IT was a night to remember, this startling, shocking glimpse of councillors in a state of loosened fiscal décolletage, a heady, sensual recline into monetary abandonment. And that was just the men. It was shire councillors having their version of a Boxing Day-sale, cash gone in a flash and, like the recent federal budget, only capable of being fully comprehended days later. It was your rate money – $113,934 of it – whooshing out into the community at the dizzying rate of a rotunda here ($19,900), a war memorial there ($20,000), $1000 of wrist bands over yonder. All in one…
Day: May 17, 2014
EMMA Hall is a big hitter. The Mount Martha resident began playing tennis seriously when she was 11 years old and left Australia to head off to the US in the late 1990s to play tennis professionally, having made her name on the Australian juniors circuit. The 34-year-old is now set to have her US achievements immortalised in the Big South Conference Hall of Fame this week. It’s a long way from her tennis career beginnings at Main Ridge tennis club and current stint as Rosebud Tennis Club’s section 1 team captain, leading the team to “back to back” premierships…
YOUNG Mornington Peninsula sailors Pip Pietromonaco and James Wierzbowski recently set sail for Europe as part of the Australian Sailing Team after being selected to represent their country at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Pietromonaco, 22, from the Westernport Yacht Club and Wierzbowski, also 22, from Merricks Yacht Club, learned in March they had won places on the 15-member national Olympic sailing team and are now competing in a full itinerary of international events across Europe. The long-time stars of peninsula sailing are competing together in the new discipline of Mixed Multihull in the fastest Olympic sailing class, the Nacra 17.…
IT is that time of year again, when the International Cool Climate Wine Show is held here on the Mornington Peninsula. This annual event is now in its 15th successful year and is recognised as one of the best boutique wine shows in Australia. With an experienced judging panel lead by Meg Broadtman MW, the wine show offers participants from cool climate wine regions the opportunity to showcase their wines. Owned and organized by the Red Hill Agricultural & Horticultural Show, and held at the Mornington Racing Club, it was originally established to help benchmark cool climate wines. Since 2000,…
FROM her first memory, Gina Poulos was taught to give. A migrant family from Cyprus, she recalls there always being people at their house, and those people never leaving empty handed. “When we arrived in Australia, we settled in Traralgon. I always remember my parents being very generous people and they taught us to always give people whatever we had” said Mrs Poulos. Her father eventually owned rental properties in the area. Sometimes the people renting the houses had fallen on hard times, so when they came around to pay the rent, the family made sure they never left empty…
The News interviewed Tommy Hafey in October last year. The interview, entitled “Hafey: I love people” is reprinted below in memory of a great and gracious man. By Andrew Kelly In the world of AFL Football, there are not many bigger names in the game than Thomas Stanley Raymond Hafey. The man dubbed T-shirt Tommy by the great commentator Lou Richards, has coached at four VFL-AFL Clubs, is one of five coaches to have coached more than 500 games in the history of the game, has coached teams to 10 grand finals and four premierships and has had 18 former…
EARLY morning fog rolled in over Port Phillip Bay on Monday 12 May. It settled into a low cloud cover that lasted till late afternoon. Viewed from atop Arthurs Seat, the eerie mist resembled a white cotton wool blanket, as it hugged the Mornington Peninsula coast. Picture: Yanni