A nine-ton anchor has dropped at Williamstown.
The anchor was last week lowered by crane outside Seaworks in Nelson Place.
It was donated by the family-owned Korevaar Marine Group, which has operated in the Port of Melbourne since 1967.
The Korevaar family has a strong maritime history spanning more than five generations in the Netherlands and Australia.
Seaworks Foundation board director Craig Bramich was instrumental in saving the anchor from the scrapheap, supported by local businesses who donated their time and labour to make it a statement piece for Nelson Place.
“The real story here is the incredible goodwill of all of the local people who have got on board to make this happen,” he said.
“Ninety-eight per cent of this has been done by or supplied by western suburb connections.
“I was truly humbled, almost a bit teary … there’s hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment there – the big crane and the big truck – and all the work that the guys have put into the fabrication.
“It’s truly been just been an amazing pull-together of a group of people with a common interest to commemorate John Korevaar, do something for Williamstown – it’s just awesome.”
Mr Bramich plans to install lighting at the base of the anchor to illuminate it in different colours for significant days.
“The goal is to have the white anchor coloured depending on the day,” he said.
“Red for Valentine’s Day, blue for Bluey Day, pink for breast cancer awareness and so on.”
He said the anchor would help put Seaworks on the map and draw people to the southern end of Nelson Place.
The anchor weighs 9.3 tons and measures 3.2 wide and 5.2 metres high.
