Our Sanctuary, our Bay.

    Pelican dance at sunset.

 Port Phillip Bay is both a Port serving the Garden and Cultural City of Melbourne AND a Sanctuary for humans and marine life alike. Boats and whales rest here on their journeys. Children play along the beaches and divers explore treasure worlds of fish, coral and seahorses. The balance is there already, a Port and a Leisure world.

This balance is precarious and the looming threat of unwise development can render our beautiful Bay into a quagmire of toxins and industry. Like Botany Bay in Sydney, what has been a haven, becomes ‘out of bounds’. We are called forth:

We shall fight them on the beaches…!

So we researched the Saints who protect the Bays and Lakes:

St. Andrew, St. Phillip and St. Peter.

We call on their help, and our own courage and will to a Vigil tomorrow evening.

A Vigil is an ancient tradition of holding steadily,

the energy of the Light, that Truth may prevail;

and of Love - for the Highest Good.

We share a Common Purpose in this Vigil, that of our Love for the Bay. Love is an intelligence and energy to which Life in this world responds. We are responding and answering the Call to be guardians and advocates for the Bay and its own marine world. 

From dusk to 10 pm we shall hold our lights. Aiming them towards the dark sky of a new moon and across the waters that nurture so much life, we quietly declare our honour.  We will be merging with the sea world and with each other, people standing and sitting peacefully in Vigil on the shores and in boats on the water. 

Together, and alone, we declare:  protect and cherish this priceless Sanctuary.

We shine our Lights for The Bay.

* Peruse our new page for Bay Vigil in the Press.

* The Bay Vigil Locations page shows where people are gathering around the Bay, from Point Lonsdale to Sorrento.  The Flotilla of boats will be leaving from Mordialloc. Come one, come many, come all who care.  

Guidelines for groups and individuals: Guidelines for Vigil

[*photo by Rhys Jones]