Up to $850,000 is available from Port Phillip Bay Fund to support projects that will protect and preserve the health of Victoria’s iconic bay.
Port Phillip Bay Fund
The Port Phillip Bay Fund is a grants program that supports projects by community groups and organisations who are working to protect and preserve the environmental health of the Bay.
Objectives
The objectives of the Port Phillip Bay Fund are to support projects that address local and regional priorities to protect the health of the Bay and bay catchment area, including:
- encouraging partnerships across a range of interested groups and organisations who support the environmental health of the Bay;
- enhancing the amenity and environmental values in the Bay and on the foreshore; and
- reducing and addressing threats to the health of the Bay, including nutrients, pollutants and litter.
Funding
Up to a total of $850,000 is available in Round 3.
For Round 3, there is one stream of funding available, for:
- Community groups, Traditional Owners and Aboriginal community groups, schools, and not for profit organisations
- Projects of up to $50,000 and 12 months duration
Eligible Projects
For Round 3, Port Phillip Bay Fund is seeking community projects that create a legacy. Projects with onground works which will maintain and improve the health of Port Phillip Bay in the long term will be considered favourably. We encourage you to consider opportunities for partnerships, education, monitoring and citizen science within your on-ground project.
To be funded, projects need to meet at least one of the grant objectives.
Projects also need to:
- be located in the Port Phillip Bay catchment area
- demonstrate a clear link to the environmental health of the Bay.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of activities that may be funded through these grants:
- Protection, rehabilitation and restoration of marine and coastal habitats and biodiversity (e.g. preserving threatened species habitat, fencing, marine and coastal weed and pest control).
- Actions that conserve and increase awareness of the Traditional Owner values of Port Phillip Bay and its catchment area.
- Actions that directly reduce the amount of sediment, nutrients, litter and pollutants that enter the Bay and its tributaries (e.g. installation of litter traps, source reduction programs, riparian revegetation, wetland systems to slow/treat storm water).
- Managing visitor impacts on sensitive coastal and marine sites (e.g. improved access management, fencing, pathways).
Education, monitoring and citizen science activities will be considered, where they are part of a broader project with direct on-ground outcomes.
Eligible Applicants
Round 3 is targeted at:
- Environmental groups and networks, such as Coastcare, Friends groups and Landcare
- Volunteer-based recreational and community groups with an interest in the Bay, such as diving and naturalist groups, Scouts, Rotary, Lions, senior citizens and youth clubs
- Committees of Management
- Traditional Owners and Aboriginal community groups
- Kindergartens, Primary and Secondary Schools.
Other types of community groups may also be considered if they are proposing to work with volunteers to undertake local projects that support the environmental health of Port Phillip Bay.
To be eligible, applicants must:
- have $10 million public liability insurance, with enough construction allowance to cover the project and meet one of the following:
- be incorporated through Consumer Affairs Victoria, or
- have an ABN with Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission registration, or
- be a registered scout group, or
- be a kindergarten, primary or secondary school, or
- be a Registered Aboriginal Party, or
- be a public land Committee of Management.
Timing
Applications close 10 April 2019.
Round 2 Projects
| PROJECT TITLE | APPLICANT ORGANISATION | FUNDING |
|---|---|---|
| Waste, Wildlife & Our Waterways | A.W.A.R.E (Australian Wildlife Assistance, Rescue and Education) Inc. | $10,000 |
| Bin Not Bay: Education and Community Outreach Programs to Inspire and Empower Bay Health Stewardship | Australian Marine Mammal Conservation Foundation Ltd | $199,620 |
| Community & Berg Mt Martha Together – Protection, Rehabilitation and Restoration of Coastal Habitat | Balcombe Estuary Reserves Group Inc (Berg Mt Martha) | $31,395 |
| Caring for our Bays – Connecting Community and Business to the Bay | Bellarine Catchment Network | $198,000 |
| Avalon Coastal Reserve: Restoring a Forgotten Gem in Port Phillip Bay | BirdLife Australia Ltd. | $198,500 |
| Indigenous Sea Rangers and Local Government delivering Bay Health objectives | Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation | $100,000 |
| Cardi Creek Kids: Creek to Coast | Cardi Creek Kids | $9,940 |
| The Litter Trackers: Reducing Littering by Education | Centre for Aquatic Pollution Identification and Management, The University of Melbourne | $142,900 |
| Monbulk Creek Community Neighborhood Program | Community Weed Alliance of the Dandenongs | $99,000 |
| Community Led Foreshore Enhancement. | Conservation Volunteers Australia | $198,950 |
| Swimsafe: Citizen science and sensors to protect bay beaches | Environment Protection Authority Victoria | $130,000 |
| Litter Warriors – Protecting our Bay | Fishcare Victoria Inc. | $9,970 |
| Frankston Beach Association Gould Street/ Beach Street and Gould Street/Palm Court Dune Revegetation Project | Frankston Beach Association Inc. | $12,200 |
| Discover Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park | Friends of Beware Reef Narine Sanctuary | $21,000 |
| Our Coastline on Melbourne’s doorstep | Friends of Greenwich Bay inc | $9,800 |
| Planting and collecting litter along Yarra close to the Bay using community volunteers | Friends of Westgate Park Inc. | $8,200 |
| Connecting your Bay: using creative media to inspire, empower and motivate. | Geelong Sustainability Group | $97,000 |
| Jawbone Marine Sanctuary seagrass ecosystem inventory | Jawbone Marine Sanctuary Care | $11,000 |
| Friends, working together to improve the bay | Mornington Peninsula Shire | $72,863 |
| The Schools Caring for the Bay Project | Mother of God Primary School | $52,980 |
| Bay Vision: Recreational fishers restoring the Bay’s fish habitats | OzFish Unlimited | $98,500 |
| Global Melbourne: Empowering diverse residents and visitors to protect our Bay | Port Phillip EcoCentre | $168,719 |
| Leading the way to protect the Bay: Nerm events for Students and Teachers 14 | Port Phillip EcoCentre Inc | $45,500 |
| Healthy Rivers, Healthy Bay | PrimeSCI!, Swinburne University of Technology | $117,941 |
| Beneath the Bay | Reef Life Survey Inc. | $186,000 |
| Connected to Port Phillip Initiative: Bringing People and the Bay Together | Remember The Wild | $199,940 |
| The Plastics Lab: Establishing a free plastics identification facility for Port Philip community groups | Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University) | $191,830 |
| Citizen-Science Drones for Bayside Beach Habitat | School of Geography, The University of Melbourne | $191,882 |
| Inspiring Young Marine Science Experts – Stewards of Swan Bay | St Aloysius Primary School | $62,699 |
| Engaging community, industry and government to reduce plastic resin pellets flowing into Port Phillip Bay | Tangaroa Blue Foundation | $111,863 |
| OysterWatch – Enabling the community to engage in shellfish reef restoration | The Nature Conservancy | $172,793 |
| Street to Bay – Litter Survey of Port Phillip Bay Catchment | The Scout Association of Australia, Victorian Branch | $99,835 |
| Broadening and deepening engagement and learning in Port Phillip Bay | Victorian National Parks Association Inc. | $65,600 |
| Bridging troubled waters – linking community groups with pollution tracking technology | Werribee River Association | $199,057 |
| Litterblitz – raising awareness, partnerships and volunteerism to combat the threat of litter to the bay | Werribee River Association | $79,210 |
| Tyrone Foreshore Camping Ground Drainage Upgrade | White Cliffs to Camerons Bight Foreshore Reserve Committee of Management Inc. | $10,000 |
| Western Waterways of the Wurundjeri | Wurundjeri Land & Compensation Cultural Heritage Council Aboriginal Corporation | $89,700 |
| Lower Yarra Reed Bed Blitz Clean | Yarra Riverkeeper Association Inc | $197,600 |
| The Yarra Catchment Atlas | Yarra Riverkeeper Association Inc | $123,600 |
Round 1 Projects
| PROJECT TITLE | APPLICANT ORGANISATION | YEARS | FUNDING |
|---|---|---|---|
| Furthering health of foreshore and vulnerable bay habitats: ongoing revegetation and education | Friends of Williams Road Beach | 1 | $6,700 |
| Restore indigenous vegetation on Beleura Cliff Path | Friends of Beleura Cliff Path | 1 | $2,641 |
| Waste, Wildlife & Our Waterways | A.W.A.R.E (Australian Wildlife Assistance, Rescue and Education) Inc. | 1 | $6,300 |
| Love Your Creek – Love Your Bay | Darebin Creek Management Committee | 1 | $7,120 |
| Better Bay Water Quality – Balcombe Estuary Riparian Restoration & Improvement, Mt Martha | Balcombe Estuary Reserves Group Mt Martha Inc | 1 | $9,960 |
| Teaching materials on how farmers are protecting the Bay through environmental stewardship | Farming Moorabool | 1 | $5,661 |
| Scout cleanup and audits of beaches for micro-plastics and erosion | 1st/14th Brighton Sea Scouts Venturer Unit | 1 | $9,860 |
| Richmond West Rainwater Garden – a multicultural school community connecting with the Bay | Richmond West Primary School | 1 | $9,785 |
| Community enhancing Westgate Park’s wetlands to improve health of Port Phillip Bay | Friends of Westgate Park Inc. | 2 | $55,550 |
| Litter and flows – connecting the Yarra and the Bay | Yarra Riverkeeper Association | 3 | $147,000 |
| Rapid response to litter cleanups after high rainfall | Friends of Merri Creek Inc | 3 | $52,420 |
| Working together to target the source of marine debris & litter | Tangaroa Blue Foundation Ltd | 2 | $33,598 |
| Caring For Our Bays Phase 2 | Bellarine Catchment Network | 1 | $99,000 |
| Melbourne’s Multicultural Coastcare / Landcare Team – a first for Victoria | Coastcare – Port Phillip and Western Port Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning | 2 | $99,996 |
| RAMSAR Wetland Connectivity and Bay Health Protection through Community Action | Conservation Volunteers Australia | 1 | $97,375 |
| Optimising fertiliser application rates to reduce excess nutrient runoff into the Bay | Balliang Food and Fibre Group | 2 | $47,850 |
| Clean Bay Blueprint: litter evidence, pro-active education and collaboration | Port Phillip EcoCentre Inc | 3 | $289,076 |
| Love Our Street, Creek and Bay – litter reduction program | Love Our Street | 3 | $36,731 |
| St Columba’s: Operation STEAM Clean the Bay (Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts, Maths) | St Columba’s Primary School | 3 | $76,765 |
| Restoring Coast Banksia Woodland, across the Mornington Peninsula | Mornington Peninsula Shire | 1 | $86,910 |
| Living Water Workbees: private/public co-creation of weather-resilient Bay and catchments | Port Phillip EcoCentre (with Werribee Riverkeeper) | 3 | $300,000 |
| Restoring healthy ecosystems on subtidal reefs: an integrated approach | National Centre for Coasts and Climate, The University of Melbourne | 3 | $297,443 |
| Protective fencing to protect Hooded Plover habitat nests and chicks | Friends of the Hooded Plover ( Mornington Peninsula) Inc | 1 | $38,000 |
| River to the Bay, Creating Healthy Waterways | Yarra Ranges Council | 3 | $296,000 |
| Coastal Ambassadors Working for a Healthy and Valued Port Phillip Bay | Dolphin Research Institute | 3 | $152,742 |
| Black Rock Pre School Beach Kinder | Black Rock Pre School | 1 | $14,120 |
| Our Future City: ‘Linking By Design’ Competition | Loci Environment and Place Inc. | 1 | $25,000 |
| Chandler Park Wetlands Kew – project implementation | Boroondara City Council | 2 | $200,000 |
| Strengthening ReefWatch – communities monitoring the health of Port Phillip Bay | Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA) | 3 | $299,037 |
| Managing nitrogen loads in Port Phillip Bay: towards better water quality | National Centre for Coasts and Climate, The University of Melbourne | 3 | $281,600 |
| From grey to green: nature-based solutions for coastal protection | National Centre for Coasts and Climate, The University of Melbourne | 3 | $174,548 |
| Upgrading Beach Drainage Outlets | Mornington Peninsula Shire | 1 | $100,000 |
| Community Based Litter Action | Melbourne Water | 3 | $122,600 |
| Reducing litter and sediment, and raising awareness in the Tanti Creek catchment | Melbourne Water | 1 | $100,000 |
| Bay Friendly Businesses | Frankston City Council | 1 | $30,000 |
| Help Save Sam Seadragon | Beach Patrol Australia Inc. | 1 | $10,200 |
