Hastings 3915

Concrete jetty for Hastings is Parks plan

Parks Victoria has released a plan for the Hastings Jetty, with improvements proposed for fishing access, promenading and reinstating safe access for boating.

However the plan seems to be for a concrete pontoon similar to those installed at San Remo Pier and the Warneet South Jetty. The extent that the timber section of the jetty may be retained is not clear (at least to us) from the plans produced but the pier head, the current end and the part which has long been fenced off because of its dangers would go.

A press release states: "The plan includes construction of a fishing platform and upper deck promenading area including seating, fishing rod holders and upgraded hand railings. A new floating pontoon will also be constructed to improved safety and access for boats to using the pier and will be designed to cope with Western Port’s sea conditions and large tidal range.

"Similar facilities have already been installed in Port Phillip and other Western Port locations such as San Remo Pier and Warneet South Jetty. The project has been made possible through $570,000 in grants and funding from Department of Sustainability and Environment, Parks Victoria, Fisheries Victoria and Marine Safety Victoria."

Parks Victoria is inviting public comments on their site at http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/3hastings.cfm

Final date for comments is April 30.

Email: hastingsjetty@parks.vic.gov.au
In writing to: Hastings Jetty Upgrade Consultation, Parks Victoria, PO Box 338, San Remo VIC 3925.

The above page also links to two jetty plans as PDF files:

Hasting Pier Upgrade Concept (59kb)
Hastings Pier Upgrade Locality Plan (291kb)

Pelicans at Hastings

A funny old bird is a pelican.
His beak can hold more than his bellican.
Food for a week
He can hold in his beak,
But I don't know how the hellican.

— Dixon Lanier Merritt*

The Australian Pelican is seen every day at the Hastings Jetty -- and they don't store food in that huge beak.

Though these are common birds in all parts of Australia where there is water, they still draw many visitors to Hastings as a place where they can almost always be seen close in to the land, thanks to a steady supply of fish from local fishermen and the fish shop on the jetty.

They are social animals and look ungainly until you see them fly. The Australian pelican is among the largest of the seven or eight species around the world.

Pelecanus conspicillatus is a large bird, 1.6 to 1.8 metres long, 2.3 to 2.5 metres wingspan. Colouring is predominently white with black markings and a pink bill that is used to strain water to gain small fish and crustaceans. They eat fish and whatever else is around, including turtles, and have reportedly been known to drown seagulls before swallowing them headfirst when food is short according to the Australian Museum. They will work together to herd fish into shallow water ready to scoop them up.

Contrary to legend the bill is not used for storage, but is sometimes extended in gathering water containing food or even to gather rainwater.

Numbers reportedly decreased in this area in early 2009 but that may be due to so many pelicans gathering in the Lake Eyre region during one of the few periods when that lake was filled with water as a result of high rainfall in northern Australia. That is what happened in the mid-1970s -- only a few remained around the coast. When the lake dried up, they returned.

Pelicans do not fly for extended periods but they can travel large distances by rising on air thermals and then gliding. Reputedly some seen at Lake Eyre were later seen at Christmas Island.

More information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Pelican 

*US poet and humorist, 1879-1972, who was at one time editor of Nashville's morning newspaper, the Tennessean. He wrote the limerick in 1910, and in other years as there are several versions.

Origin of Western Port and Hastings names

Hastings Jetty as it is today - it was first built in 1865

"Dad... why's it called Western Port when it's East of Melbourne?"

How did you answer that? We're sure you've been asked.

The true answer is that it is West of Sydney, the most westerly port in the colony when it was named by George Bass (yep, the man Bass Strait is named for) in 1798.

So that was the 18th century. By half way through the 19th, there were some fishing shacks in this area and the King family had built a homestead at Tyabb from which they ran their property around King's Creek. The township in the area that is now called 'Old Tyabb', the area on the northern edge of what is now Hastings, was also referred to as East Moorooduc. So, whenever someone tells you definitively that Hastings was originally Tyabb, or King's Creek, or East Moorooduc, smile and say "Is that so?" knowing that all those names have been used for bits of what is now called Hastings.

There are also multiple stories about who or what 'Hastings' refers to. Most common is that the name comes from the town on the southern English coast, but there is also the story that a member of the King family was on board the Marquis of Hastings, a ship which left Portsmouth, England, in April 1827 and arrived at Sydney Cove in July of that year. A Gilbert King was the surgeon on that voyage.

Could the origin from Marquis of Hastings explain why there is a restaurant in town called "MaQuay" (pronounced Marquee which is also how the title Marquis would be pronounced in French)? But Marquess, as the English title is usually spelt, has since the time of settlement been pronounced with the 's' sounded).

Also confusing in the idea of Hastings originating from a person rather than a town or a ship, is that the Hastings peerage suffered from being given to short-lived families or being given by the wrong side in a royal dispute. It was created at least four times since the original Baron Hastings in 1263 and fought over in court many times. See Baron Hastings in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Hastings

We would welcome more definitive information.

We can write with some certainty that the Hastings jetty was built in 1865 and that there were some fishing shacks in the area and spread along the creek. My the mid 1870s there were churches and a school, and the railway reached the town in 1889. Check the Hastings Museum and also the newsagency for the books that have been published on the town and district.

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