of development along the Bay coast reflects both the early pastoral subdivision and the subsequent provision of holiday allotments and permanent residential subdivision.

The formal park land at Schnapper Point, which overlooks Mornington Harbour, is a contrasting element which adds diversity in terms of vegetation and provides a sense of past landscape preferences. Its stone walls, often prominent behind the beach, generally add visual variety and a sense of the past to the landscape. There are two memorials to Matthew Flinders (a statue and a cairn). There is also a memorial to the 15 Mornington footballers who drowned on the return trip to Mornington after a game at Mordialloc on 21 May 1892.

Scientific and Educational Value

Mount Martha cliffs, Mornington to Frankston cliffs, Fossil Beach and Balcombe Bay are of geological interest, with a variety of geological structures and formations and fossil deposits.

Social Value

The area is renowned as a recreational location near Melbourne and is heavily used in summer for beach related activities. The Mornington - Mount Martha coast is also the focus of much private boating activity, and there is some commercial tourist and fishers' use of the area, at Mornington.

LOCATION:

A length of coastline within the Mornington Peninsula Shire, located about 55 to 75 km south of Melbourne by road.

The area comprises Crown land on the coast of Port Phillip Bay.

Group

Landscape - Cultural

Category

Other - Landscape - Cultural