Australia’s beautiful coastline, ecosystems and beaches are under a huge threat from ocean polluters. The worst offenders are ocean outfalls. Australia's 144 ocean and estuary outfall pipelines dump more than three billion litres of semi-treated domestic, industrial, trade and abattoir waste onto or near the shoreline every single day.

Australia's ocean outfalls - Research paper

Gunnamatta Beach - A case study

The largest and dirtiest shoreline outfall in the country is at Gunnamatta Beach on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Clean Ocean’s number one campaign is achieving a National Ocean Outfall Closure Strategy by 2025, starting with Gunnamatta.

What is occurring at Gunnamatta Beach is part of a broader issue that confronts all Australians. Australia is a dry continent but it currently discharges extraordinary volumes of wastewater into our coastal and estuarine environments from 144 ocean outfalls around the country. 

Each day, an average of 450 million litres of effluent is discharged at Gunnamatta.

This is the equivalent of 15,000 petrol tankers (volume 30,000 litres) If these tankers were placed end to end they would total a length of 225km. 450 million milk cartons placed end to end would each day circle the equator of the earth twice. Over ten days flow, the number of milk cartons placed end to end would stretch to the moon and back from earth.

• 1 billion litres per day of sewage is produced in Melbourne
• 43% is treated at Eastern Treatment Plant: 430 million litres per day
• 8% of this flow is Trade Waste: 34 million litres or 34 thousand tonnes is discharged to Gunnamatta
• 4% is treated at retail water company treatment plants: 20 million litres per day
• 56% is treated at Western Treatment Plant: 570 million litres per day is discharged to Port Phillip Bay

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