Month: May 2015

A woman has died following a crash involving three cars in Pearcedale last evening. The collision happened at the intersection of Robinsons Road and the Western Port Highway just after 5pm. Police believe the 19-year-old Mt Eliza woman was travelling west on Robinsons Road when she entered the intersection and collided with a north bound Ford Ranger utility. The utility then collided with another vehicle that was in the intersection, attempting to turn left, onto the highway. The woman, who was the sole occupant in the car, was airlifted to The Alfred hospital but died on arrival. Four men in…

Police are on the hunt for a man who allegedly stole a puppy from a pet shop in Carrum Downs in April. Investigators have been told the man entered the store on Frankston-Dandenong Road around 4.30pm on Tuesday 14 April. The man waited for employees to be distracted and it is alleged he then used a screwdriver to damage the lock in order to gain access to the puppy pen. The man took the puppy placing it under his jacket and left the store. The puppy is described as being 11 weeks old at the time it was stolen, tan…

WINTER is almost here and Hastings SES volunteers are getting ready to respond to calls for help from storms and floods. The preparations to enable a quick response coincide with the national FloodSafe week (25-31 May) and an SES warning that “however many people are unaware of just how dirty, disgusting and dangerous floodwater can be”. The SES says that floodwaters can pick up “all kinds of awful materials, including toxic chemicals, animal faeces, decaying animals, garbage, broken glass and rusted metal”. Kate Nangle from Hastings SES said this year’s focus was on “shining a light into the murky contents…

IN the first weekend of their crackdown on vandalism Hastings police handed out dozens of warnings and made three arrests. The “zero tolerance” Operation Dragon was started a week ago to counter a rising tide of vandalism, especially around Somerville Secondary College in Graf Rd, where vandals recently caused $4500 damage to building equipment and a rammed earth wall, as well as smashing windows and defacing a mural by Seaford artist Tony Sowersby, just one week before its completion. Other attacks have occurred at Somerville Rise Primary School and to community buildings. Police said groups of teenagers roam Somerville streets…

STAFF numbers have been cut to 14 at the Port of Hastings Development Authority. The latest cuts are in line with the Labor government’s aim of hearing from Infrastructure Victoria before deciding on a site for the state’s second container port. While falling short of formally abandoning Hastings, this latest move is likely to leave a significant vacuum in the forward planning policies of the Mornington Peninsula and Frankston. The Port of Hastings Development Authority has all but been left out of the latest state budget and must rely on ever decreasing revenues from port operator, Patricks Stevedores. In the…

CHILDREN enrolling in Rosebud West primary schools in the next few years will benefit from a program making language development the priority. Melbourne University professor Joseph Sparling launched his program at Seawinds Community Hub, Allambi Av, Rosebud West last week. “The program responds to strong evidence that children who start kindergarten and school with developmental delays are at significant risk of underachievement in school,” Seawinds Community Hub CEO Heather Barton said. “It offers a comprehensive, preventive approach to help children become not just school ready, but raring to go.” The pilot phase is being jointly run by Eastbourne Primary School,…

POLICE have released images of two men who forced their way into the Tobacco Station store in Ninth Av, Rosebud, 2.37am, Tuesday 12 May. The men jemmied open the roller shutters and smashed glass panels on the door. One man stayed outside and passed a wheelie bin in to the other who filled it with cigarettes valued at $20,000. The men drove off in a light green 1998-2001 Toyota sedan. The store owner suspects two men who appeared to be casing the store the previous day. One of the men is of Asian appearance with a distinctive hairstyle. Anyone with…

THE mother of a child at Rye Primary School is “shocked” that over several years her children had been told to pick up rubbish in the grounds “with their bare hands”. “To discover that my children completed litter duty tasks without being provided any safety equipment, like gloves or tongs, has angered me greatly,” Lisa Stone, of Rye, said. “It would only take a sharp piece of hard plastic or glass, a discarded apple core from a child who has the flu – or worse still – a discarded needle to injure or seriously affect the health of my child.”…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council’s pending decision on the controversial RACV Cape Schanck resort expansion has been thrown into disarray over potential conflict of interest. The shire’s governance department cancelled last Wednesday’s meeting about the resort application just hours before it was due to start. Advice from the shire’s legal adviser had previously given councillors who are RACV members the all-clear to discuss and decide on the proposed $135 million resort but advice seen by The News disagreed. Governance took the conservative approach and stopped the meeting in Mornington. The issue hangs on members of RACV roadside assistance being entitled to…

ARGUMENTS for and against the rezoning of South East Water’s decommissioned reservoir land in Mt Eliza for housing were put to a state government planning panel meeting in Rosebud last week. The panel has 30 business days to prepare its report and the planning authority will have a maximum of 28 days to release the report to the public, says Mornington MP David Morris who has taken a keen interest in the matter. Late last year he asked Mornington Peninsula Shire to extend its public consultation period. The shire refused. In early 2014 the government water authority asked the shire…

ONE of Mornington’s iconic properties of the 19th century is on the market for $1.6 million. Mossgiel at 28 Bath St near the base of Beleura Hill and within a short stroll of Mills Beach will be auctioned on Saturday 13 June. The 2790-square metre property with its Italianate house is on the corner of Bath and Whitby streets, and has been owned by Philip and Moira Robinson of Robinson’s Bookshop fame since 1961. The couple opened their shop in Frankston in 1965 and sold it in 1993. It continues to trade. “We bought the property twice,” Mr Robinson told…

THE proposed signalised pedestrian crossing at Mt Eliza where Tower Rd and Volitans Ave join the Nepean Hwy will cost $500,000 and take about three months to construct. The News reported last week (“Lights for black spot”) the budget was $400,000 but Mornington Peninsula Shire will contribute $100,000 and a grant from the federal government will be $400,000. It had previously allocated $300,000 but the price went up when VicRoads agreed the lights needed vehicle-activated under-road pads at Tower Rd that will trigger the lights when cars seeking to enter the highway have been waiting a while. This should stop…

BANK customers are being warned to watch out for skimming devices being fitted to some Mornington Peninsula branch ATMs. A Bendigo Bank customer at Dromana got a shock to find her savings account “cleaned out” on Monday last week and immediately posted a warning on her Facebook page. Katrina Cooper, of Dromana, told friends to make sure the light was flashing over the card insert slot “otherwise it may have a skimming device” and also to cover the keypad with their hands when keying in PIN numbers. “People need to know for their own security,” she said. “My card had…

MAIN St, Mornington, will be abuzz this Queen’s Birthday long weekend with the sights and sounds of the third Mornington Winter Jazz Festival. The four-day celebration of music, art and heritage – and lots of entertainment festival – runs from 5-8 June. It will feature live laneway painting with The Snakehole Gallery artists, live music on stages, roving jazz bands and pop-up KidsZones from 10am Saturday and Sunday. The cornerstone of the festival is the jazz program with performances by Emma Pask and Adrian Cunningham, and George Golla and Jacki Cooper performing Tea For Two. There will also be Jude…

THE making of six wooden paipos, or wooden Hawaiian bodyboards, is a centrepiece of a project that is sees generations swapping skills. In return for being shown how to handle timber working tools by members of Mornington Men’s Shed students from Mt Eliza Secondary College are giving lessons on handling such digital touch screen devices as smart phones and hand held computers. But the outcomes for both old and young go much deeper than the creation of a surfboard or ability to operate a smart phone or computer. A surprising connection between the generations comes in the form of statistics:…

THE struggling Moorooduc Coolstores commercial centre is being thrown another lifeline in its long battle to remain viable. Its trading future has not been helped by the advent of Peninsula Link, which now diverts most peninsula tourist traffic away from the extensively renovated heritage buildings just south of Frankston. Although the centre now houses several businesses, including an Endota Spa and a cake shop, it needs more tenants. At the 22 April Mornington Peninsula Shire planning meeting councillors resolved to simplify the procedure for approving changes to use of the site, at the corner of the Moorooduc Highway and Eramosa…

HUNDREDS of Mt Eliza homes have been without landline phones since 10 May, Mother’s Day, after Telstra main cables were damaged. Telstra told customers the service was due to be repaired by Thursday 14 May but has since revised the date three more times – 19, 22 and 27 May. Some residents are furious with the way Telstra has handled the outage and a Facebook page used by Mt Eliza residents to complain or comment about current events is steaming with complaints as well as tips on how to work around the outage. After days of to-ing and fro-ing with…

A NEW land, a new language and no friends or job. It is a situation that is hard to imagine and even harder to experience. However, that was the predicament confronting Luz Restrepo when she arrived in Australia five years ago after fleeing her native Colombia. “I was a political asylum seeker with no contacts, very little English language and no employment,” Ms Restrepo said last week. “I had left my successful communications business to protect my family under threat.” It was a fear that she was unable to shake. “When I arrived in Australia I was full of fear,…

A MORNINGTON Peninsula car buyer was one of 91 victims of a trickster who allegedly wound back the speedos on cars he was selling online. Police at Mornington last week charged the man, 29, of Reservoir, with obtaining financial advantage by deception and acting as an unlicensed motor car trader. He was bailed to appear at Frankston Magistrates’ Court for a filing hearing and is expected to be tried at the Country Court at a later date. Detective Senior Sergeant Nick Vallas, of Mornington police, will allege the man on-sold vehicles to the value of $1 million after buying them…

NEPEAN INTERLEAGUE NEPEAN Football League dropped its Victoria Country Football League ranking from 13 to 12 on Saturday despite going down in a thriller to Riddell Football League at Mecedon. Wasted opportunities were the difference between the sides, Nepean FL having 31 scoring shots to just 24 but going down by three points, 15.9 (99) to 13.18 (96). The visitors dominated possession time in their forward half in the final quarter, however, could only manage 4.6 to Riddell Football League’s 3.3. Trailing by 12 points at three quarter time, the visitors quickly went three goals down in the opening minutes…

PENINSULA INTERLEAGUE PENINSULA Football League will get another crack at Geelong Football League for the top dog title after hanging on to beat Ovens & Murray Football League in Albury on Saturday. The visitors beat their more fancied opponents for the third time in as many meetings after knocking them over at Frankston Park and Optus Oval in previous meetings. Other than trailing by two points at quarter time, Peninsula FL controlled the game for most of the match. There were some tense moments in the final quarter when Ovens & Murray made a charge in front of their home…

THE Emu Plains and Bittern Race Club will hold their postponed race meeting on Tuesday next (weather permitting). *** S. S. PRICE, dentist, of Melbourne, will be at Garrood’s Prince of Wales Hotel this weekend, for the convenience of those who may wish to consult him. *** MR Allan W. Taylor, of the Frankston Motor Garage, has been appointed agent at Frankston for the Dunlop Tyre Co., and has in hand a good stock of all their motor accessories. *** THE secretary of the Frankston Football Club acknowledges with thanks the following donations to wards the club’s funds: Messrs C.…

A 42-year-old Langwarrin man will face court after Frankston detectives executed a warrant in Landhill Close yesterday. Police entered the residential property and arrested the man around 3.30pm. They also uncovered a cache of weapons including swords, slingshots, laser pointers and knives. He was interviewed by detectives and has been charged with possess handgun, possess prohibited weapons, possess cannabis and advertise and sell prohibited weapons. The man will face the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on 8 September.

HASTINGS FNC – By Phil Stone, club president SENIORS REPORT THE weekend saw the Blues face up against Somerville. It was a strange game that was low scoring and no team really dominated the other. The boys played well in patches but for the most part we got beaten on the outside of the contest and this hurt us with them getting some easy football. Our skills were not as good as they have been, and at times we went back to old habits and bombed the football which did not help our forwards. Again we had more scoring opportunities but…

CRIB POINT FC – By Jared Newton CRIB Point slipped to its fourth loss in five matches after going down by 51 points to a slick Rye outfit. Despite being in touch for much of the afternoon, Crib were unable to get ahead and after getting within 15 points midway through the 3rd quarter, Rye pulled away for a comfortable win. The Magpies are really underdone at the moment and Saturday’s side missed eight players that were not in their grand final side who are either injured or suspended. Despite this is was a few familiar faces leading the charge for…

WORLD War II survivor Keith Stevens once remarked that he did not get too upset when things went wrong in business, or life, because of the situation he found himself in after being shot down during a night bombing raid over France. “I always look back to the time when I was shot down and was sitting under a tree in a foreign country – an enemy occupied country – and I didn’t know the language, and I had nothing to eat. I look back at that and think nothing could get as bad as that. Life could never get…

MOOROODUC Primary School appears to be the sole beneficiary of any direct grant from this month’s state budget. The school’s allocated $1 million will be spent on offices and classrooms. Nepean MP Martin Dixon says the needs of other schools on the Mornington Peninsula have been ignored. “Much needed school upgrades have also been shelved across the peninsula with asbestos related issues being a major concern,” Mr Dixon, Education Minister in the former Coalition government, said. “The last Labor government sat on known asbestos in schools for 11 years and while talking big, are delivering small. “Red Hill Consolidated School…

THE size of a proposed retirement village at Somerville is concerning nearby residents and a Mornington Peninsula Shire councillor. The development, at 16 Graf Rd, Somerville, is for a 223-bed facility of between two and three storeys in 11 separate buildings. The shire advertised the notice of application last week and it is expected to go before council next month. Objectors claim the proposal is not in keeping with the character of the town; that its height will be visually overpowering and that infrastructure, such as roads and drainage, will not be able to cope with the extra demand. Cr…

HEALTHCARE services need to plan for a rise in pancreatic cancer, Peninsula Health’s Endoscopy boss Dr Leon Fisher has warned. His warning coincides with this week’s launch of the 2015 cancer appeal to buy the $500,000 cancer detecting machine. “An endoscopic ultrasound and endoscopic bronchial ultrasound machine is a critical piece of equipment for diagnosing and treating a range of cancers,” Dr Fisher said. “Currently, local residents must travel outside our catchment zone to access diagnostic services for pancreatic cancer and are often put on long waiting lists. “We have CT scanners, MRI scanners, surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy … everything…

A NAME synonymous with spectacular fireworks displays all over the world has its Victorian base at Balnarring. Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics – one of the country’s best-known fireworks artists and producers – is run locally by master pyro-technician Rusty Johnson. The designer and programmer uses advanced digital pyrotechnic and musical software to bring his vivid imagination to life. “Our state-of-the-art computer firing system and design software enables our performances to be choreographed with music and all multimedia. As well, the use of special computer firing hardware allows fireworks to be fired from an unlimited number of locations to produce the…