If we told you that on Melbourne’s front door step is a marine environment that rivals any tropical reef in colour and diversity, you’d probably think we were bonkers. And you wouldn’t be alone, it’s Melbourne’s best kept secret.
Port Phillip Bay is home to over 1300 plants and animals including towering kelp forests, fish that fish for other fish, ocean giants and dragons that sparkle like jewels. Over 82% of the marine life found here on the southern shores is found nowhere else in the world.
Who would have thought? No one and that’s the problem.
Our challenge is how to get people to care for something that they don’t know exists? And how can we have a conversation around our actions on land and the impacts it has on these marine environments? We can’t.
As much as we would like to give everyone a mask and snorkel to show them first hand, sadly that’s not going to happen. That’s why we created this innovative project.
We’re going to take the colour and diversity of Port Phillip Bay to the masses using world-class imagery in a series of high profile media platforms. A book, documentary/DVD, footage to be shown at Federation Square and a travelling outdoor community exhibition will reveal Melbourne’s best kept secret.
But that’s not where it ends. Melbourne Down Under is structured so that a proportion of revenue generated by product sales will be reinvested into local communities to seed fund marine engagement experiences and education projects.
