Melbourne Harbour Trust

The Melbourne Harbor Trust was established in 1877 to operate and improve shipping facility in Melbourne's ports and harbours.

In the 1860s and 1870s, agitation for the establishment of a trust on the lines of those on the Thames in London, the Mersey at Liverpool and especially that on the Clyde (which was run by Glasgow's leading merchants), came predominantly from the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce. However, Williamstown and Geelong interests opposed the measure, while Alfred Clark (Williamstown member of parliament) warned ...if ships were to be taken up the river then grass will grow on the piers and streets of Williamstown. The Trust reflected Melbourne mercantile interests but the new government was hostile towards it.

Prior to its establishment there had was little co-ordinated management or development of Melbourne ports facilities, with only some hap-hazard wharves and jetties constructed along the Yarra River, as Sandridge (Port Melbourne) and at Williamstown, Victoria. Vessel movements and berthings, navigational aids, and wharfage rates, were previously the responsibility of the Ports and Harbours Branch under the Department of Trade and Customs.

The Trust, as it became known, was only created after several boards of inquiry into means to improve access for shipping to Melbourne and a specific Act of Parliament in 1867. The first election and appointment of fifteen Commissioners, who represented various interests in the Port, was held on 30 March 1877, with a meeting on 11 April 1877 to elect office bearers.

British engineer, Sir John Coode, was commissioned to advise on port improvements. Coode produced a scheme involving a large dock basin (Victoria Dock) and straightening the river through a new cut, now known as the Coode Canal. However, the works could not commence until 1883 when a coalition government united the previously opposing groups. Under Coode's Plan, heavily modified by the Trust's own engineer, Joseph Brady, the Yarra was deepened and cleared of obstructions, and the Coode Canal was excavated, opening in 1886, straightening the river's meandering lower course. Excavation of Victoria Dock was underway in 1891, opening in 1896, the Sandridge Lagoon was being filled and the deep-water channel to Port Melbourne was being dredged. Dock construction under the original Harbour Trust scheme continued into the 1920s.

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