Nine possible coastal locations were considered for the desalination plant. A feasibility study was conducted on four short-listed locations:

• Surf Coast
• Eastern shore of Port Phillip Bay
• Western shore of Western Port and
• Bass Coast.

 

The Bass Coast was selected and the plant is being constructed near Wonthaggi on cleared farm land behind coastal dunes and Williamsons Beach.

The site selection involved consideration of:

• suitable connections to Victoria’s existing water infrastructure
• access to open ocean water for intake of quality source water, and
• freely circulating ocean water for rapid dispersal of saline concentrate.

The Wonthaggi site offers easy access to the open ocean of Bass Strait for water intake, and circulating water that will disperse concentrate.

Sites on the bays were discounted because of lower source water quality and potential issues with discharge into relatively poor circulating waters.

In addition, the Western Port site would potentially impact on internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetlands.

Bass Coast is also located to the east of Melbourne, a good position for links into our water grid, which generally moves water from our catchments in the east to cities and towns in the west.

Surf Coast sites located west of Melbourne would have required significant and expensive infrastructure upgrades to transfer water to the city.

Melbourne Augmentation Program: Seawater Desalination Feasibility Study

Table of Contents (PDF~1.1 Mb)Executive Summary (PDF~4.8 Mb)Key Terms (PDF~36 Kb)Chapter 1-2 (PDF~691 Kb)Chapter 3-6 (PDF~305 Kb)Chapter 7a (PDF~3.0 Mb)Chapter 7b (PDF~3.0 Mb)Chapter 8a (PDF~3.7 Mb)Chapter 8b (PDF~1.2 Mb)Chapter 9a (PDF~119Kb)Chapter 9b (PDF~1.2 Mb)Chapter 10-12 (PDF~149Kb)