Vessel movements and berthings, navigational aids, and wharfage rates, were the responsibility of the Ports and Harbours Branch under the Department of Trade and Customs.
[2] The trust was created after several boards of inquiry into means to improve access for shipping to Melbourne, and a specific Act of Parliament was finally passed in 1876.
The Trust also undertook the filling of the Sandridge Lagoon and dredging the deep-water channel to the Port Melbourne piers.
[5] By 1927 the trust was employing more than 1000 men Melbourne, and was the eighth largest deep-water port in the British Empire.
A sixth commissioner was appointed to represent port workers in 1954, perhaps indicating the growing influence of the Dockworkers Union.
[2] The trust was reorganised in 1978 to form the Port of Melbourne Authority, in line with modern organizational naming practice around the world, although its functions did not change greatly.