THE Johnny Famechon statue project is being revived by the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame president Brett McCormick met Frankston MP Geoff Shaw earlier this month to seek his support. Mr McCormick was accompanied by Johnny Famechon statue committee members Rob McCarthy, Gary Luscombe and Arnold Thomas as well as the man himself, world boxing champion Johnny Famechon, who now prefers to be called John. “Fammo” lives in Frankston with his wife Glenys. The champ achieved worldwide fame after his epic title fights with Fighting Harada of Japan. Born in France in 1945, Fammo has called…
Year: 2013
MORNINGTON MP David Morris says he is relaxed about his electorate receiving nothing in the recent state budget. “The budget doesn’t reflect my commitment to the electorate,” he said. Mr Morris spoke to The News after announcing the next stage of reconstruction of Mornington pier – a $1.5 million contract to install wave screens on the upgraded middle section of the pier (“Pier wave screens in June”, The News, 21/5/13). He said the electorate and peninsula region had done well over the past two years. Last May the state government promised up to $15 million to rebuild the outer, 75-metre…
A YOUNG motorcyclist remains in a serious but stable condition in the Alfred Hospital after colliding with a car on Boes Rd, Tyabb, on Monday last week. The accident occurred near Valencia Rise, south of the Mornington-Tyabb and Boes roads roundabout, about 3.45pm. The rider, a 21-year-old Langwarrin man, was on an early model Yamaha 250cc with red P-plates when he hit a Ford sedan, almost going through the car’s windscreen and setting off the vehicle’s airbags. A couple from Bittern was in the car and police said they were in shock after the accident. Police allege the rider veered…
Homicide Squad detectives have charged a man following the discovery of deceased man in Carrum Downs yesterday. The body was found on land off Worsley Road, Carrum Downs around 4.50pm on Wednesday 1 May. A 40-year-old man from Dandenong has been charged with one count of manslaughter. Glenn Carleton appeared before an out of session court hearing at the Melbourne Custody Centre this evening (2 May). He has been remanded in custody to appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court tomorrow.
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire denies any responsibility for delays and costs associated with a $6 million affordable housing project on contaminated land at Hastings. The shire issued a planning permit for 20 houses to be built at the corner of Marine Parade and Church St but says it was up to the applicant, Low Cost Housing Pty Ltd, to say if there were any problems with the site. “It is incumbent on the permit applicant to submit all information relative to the proposed development including information about the existing conditions of the land in order to allow a full and proper assessment…
THE shire’s mayor Cr Lynn Bowden and her husband Ron Bowden have put their five-lot subdivision in Somerville on the market. The proposal required two appeals to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, including last year when a neighbour objected to the position of the lots. Mornington Peninsula Shire had previously refused a permit and Ron Bowden appealed the decision in the tribunal. The subdivided land of about 5.3 hectares (13 acres) is in the triangle formed by Frankston-Flinders and Grant roads. The shire granted a permit to subdivide on 29 December 2011. Four vacant lots are on the market…
A BLUEPRINT to cope with climate change flooding in the Rosebud and McCrae area in the short term and over the next 90 years has been released. The Port Phillip Coastal Adaptation Pathways Program states the benefits of “occupying the hazard zone, derived from its use by residents and businesses, is valued at about $35 million a year between now and 2100” and Mornington Peninsula Shire should start spending money to adapt to predicted sea level rise and significant flooding caused by extreme rainfall. The adaptation program studied four bayside areas – Rosebud-McCrae, Mordialloc, Elwood and Southbank as well as…
Arthurs Seat has been the scene of two RAAF aircraft crashes. The first was an Avro Anson A4 on 10 August 1938, resulting in the loss of four lives and only one survivor. The second was a Bristol Beaufort A9-64 on 12 July 1942, with all four crewmen killed. This is the story of the Avro Anson crash. ON 10 August 1938, five RAAF Avro Anson A4 bombers from No. 2 Squadron based at Point Cook were on navigational exercises. The aircraft followed a short triangular course with Port Phillip, Western Port and the Gellibrand lighthouse at Williamstown as the…
A MORNINGTON woman missing in Victoria’s remote eastern high country for four days was rescued by police late Sunday morning. Lynette Joyce Bond, 68, was found lying on the banks of the Snowy River, where she had scrawled the word “HELP” in the sand. Her plea was spotted by Air Wing police searching the area by helicopter and she was winched to safety about 11.30am on Sunday 7 April. Police said Ms Bond had been touring in the Snowy River National Park when her car broke down on Wednesday. Ms Bond’s plight was not discovered until Saturday when a hiker…
CONTROLLED burns to reduce the risk of bushfires on French Island created a spectacular cloud formation late Saturday afternoon. From Rosebud the cloud appeared to be hovering over the top of Arthurs Seat and alarmed some people travelling across the peninsula toward Hastings until they saw it was emanating from fires on the island. The Department of Sustainability and Environment has earmarked 671 hectares on the island to be burned and locations including Clump Lagoon (70ha), near the airstrip (101ha), the cemetery (138ha) and McLeod West (362ha). Other burns are planned at Devilbend Natural Feature Reserve near Moorooduc (50ha), Arthurs…
THE proposed expansion of the Port of Hastings was given a boost on Wednesday when the state government promised $110 million over four years. New Premier Denis Napthine visited Hastings with his new Ports Minister, David Hodgett, and said the money would help “complete the work required to start building a world-class container port with land-side transport connections at Hastings”. The money would be spent on “completion of preferred scope”, design, transport connection planning, early work to support environmental approval processes, business case development and “procurement and delivery strategies”. Dr Napthine said the port was a key component of Victoria’s…
POINT Nepean at the end of the Mornington Peninsula is one of four national parks slated for tourism development. Over Easter, the state government released guidelines for the building of hotels, restaurants and other visitor facilities at Point Nepean, Port Campbell, Wilsons Promontory and the Grampians (Gariwerd). The government’s intentions were first outlined in The News last year (“Parks a govt development target”, Western Port News 14/8/12 and Mornington News 21/8/12). The News reported that extensive work had already been done developing Point Nepean National Park. It is one of Mornington Peninsula Shire’s top tourist priorities – “accommodation, conferencing and…
THE balance of power in state parliament might be different today if Ted Baillieu had resigned as premier nine hours earlier on Wednesday 6 March. Frankston MP Geoff Shaw says he would not have quit the Parliamentary Liberal Party to become an independent if Mr Baillieu had been first out the door. Mr Shaw, under investigation by police and the parliament’s privileges committee over the alleged misuse of his taxpayer-funded vehicle and fuel card, handed his letter of resignation to the Deputy Premier Louise Asher nine hours before Mr Baillieu announced he would step down as Premier. “I was surprised,…
THE start of work on the Aldi store in Somerville brings to an end a long-running saga that revealed the loss of historical memory in the town, says historian Leila Shaw. Ms Shaw’s father Thomas Brunning, a First World War veteran, in 1946 donated land for an infant welfare centre at 1097 Frankston-Flinders Rd as a practical memorial for those who served in the Second World War. Residents worked hard during postwar austere times to raise money to build the centre, which was opened in July 1954 along with wrought iron memorial gates at the entrance bearing the word “Lest…
THE Arthurs Seat chairlift was removed on Wednesday last week and now lies in a Dromana storage yard awaiting transport to Adelaide. Its removal brings to an end a long and sometimes bitter battle between Richard Hudson, who has owned the chairlift for more than 30 years, and the state government’s WorkSafe Authority and Parks Victoria. The chairlift troubles started on 3 January 2003 when one of eight pylons collapsed, sending about a dozen people to hospital and stranding many of the 50 people aboard, some for up to six hours. A WorkSafe investigation found the collapse was caused by…
RESEARCHERS are excited and confused by early sightings of whales in Port Phillip and Western Port. Dolphin Research Institute executive director Jeff Weir said whales usually showed up in June “so this is quite extraordinary – but then again so is 25 degrees in Mornington harbour”. Mr Weir said the first report of whale off Seaford “sounded more like a false killer whale”. Since then reports of a humpback whale have come from sailors at Somers and Balnarring. “One of the people from Somers Yacht Club seems very knowledgeable about humpbacks. We also had a reliable sighting of a humpback…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has awarded expanded infrastructure maintenance contracts to Transfield Services. Transfield announced the contract last Tuesday, although the shire has not yet made a public statement. The decision is likely to see smaller contractors lose work from the shire. Graeme Hunt, Transfield’s managing director and chief executive, said the company would “continue its 15-year relationship with the …shire in three expanded 10-year contracts providing sustainable infrastructure maintenance services for $190 million”. “We are thrilled to be able to continue to apply our expertise in long-term asset management principles to the Mornington Peninsula Shire, in one of the company’s…
DRIVERS of electric scooters and people with walking frames are being forced onto the road by building works at the corner of Marine Parade and Church St in Hastings. The footpath is blocked by safety fences erected around the $6 million “affordable” homes project. Work stopped on the 20 homes last year after builders unearthed a disused fuel tank, forcing project owners Community Housing Ltd to have soil tested to gauge the extent of contamination from the tank left over from an old service station. However, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better, with the state…
RETIRED pharmacologist Dr Martin Rush is the Australian Greens candidate for Flinders at the 7 September election. Dr Rush (pictured) was a last-minute candidate after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the election date. The Greens man wasted no time commenting on peninsula issues, slamming the proposed rubbish tip on the Arthurs Seat escarpment at Dromana. Dr Rush said he was “particularly concerned about the proposed development of the rubbish tip adjacent to Arthurs Seat State Park, the future of Hastings as a port and its impact on Western Port wetlands and marine sanctuaries, the despoilment of the Tootgarook Swamp by…
AN old quarry on the eastern side of Arthurs Seat could become the Mornington Peninsula’s newest rubbish tip. Hillview Quarries, owned by R E Ross Trust, is expected to submit an application to the shire council in about four weeks. The landfill plan would see the former Pioneer Quarry, which is east of Arthurs Seat State Park and north of Arthurs Seat Rd, used to dump household waste – 75 per cent from the shire and 25 per cent from outside. Up to 100 trucks a day would enter the bush precinct off Boundary Rd in Dromana. The proposal has…
PENINSULA Link freeway opened early last Friday, the fulfillment of a 44-year dream of roadbuilders who marked a freeway reserve in the third edition of Melway in 1969. This was when the state government planned to build a new suburb for 40,000 people on the Moorooduc Plains between Mornington and Somerville to house workers for industrial development at Western Port. The government’s big plans for Western Port did not come to full fruition, but the reserve stayed on the map. The 27-kilometre Peninsula Link connects EastLink tollway and Mornington Peninsula Freeway in Carrum Downs with the Mornington Peninsula Freeway at…
THE state government is being lobbied to improve roads around the Inghams Enterprises chicken processing plant near Baxter. The factory, which rose out of the ashes of a major fire in January 2010, has a staff of 600 processing more than 500,000 birds a week. Following this week’s announcement of the loss of 170 jobs at BlueScope, Inghams is now the largest private employer in the area. General manager Alan Wilson said projected increases in production meant that Inghams would increasingly use the larger B-double trucks that were hard to manoevre around the six-way intersection near Baxter Primary School. However,…
FRANKSTON Hospital will not reopen its short-stay ward of 10 beds until Easter. The move has been forced on the hospital by federal government cuts announced just before Christmas. On 18 December it was stated Victorian hospitals would start closing beds after the federal government cut $107 million from Victoria’s health budget. The cuts to funding came after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reduced population estimates for the current financial year, triggering the cut. On Wednesday, hospital spokesman John Jukes said the ward was meant to open this week after the summer break but would stay closed until Easter and…
Melbourne’s newest freeway Peninsula Link is set to open to traffic over night on Thursday 17 January 2013. The certificate of completion has now been issued by the project’s Independent Reviewer, confirming the 27 kilometre road is safe and ready to carry traffic. Given the logistics of opening 27 kilometres of freeway at the same time, Peninsula Link will open overnight on Thursday 17 January and carry live traffic by the Friday morning peak depending on weather. Victorians will be able to travel the entire distance from Melbourne CBD to the Mornington Peninsula without encountering any traffic lights. The opening…
WORKERS at Bluescope Steel are reeling after the company announced yesterday it would shed 170 jobs from its Hastings plant. The shock announcement comes just 15 months after more than 200 people were made redundant during a “restructure” of the Long Island Point steelworks in 2011. Workers were said to be stunned by Monday morning’s news, after the company had provided assurances in recent weeks when rumours of job cuts began circulating. “I’m still in shock myself,” said long-time BlueScope employee Billy Hassan yesterday afternoon. He said the latest round of redundancies would hit harder than those of 2011. “The…
THE master of the fishing trawler Lady Cheryl, which hit Corsair Rock near Port Phillip Heads last March, was affected by alcohol and fatigue at the time of the incident, says a report by the chief investigator of Transport Safety. The 27-metre trawler sank off Point Nepean at 1.20am on 24 March (pictured), spilling about 30,000 litres of diesel fue. The master and four crew members recorded blood alcohol readings in excess of 0.05 in breach the trawler owner’s zero tolerance policy. All crew were rescued by Port Phillip Sea Pilots. “The master was fatigued and had consumed a significant…
TOOTGAROOK Wetlands activist Cameron Brown of Rosebud West has had a David and Goliath-type win in the state planning tribunal. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found that a permit issued by Mornington Peninsula Shire for a housing development on the edge of the wetlands is invalid. The win has been hailed by conservationists as a victory for “people power” and another step toward stopping commercial and residential development in the wetlands, large parts of which are privately owned. The VCAT ruling has left Mornington Peninsula Shire severely embarrassed. If the development company is forced to remediate the block…
PENINSULA Link builder Linking Melbourne Authority is remaining tight-lipped about the expected opening date of the 27-kilometre freeway between Carrum Downs and Mt Martha. Rumours about the date have been circulating since before Christmas with one Melbourne radio station broadcasting Australia Day long weekend as a possible opening time. On Sunday, a Melbourne newspapers stated “the freeway does not open for at least another week” when reporting that users of Apple Maps on the iPhone had been wrongly directed to the unfinished road. Apple Maps users have been directed to the freeway for more than a month. On Tuesday, Gemma…
THE future viability of taxi services in Frankston and on the Mornington Peninsula could depend on the state government’s reaction to recommendations in the taxi industry inquiry report. The creation of an outer urban zone and certainty given to wheelchair taxi services provided by Frankston Radio Cabs has been welcomed by manager Kevin Dunn. However, Mr Dunn believes cheaper taxi licences proposed in the Customers First: Service, Safety. Choice report could lead to some operators “going broke”. “I’m not saying that would mean the world coming to an end, but we have a good rapport with the community and believe…
THE Mornington Park precinct was marred by rubbish after the hot weekend and looked like a Third World country, says resident Paul Smith. Mr Smith and former chamber of commerce president Scott Crowe are “citizen cleaners” who pick up rubbish in the precinct during regular morning and evening walks. The pair has been calling for improved rubbish collection for several years. “At 8pm on Sunday I visited the precinct while walking my dog. The whole area was absolutely disgusting, littered with rubbish and picnic waste everywhere,” Mr Smith said. “Rubbish bins where overflowing in Mornington Park, the Mothers Beach picnic…