By Adam Carey
They have no power or running water and the beach they face has precious little sand to spread out on, but the humble boat sheds of Werribee South have no shortage of fierce defenders.
The sheds, which have occupied the narrow, weed-strewn foreshore on Melbourne’s south-western fringe since the 1930s, are being assessed for heritage protection – as well as a possible hefty increase in fees for owners.
From left: Sandy Bowen, Juanita Fernando, Bruce McLeod, Steven Fernando and Rob Lawry outside a boat shed at Campbells Cove, Werribee South.Credit: Simon Schluter
The proposed heritage overlay would give the sheds the same protected status as Brighton’s bathing boxes on the other side of Port Phillip Bay despite them selling for a fraction of the price.
There are 144 boat sheds in Werribee South, dozens more than the 96 bathing boxes that have lined Brighton beach since the 1840s.
Maltese, Italian, Macedonian and Greek post-war migrants who moved to Werribee South to work in the market gardens built many of the earliest sheds, constructing them out of timber, sheet metal, masonry, concrete and stone.
Built on dunes or into the cliff face, the sheds are modest, with a “functional and often improvised form” dictated by their owners’ limited budgets, a heritage review for the City of Wyndham says.
The sheds survived a campaign for their demolition after a scandalised Port Phillip Authority inspected them in 1967 and found the foreshore “in a disgraceful condition”.
“There is a lot of history down there,” said long-time boat shed owner and Wyndham Boatshed Association president Bruce McLeod.
“Whereas Brighton has bathing boxes, the vast majority of the boat sheds down there [in Werribee South] were fishermen’s sheds at the time.”
Today, the Werribee South sheds still attract keen fishers, but families are also eager to own their own small patch of the bay.
‘It’s very chatty, most people get along with each other very well.’
Werribee South boat shed owner Steven Fernando
“It’s a lovely community, we know most of the people that are down there by face. It’s very chatty, most people get along with each other very well,” said shed owner Steven Fernando, the secretary of the boatshed association.
He does not own a fishing boat and lives in Fairfield, in Melbourne’s inner north-east, but travels across the city to his shed as often as he can.
“We go just about every weekend, sometimes just sit out the front, have a barbecue and do nothing,” he said.
“It’s not really a swimming beach. It’s a great place to come and sit or lie in the water, let the waves roll over you. Kids come down and collect shells. There is incredible birdlife.”
The boat sheds district of Werribee South is being considered for heritage protection. Credit: Simon Schluter
But visitors should be mindful of stingrays, which are common.
“At least every 12 months, somebody cops one,” Fernando said.
There are many rules for those seeking to own one of the sheds, which are built on Crown land and managed by Wyndham City Council.
It is illegal to increase a boat shed’s size, either by adding another storey or extending beyond the building’s approved footprint, and the number of sheds in the precinct cannot be increased.
Rob Lawry (left), Steven Fernando and Bruce McLeod relax on the deck of a boat shed in Werribee South.Credit: Simon Schluter
In past years, some sheds were lived in but these days, overnight stays are banned.
The heritage proposal, which is being considered by the council, would apply an overlay to the “Campbells Cove and Baileys Beach boat shed precinct” as a whole, rather than protect individual sheds, which were not deemed as significant.
Councillors will also vote in March on a proposal to increase licence and transfer fees for the Werribee sheds, which are much lower than for boat sheds and bathing boxes on the eastern side of the bay.
If the increase is approved, annual licence fees will rise from $416 to $650 and transfer fees will increase from $250 to $750. The previous council voted twice last year to defer a vote on raising fees amid a cost-of-living crunch.
Wyndham Mayor Mia Shaw said the fees remained hundreds of dollars cheaper than in other coastal municipalities such as Bayside, Kingston and Mornington Peninsula, even with the proposed increases.
Shaw noted in a council debate last year that 75 per cent of the Werribee South sheds were owned by people who live outside Wyndham.
“Ultimately, we need to make sure that the licence fees cover the cost to the committee of management, which is the City of Wyndham,” she said.
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