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…
Day: December 2, 2014
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…