Month: July 2014

THE Labor Party is promising a detailed economic study to determine the best site for Melbourne’s next major port if it wins the November election. “Hastings requires substantial investment in road and rail funding to get goods in and out, and without that additional investment the Nepean Highway and Dandenong Rail corridor will be flooded with trucks and trains 24 hours a day,” the party’s ports spokesperson Natalie Hutchins said. Ms Hutchins’ comments were included in a statement issued last week after being briefed on the container port being planned by the Port of Hastings Development Authority. Port Minister David…

WORK on a new $1.6 million sports pavilion at Fruitgrowers Reserve in Somerville will begin in August following announcement the construction contract has been awarded to Melbourne builder 4 Dimensions. Building works, which are slated for completion by May 2015, will triple the size of existing facilities from 157 square metres to 446 square metres. Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors voted to approve 4 Dimensions Building Contractors of Mulgrave following a tender process in which four bids were lodged. The new pavilion, which will be occupied by Somerville Junior Football Club and Somerville Cricket Club, will include multipurpose change rooms for…

RED Hill ward voters will have a shire record 17 candidates to choose from when they cast their ballots for a new councillor on 23 August. The long list of names on the ballot paper is seen as a major win for the democratic process which in 2008 saw candidates in six of the then 11 single-councillor shire wards returned uncontested. Former Red Hill councillor Frank Martin entered council unopposed that year. He faced two opponents in 2012, one of whom is standing again this time. He resigned recently because of ill health. This election’s huge field is a disparate…

THIEVES stole up to $300,000 worth of gold chains, watches, coins, rings and bangles from the Red Hill Greek Orthodox Church on Wednesday afternoon. An iconic framed image of the Virgin Mary was left behind. The robbery occurred when The Reverend Father Eleftherios Tatsis was farewelling visitors at the church’s front gate. The thieves are believed to have entered a side door and broken a sealed glass box to steal the items. Detective Senior Sergeant John Coburn, of Rosebud crime investigation unit, said police were appealing for public assistance to retrieve the items which had been donated to the church,…

HUNDREDS of mourners attended a memorial service on Sunday for Frankie and Liam Davison, who lost their lives in the MH17 plane disaster. Crowds flocked to Toorak College to pay tribute to the Mt Eliza couple. Mrs Davison, 54, was an English teacher at the school for 28 years. Husband Liam, 56, was an award-winning novelist and taught creative writing courses at Frankston’s Chisholm TAFE Institute for several years until 2007. The commercial airliner the Davisons were passengers on was downed over battle-torn east Ukraine in the early hours of Friday 19 July. A surface-to-air missile is believed to have…

THE spectre of homelessness in old age weighs heavily on those lacking the job prospects and mobility of someone younger. This is especially so for older renters. Adding to the threats posed by rising property prices, insufficient superannuation, or joblessness come other worries: unexpected eviction, unaffordable rents or increasingly unsuitable accommodation exacerbated by advancing years. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that from 2006-2011 there was a 40 per cent increase in the number of people aged over 55 renting privately on the Mornington Peninsula. That is up from 1028 to 1413 tenants. The figures taken from the…

MISS Galaxy Australia title holder Jessica Martini is all set to jet off to the United States next weekend to compete for the international Miss Galaxy crown. The 26-year-old Hastings resident, who represented the Mornington Peninsula when she won the Miss Galaxy Australia crown on the Gold Coast earlier this year, will compete against national winners from across the globe in Orlando, Florida, from 2-12 August for the prestigious international beauty pageant crown. In the lead-up to the international final, Ms Martini said she had been working hard to help raise funds for the competition’s chosen Australian charities, Make a…

BLAIRGOWRIE Yacht Squadron is playing down the effects of storm damage on its marina – despite the beach being littered with polystyrene beads broken off floating wave attenuators. The attenuators have now been dragged onto the beach. Over the past few weeks high winds and pounding waves have broken up the concrete and polystyrene attenuators which act as a floating breakwater designed to reduce waves entering the marina. General manager Amanda Jacobs said the wild weather had placed some of the attenuators “under distress” forcing the club to hire contractors to remove them. It is the second time in less…

AS GAMBLES go, building the Southern Peninsula Aquatic Centre ranks with the punt of the Iowa farmer who, hearing a voice whisper “If you build it he will come”, ploughed in his corn crop and built a baseball field. Shazam! Up popped baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson (deceased) to flesh out the plot of ‘Field of Dreams’, an American fantasy film of 1989 starring the forgettable Kevin Costner. The “build” quote has transmogrified into “Build it and they will come”, a nice entrepreneurial spin line used to reel in the gullible. The question: “Who will come to the SPA?” demands…

A PROMINENT Portsea family is behind a $100 million plan to make Point Nepean National Park “a world-class tourist destination and education precinct”. The Premier Denis Napthine was at the park’s Quarantine Station on Friday to announce government backing for the bid to develop the precinct by the Point Leisure Group. The group’s directors and Myer family members Richard and Trine Shelmerdine said their plan would “transform Point Nepean’s historic Quarantine Station in a way that shares and maintains its unique heritage and natural environment”. They predict Point Nepean will become a “world-class destination … combining its natural beauty and…

THE peninsula has been rocked by the loss of two of its own with the tragic deaths of Mt Eliza couple Liam and Francesca “Frankie” Davison after the Malaysia Airlines flight they were passengers on was shot down over Ukraine last Friday morning. Early evidence points to flight MH17 being hit by a surface-to-air missile as it flew over a war zone on its way to Kuala Lumpur. The commercial airliner was downed while flying over Russian separatists-held territory in eastern Ukraine. Mr and Mrs Davison were on their way to Melbourne via KL and boarded the flight in Amsterdam.…

IT may be one of the country’s most pop tourist destinations, but the Mornington Peninsula doesn’t even rate a mention among the state’s top 12 “experiences and destinations”, according to the latest edition of Lonely Planet Melbourne & Victoria. Taking out top spot in the ninth edition of the travel company’s Melbourne and Victoria guide book is the Great Ocean Road, with Melbourne’s laneways, The Grampians, Melbourne’s “cultural and sporting hub”, and Wilsons Promontory rounding out the top five. The closest the peninsula comes to rating a mention among Victoria’s “must visit” locations is the listing of Phillip Island and…

CLAIMS of a lack of transparency are being made over plans to lease and redevelop the former Southern Peninsula Rescue Service building in Sorrento. Mornington Peninsula Shire had called for expressions-of-interest for the commercial or community use of the 857 square metre site at 4 Hotham Rd, which operated as an ambulance station and helicopter pad since 1987. Tenders closed on 12 June and a shortlist of preferred occupants will go to the special purposes committee on Monday week. It is believed the likely tenant is a peninsula wedding reception operator. However, this could not be confirmed by The News,…

On Saturday 12 July, a large crowd braved the winter wet to attend a dedication ceremony in honour of Dermot O’Toole. It was a year to the day since his murder, but Bridget, Trent, Christian and Dale O’Toole stepped out in front of a big crowd to remember their husband and father. A laneway and memorial bench were named in his honour. The rain didn’t abate, and reference was made to the weather being more reflective of Dermot’s country of birth. Crowded in tight the crowd, many dressed in green, listened to speeches about Dermot’s murder and the profound effect…

ROSIE Batty may have acted differently on the day her son Luke was killed by his father had she been made aware her estranged partner had made disturbing death threats towards a housemate just weeks earlier, the ABC’s Four Corners program revealed on Monday. Greg Anderson, who murdered Luke by bashing him with a cricket bat and stabbing him with a knife following a mid-week cricket practice session at Tyabb on 12 February, threatened to cut his housemate’s head off during an argument at the Chelsea Heights home they shared. Police failed to mention the incident to Ms Batty despite…

BOGUS pamphlets advertising a free hard waste collection in Mornington last Monday had shire officers – and residents – scratching their heads. Neither the pamphlets – nor the hard waste collection – was organised by the shire. But, as a result, hundreds of residents mistakenly placed hard waste on their nature strips – and now many have had to take it back inside or arrange to dispose of it through the shire’s hard waste collection services. Residents said “professional-looking” pamphlets were dropped into letterboxes around the Nepean Highway-Bentons Rd area, fooling them into thinking the council was planning an unscheduled…

VOTERS participating in the August poll for a new Red Hill ward councillor are being urged to “look for character and ability and try to see through the inevitable running mate strategy of politicised groups”. The tips for choosing the right candidate come from David Gill, a one-time shire president of the former Shire of Mornington and member of the Balnarring Beach Community Association. Mr Gill, who has criticised state government planning policies on the Mornington Peninsula, told The News on Monday that “at this stage I won’t be a candidate”. At this stage, it will be a three-way contest…