The Mornington Peninsula is known all over the country for its diversity of landscapes including some of the best beaches in the world, wild surf coast, rolling fields and unspoilt bushland as well as historic landmarks signifying some of the first British settlement in Terra Australis. But when it comes to people and culture, less than six per cent of people in the municipality speak a language other than English at home, compared with an average of 24 per cent in metropolitan Melbourne. Less than one per cent of the peninsula’s population is indigenous. The region is one of the…
Year: 2014
IT’S four and a half years since hundreds of sandbags were placed on Rosebud beach next to the jetty to protect the eroding foreshore as well as sand brought in to replace the eroded beach. The damage was done in April 2009 when storms and high tides blasted the beach as well as others around Port Phillip. The project – carried out by contractors for the Department of Sustainability and Environment (now called Department of Environment and Primary Industries, DEPI, but perhaps set to be changed again by the new Labor government) – cost $250,000 and the government claimed it…
Mornington municipal office. A full agenda. Notably, the first council meeting attended by the shire’s new chief executive officer, Mr Carl Cowie. By David Harrison IT WAS new shire CEO Carl Cowie’s first public appearance at a council meeting and, so far as Council Watch knows, his first peninsula public outing, full stop. Mr Cowie is the shire’s first new chief executive officer this millennium and the first new CEO for all councillors bar Cr David Gibb, who has sat in the chamber since at least 1999. Mr Cowie arrived in the chamber without fanfare. He sat quietly at the…
THE death of a Mornington Peninsula child after drinking raw cow’s milk has prompted Frankston and Mornington Peninsula health officers to visit retailers suspected of selling the product. Frankston CEO Dennis Hovenden said Environmental Health team officers had attended 10 premises last week. They ranged from health food shops to specialist delis and grocers in Frankston, Karingal and Seaford. “None of the premises inspected had any brand of bath milk available for sale,” he said. “One retailer had previously sold this type of product, but confirmed it would not be sold in future due to the inherent health risk.” Mornington…
Mt Eliza Community Hall, Monday 24 November. The usual fine nourishment followed by some feisty debate in a meeting that ran over time. DID Council Watch detect a frisson running through the meeting as it ranged across topics from growing fruit and vegies on your nature strip (who owns them?) to who chairs council meetings? Was the frisson in any way associated with anticipation about the meeting two days later, at which the new shire chief executive officer was to be announced? The councillors all knew the new CEO’s identity and were commendably, annoyingly for CW, zipper-lipped. Perhaps the secret…
A NEAR-miss between a light plane attempting to land at Tyabb airfield and a car on the Mornington-Tyabb Rd is being investigated by Peninsula Aero Club. The incident on Saturday night last week was witnessed by a family in the car immediately behind. Speaking on radio 3AW, a caller who identified herself as Dawn Baker, said she and her husband, Ken, and son, Jimmy, watched in amazement as the descending aircraft narrowly missed the roof of the car in front. Aero club president Peter Bernardi said the incident – recorded on CCTV – was being investigated by the club and…
THE proprietor of a Hastings car yard burgled and torched early on Saturday morning says he has “no idea” who is behind the attack. Gerry Marciny, who has owned Longbeach Autos in Marine Pde for four years, said the fire “could have been a mistake”. “We don’t have any disgruntled customers as far as I know,” he said. He said the arsonists broke into the office before stating the fire. They stole a laptop and model cars. The firebugs also scrawled the words ‘dogs’ and ‘pedifile’ (sic) across the bonnets and doors of several cars reminiscent of an attack on…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have dipped into the world of business finance rather than local government to find the shire’s new CEO. The appointment of Carl Cowie, who was born and educated in Scotland, was announced at a special council meeting last Wednesday. He started work on Monday. The shire was unable to provide Mr Cowie’s age or other basic information but The News believes he is in his late 40s. Previous employment history was taken from his LinkedIn listing. Mr Cowie replaces Dr Michael Kennedy, who unexpectedly left the shire mid-November after almost 16 years after being told by…
MOTOR racing for Graeme Bell is a family affair. His three children – Sean, 26, Chris, 24 and Jess, 22 – are all keen racers who compete with him at club events throughout Victoria and New South Wales. Mr Bell enjoyed motor racing in the mid-1990s in a BMW 323 but, like many parents, had to put his own activities on hold while his children were little. Now they have grown up, the family races as a team at state level championships under the name of Graeme’s company, Bell Motorsport, in Marine Pde, Hastings. Racing BMWs this year Sean, of…
AUTHOR Graham Patterson took a financial risk last year when he self-published his book Coastal guide to nature and history – Port Phillip Bay. It was the first of what he hoped would be a series of Coastal Guide Books about his 40 years walking the Victorian shoreline. He started the ambitious task in his mid-20s and is now in his mid-60s, and has covered three-quarters of the coast. “Whether I finish the task depends on my fitness,” he said. Mr Patterson, 66, a retired secondary school science teacher, was surprised at the reception the book received. It has sold…
CATCHING a large stingray off Portsea pier last week was probably a legal – but not socially responsible – act, fishing writer Paul Pingiaro said last week. Smooth back rays are not protected as long as the angler plans to eat his catch – and not just leave it to die on the beach, according to Fisheries Victoria. In the incident, a group of Asian men had caught the stingray – known as Old George by locals – and dragged it down to the beach before being coerced into releasing it by a passer-by. It reportedly then swam back under…
TWO inexperienced kayakers nearly didn’t make it back alive last Thursday night after going for a paddle off Mills beach, Mornington. One of the paddlers fell from the craft and his partner did not have the strength to lift him back in. A strong south-westerly wind was blowing them further out to sea. Luckily, the men can were spotted by a Mornington Life Saving Club women’s boat crew out on a routine training session. Sweep Andrew Kelly saw the men, aged about 22, about 500 metres offshore and guided the surf boat to their rescue. Crewmember Susanne Archbold said the…
MORE than $800,000 will be spent to improve traffic flow, car parking, and pedestrian and boat ramp access at Mornington’s pier precinct. Shire councillors last week approved the spending of $250,000 of ratepayer funds for the Mornington Pier Forecourt Plan. This will be combined with $365,000 from a state government boating safety and facilities fund with the balance coming from Parks Victoria. The work will level the area between the pier and the yacht club, and there will be a roundabout at the pier end of Schnapper Point Drive to enable cars and buses to turn more easily. Other items…
THE Labor Party may have won government in Victoria, but the Mornington Peninsula stayed where it has been for years: solidly behind the Liberal Party. Saturday’s poll held no election surprises on the peninsula, with all three Liberal candidates being re-elected with safe margins. David Morris was back for Mornington with 62.39 per cent of the vote; Martin Dixon in Nepean, with 57 per cent; and Neale Burgess, Hastings, 57.67 per cent. While Labor made inroads in all three seats – Mornington (3.8 per cent swing), Nepean (6.67 per cent) and Hastings (1.93 per cent) – the outcome never seemed…
FEW people have had to endure the scale of tragedy and heartache suffered by Melbourne mother Susan Berg. Fewer still have come out the other side radiating the warmth and passion for life the 44-year-old author now exudes. Orphaned as a teenager following a boating accident in Western Port in which she was the sole survivor, Berg’s life rapidly unravelled. It took almost a quarter of a century of pain and self-loathing for the former Toorak College staff member and Mornington Peninsula resident to find the courage and fortitude to declare peace on herself. The journey she outlines in her…
THE attempted killing of a large, resident stingray near Portsea pier has angered Portsea beachgoers who want significant species, such as this, protected. Jackie Younger, a coordinator at the Bayplay Retreat, said a group of about 10 men caught the smooth-back ray while fishing off the pier and hauled it up before dragging it back down to the beach – presumably to kill it. She said the men were “laughing and taking pictures” of the ray which was “many feet across”. A “very angry” Ms Younger confronted the men and demanded they return it to the water. “I am normally…
BEV Colomb is the new mayor of Mornington Peninsula Shire. It is Cr Colomb’s second mayoral term as she was “first among equals” in 2007-08. She replaces Cr Antonella Celi of Seawinds Ward. Cr Graham Pittock, also of Seawinds, was elected deputy mayor. One of three Briars Ward councillors, Cr Colomb is the 19th mayor since the “super” shire was formed from Mornington, Hastings and Flinders shires in late 1994 (three Kennett government-appointed commissioners ran the municipality until councillors were first elected in 1997). The shire has had five women mayors – Judith Graley in 2000-01 (now state Labor MP),…
THE Safety Beach-Dromana Men’s Shed is in a pickle: it has to find a new home by the end of December. Based at the Don Bosco Camp at Safety Beach for the past two years, the men’s shed has provided an outlet for retired men, some of whom might otherwise have felt depressed and socially isolated. Its 30-man membership meets at least three times a week to engage in community activities as well as socialise over coffee and trades work. The shed’s members have been involved with community events, as well as providing wood craft activities for the Dromana…
THE family of murdered Hastings jeweller Dermot O’Toole have spoken of their devastation over the 27 year sentence handed to his killer, Gavin Perry. Minutes before, Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth handed down the sentence requiring Perry to serve a minimum of 23 years before being eligible for parole. Ferocious weather had delayed the arrival of Perry in court. When he was finally led in, the 27-year-old was wearing a shabby blue shirt and pink striped tie, slightly askew. He could not make eye contact with members of the O’Toole family or their supporters, as they were obscured by a…
Homicide Squad detectives have charged a man with murder over the 2013 death of Barry Gray in Rye. 72-year-old Barry Gray was found deceased by police at his property in Parson Street on Friday 17 May about 9.40am. Detectives investigating the case successfully applied to both the Victorian and New South Wales Attorney General’s Department’s for the 23-year-old man’s movement into Victorian jurisdiction, from a NSW correctional facility, to face the charge. John Woodruff appeared before the NSW Local Court in August where it was determined he would serve his current sentence, in relation to other matters, in Victoria. He…
MORE than 500 people including senior police, politicians and community leaders, packed Mornington’s Peninsula Community Theatre last week in an overwhelming show of support for the campaign to turn the tide against family violence. Emotions ran high and many a tear was shed as the audience heard shocking details of the effects family violence was exacting on the community. The forum, organised by recently formed community group Peninsula Voice, featured speeches by Rosie Batty, Police Commissioner Ken Lay, Domestic Violence Victoria chief executive Fiona McCormack, and Rodney Vlais from Men’s Referral Service and No To Violence. Peninsula Voice president Peter…
THE Graham Pittock conflict of interest case, now concluded, has pulled the focus squarely on to the deep dysfunction afflicting Mornington Peninsula Shire Council over the Southern Peninsula Aquatic Centre. The case began with a 2012 allegation of conflict of interest – anonymous, as is allowed, to the secretive Local Government Investigation and Compliance Inspectorate – and ended last Friday with a fine and costs order. Almost a modern-day “Jarndyce and Jarndyce”, for those who read Dickens. For more than two years Cr Pittock was prevented from voting on the financially huge and physically expanding SPA, such is the cracking…
A MAN reportedly “died twice” on the Sorrento-Queenscliff ferry last Friday afternoon before being revived by crew members using a defibrillator. He was breathing when taken by air ambulance to the Austin Hospital and admitted in a critical condition, according to an Ambulance Victoria spokesperson. The ferry had moved only metres from the Sorrento wharf when the man, 50, collapsed with an unknown medical condition, prompting the crew to swing into action. The ferry was backed into position as two ambulances and the air ambulance arrived within 14 minutes to treat the man, who is said to be from Melbourne.…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has apologised for labelling a business planning to build a sports and trampoline centre on the southern peninsula “a scam”. The company, Peninsula Jump, announced via Facebook in July last year that it planned to open a fitness and sports centre on the peninsula which would also include a large trampolines zone. A lack of visible progress by the business has led critics on Facebook to criticise Peninsula Jump for a perceived lack of transparency. Peninsula Jump also launched “a non-profit arm” last November called Miracle Fund to raise funds for charitable causes. Council’s economic development manager…
THE state government is under fire over secrecy surrounding an agreement for a major commercial development with Point Nepean National Park. The Nepean Conservation Group and Nepean Historical Society has accused the government of keeping the community “in the dark” on critical details of the plan which includes a 99-year lease over the Point Nepean Quarantine Station to a Portsea property developer. And the National Parks Association of Victoria is “deeply concerned” about the creation of a “private enclave” within the national park. It says the public will have to pay to use most of the “facilities and activities” in…
THE 10.37 train to Hastings last Wednesday carried more than passengers – it brought with it the welcome legacy of 125 years of rail travel to the town. And what a celebration it heralded. On the platform to greet it were 100 guests waving flags, some wearing period costume, as well as memorabilia from the period, marquees, primary school choir, Western Port Secondary College’s salza band, dignitaries and a town crier. Oh, and even a birthday cake. Admittedly, the function was not as grand as that which launched the opening of the service in 1889, when it was regarded as…
FOR member for Mornington David Morris to lose his seat at the upcoming poll, the state Coalition government would need to suffer its most catastrophic defeat in history. Safely ensconced in the fifth safest Coalition seat in Victoria and requiring a swing of more than 20 per cent to unseat him, Mr Morris is all but certain of remaining the member for Mornington beyond the November election. But recently appointed Labor representative for Mornington Rebecca Wright, pictured right, isn’t fazed by such obstacles. The 38-year-old mother of three, who works as a speech pathologist at Peninsula Specialist College in Dromana,…
EMERGENCY services authorities are warning Frankston and Mornington Peninsula residents to brace themselves for a prolonged bushfire season of extreme risk due to unusually dry conditions and predictions of higher than average temperatures over the spring and summer months. Country Fire Authority, Department of Primary Industries and council officers are stepping up efforts to reduce fuel loads across a number of high-risk locations on the peninsula in response to warnings of “significant” risks during an “above normal bushfire season”. Residents are also being urged to reduce fuel loads and ensure their properties are clear of potential hazards. Mornington Peninsula shire…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire CEO Michael Kennedy believes he is “the very best person” to continue in the role he has held for the past 15 years. A newspaper advertisement campaign for the job launched on Saturday said the successful applicant would need to “deliver inspirational and visionary leadership”. Whoever gets the $350,000 a year job will also be expected to “drive strategic change” and have the “ability to see things from a fresh perspective”. One day after councillors surprisingly decided to test the market rather than reappoint him, Dr Kennedy emailed staff – “team-mates” – with the results of his…
THIS year’s Face of the Mornington Racing Club, Caitrin O’Rourke, is no stranger to racecourses. The 29-year-old nurse from Ireland relocated to Australia two years ago and has always had a keen interest in horse racing. “My dad and brothers had shares in horses in Ireland and I have been doing show jumping and racing since I was a lass. While I was putting myself through uni I rode track work for trainers to earn extra money,” said Ms O’Rourke, who lives next to the Mornington Racecourse with her partner, racecourse vet Eoin Kelly. Ms O’Rourke arrived in Melbourne two…