A PROPOSED $6 million upgrade of Warrnambool’s Lady Bay harbour has received overwhelming support from the public with one of the biggest-ever responses to a city council discussion paper.
The Safer Boating and Harbour Facility Study proposals received 350 submissions outling support and 10 submissions against.
Comments will be digested by a special community reference group, consultants who prepared the study and council officers and councillors before a decision later this year.
If there’s a positive vote the council would seek government funding for most of the cost.
Two recommended options in the study are for a $6.2m project involving a spur attached at a right angle to the historic breakwater with a shore groyne extending 110 metres from Worm Bay beach and a $5.9m project involving a detached wall near the breakwater and a shore groyne.
Both options are designed to provide sheltered moorings for boats and reduce wave surges at the loading ramp.
Boat users and the fishing community have been campaigning for years to improve the harbour and capitalise on tourism potential, but environmentalists have cautioned about changing currents and siltation patterns.
Yesterday caution signs were erected at the boatramp after a large build-up of sand made loading operations potentially dangerous.