There is a lookout behind the Aquatic Centre, and just north of the Hastings pier, which shows clearly where the main industries of Hastings are and which is which across the Bay.
Hastings is an industrial town. Certainly it is the eastern gateway to the Mornington Peninsula winery and holiday area but it exists primary for its industries -- petrol, steel and gas. And if you wonder why you don't see more evidence of the products, it's because they go under the ground. For example, unleaded petrol is transported to the United storage and distribution facilities in Hastings from Crib Point jetty along a 78km pipeline connecting Crib Point to Long Island and Melbourne which was established in 1970. A 180km pipeline takes crude oil and gas from Bass Strait at Longford to the Esso installations at Hastings built in 1968. Pipelines also connect to Mobil and Shell refineries in Melbourne and Geelong.
Each year around 4 million tonnes of petroleum product is handled through the State owned jetties at Crib Point and Long Island Point with a further 1.2 million tonnes of steel product through the BlueScope Steel wharves. The port handles an average of three crude oil carriers, six LPG vessels and eight vessels with steel cargoes each month.
Western Port was first used as an industrial port In 1931 when the oil tanker
Vincas anchored off Stony Point.
At the
BlueScope hot strip coating mill at Hastings, steel slabs from Port Kembla in NSW are rolled and coated primarily for domestic market, with some going to overseas markets. It's the home of
Colorbond. Info on BlueScope Steel is at
http://www.bluescopesteel.com/go/about-bluescope-steelEnter
Hastings in the search box (top right) on that site for links to interesting info on how they interact with the Hastings community.
Any figures above come from the
Port of Hastings website at
http://www.portofhastings.vic.gov.au
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