| Address: | |
|---|---|
| Suburb: | Queenscliff, Victoria, Australia |
From 1884
Heritage Victoria Listed.
Queenscliff’s first pier, then known as the Fishermen’s Pier, was completed in 1857. It was not until some thirty years later that the second Steamer Pier was constructed adjacent to the former and periodically extended from the mid to late 1880s to cope with the demand in pleasure bay steamer services. The last of these extensions was to provide a dog-leg construction and the extant shelter shed.
1960 witnessed the demolition of the original Fishermen’s Pier – by this time having been extended in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to the equivalent length of the Steamer Pier – and saw the relocation of its 1926-29 lifeboat house to the Steamer Pier, now Queenscliff Pier.
The mid to late 2000s saw Queenscliff Harbour undergo large-scale redevelopment in order to deepen its waters for pleasure craft and increase its berths to over 300. This was met with strong community opposition, largely with concerns for neighbourhood character and perceived cause for gentrification its stakeholders would impart. With early construction estimates of $20 million dollars, this figure had almost doubled upon realisation.
(Lovell Chen Architects. ‘Individual Property Citation’, Queenscliffe Heritage Study, 2009.)
(Freya Mitchell, ‘Queenscliff residents fight a tide of development sweeping the historic town’ ABC radio, 15 April 2005).
Queenscliff Aerial Photograph, ca. 1927-1940 ----- Charles Daniel Pratt photographer. Piers left to right: the sea pilot’s pier, bathing boxes, the Steamer Pier and the Fishermen’s Pier (Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia).
Steamer Pier shows passengers disembarking from a bay steamer with Queenscliff in background, 1916. (Image courtesy of the Queenscliffe Historical Museum).
The ‘Ozone’ Ferry, Queenscliff. Source date. (Image courtesy of the State Library of Victoria).
Paddle Steamer 'Weeroona' at the Steamer Pier, Queenscliff, 1912. (Image courtesy of the Queenscliffe Historical Museum).
