Month: December 2014

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…

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…