About Us

Background

The HJPUG manage the 30 boat mooring pens located on the south side of the Hastings Public Jetty in Western Port Bay, Victoria. The pens were built circa 1960 by the then Port of Melbourne Authority (PMA) for use by the boating community of Western Port.  The HJPUG took over the pens in 1994 as part of then Government policy to dispose of non-core assets. The pens are subject to a lease of the sea bed from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA).

The lease requires HJPUG to continue the original PMA purpose and operating process. The HJPUG operates not as a commercial entity but, on a strictly not-for-profit basis and is run entirely by volunteers.

Working bees are held from time to time. Where work is required, which is beyond the scope of amateurs, eg. dredging, plumbing, etc, external tradesmen are employed.

Operations

The User Group operates in accordance with an Operations Manual based on that used by PMA when they owned the jetty pens. As it’s a volunteer group, pen holders are expected to attend working bees and help with general maintenance. Each pen holder is responsible for the safe mooring of his boat within the pen. This includes mooring ropes, shock absorbers, shackles, rings, blocks and ropes attached to the bars. All hardware including bolts, nuts, shock absorbers, ropes and slide bars are supplied by the User Group on request. Penholders are responsible for making up their own mooring lines which are specific to each boat. To avoid fouling other propellers, hooks are required on each pile to hang mooring ropes when boats are absent from the pen. If a pen holder sells his boat, he is allowed 6 months to purchase another or must relinquish his pen.