ANALYSIS RUMOURS of BlueScope Steel closing its Port Kembla blast furnace in Wollongong and reorganising its Australian flat steel production could benefit the company’s plant at Hastings. BlueScope announced a full-year profit of $136.3 million on 24 August – an improvement on last year’s loss of $83 million and even larger losses in recent years – and its share price went up but these are worrying times for the nation’s biggest steel producer, its workers and other stakeholders. The financial result came out on the day the Australian share market suffered its worst fall since the global financial crisis but…
Day: September 7, 2015
REMEMBER the glory days of World Championship Wrestling at Festival Hall? Sunday afternoons in the 60s and 70s would come alive with mad-cap bouts – mainly between US showmen wrestlers and the locals – over 16 years. Was it rigged? Was it all a sham? No one really cared as we cheered the “good” guys – the Golden Greek, Spiros Arion, Mark Lewin, Mario Milano, and Dominic DeNucci, taking on the “baddies” – Killer Kowalski, Brute Bernard, Bulldog Brower and Abdullah the Butcher. Gravel voiced US-born commentator Jack Little was in his element, spruiking his famous catchphrases: “Wham! Bam! Thank…
THE shire has charged the owner of a bush block in Main Ridge with illegal clearing under the Environment and Planning Act. The matter will come before Frankston Magistrates’ Court next week. The owner faces a maximum penalty of $180,000 per offence but any fine is likely to be much lower. If the prosecution is successful, the fine would likely be in the range of $5000 to $50,000. The matter of remediation will be pursued separately. About a third of the 16-hectare block was cleared in January by a contractor. A shire spokesman told The News the owner had been…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire will soon begin erecting traffic signals at the corner of McDowell St and Jetty Rd, Rosebud. The intersection has received Black Spot funding after three serious injury crashes over the past five years. The signals and usual traffic management works will allow for safer turning movements and make it easier for pedestrians to access local shops, primary school, Centrelink office and Centro Rosebud shopping centre. But parking will be affected by VicRoads works and No-standing areas will be enforced on McDowell St from Jetty Rd to about 60 metres west of Jetty Rd. A No-standing area will…
DROMANA’S famous Butterfly House; war memorials at Somerville, Red Hill and Mornington; the former Sorrento post office; and a slab cottage built in about 1850 at Heronswood are among the places featured at the 2015 Mornington Peninsula Heritage Awards. The awards are a joint effort of the peninsula branch of National Trust and Mornington Peninsula Shire, and started in 2011. They were presented on Friday 28 August by shire mayor Cr Bev Colomb and Dr Graeme Blackman, chairman of the National Trust board. Cr Colomb said the “excellent nominations” received this year were a good indicator that interest in the…
THE replacement of Rosebud pier is finally complete after two construction periods more than five years apart that saw state government agency Parks Victoria spend about $3.5 million on the 329-metre long structure. The outer section of 104 metres was replaced in 2009 at a cost of $1.4 million after it had been closed for two summers, much to the annoyance of dedicated anglers. Work on the inner section of 225 metres started in April and was completed late last month at a cost of $2 million. Both Labor and Liberal-Nationals Coalition state government have spent millions in recent years…
THE Peninsula Motor Garage Pty. Ltd., has engaged an additional driver for the Frankston Garage and has also installed an additional modern Buick car at the Mornington Garage. *** THE next consignment of goods ready to be sent to Central Depot, Federal Government House from the local branch is now on view at Ritchie’s Stores, corner Bay and Playne street. *** WE are pleased to state that Private Daniel Downs, who enlisted from Frankston, and contracted meningitis while at the Seymour camp, and was conveyed to the Alfred Hospital, is now improving. *** WE hear that Zephuron, the Grand National…
PENINSULA LEAGUE THE Frankston YCW freight train continued to steamroll anything in its path on Saturday at Frankston Park, belting Mornington by 89 points in the Peninsula Division qualifying final. After resting up to eight players last week in the final home and away game of the season, the Stonecats came out firing from the first bounce on Saturday and eventually humiliated the team that almost snatched a premiership from them at the same venue last year. I have been saying it for months and have been accused of being disrespectful to the other teams in the competition, however I…
THE Peninsula and Nepean Teams of the Year will be announced at MPNFL presentation dinners over the next couple of weeks. Coaches were asked to provide ‘their’ team of the year, based on the matches they had seen in season 2015. Media commentators Brent Clinnick and yours truly, Toe Punt, also put together a team based on the enormous amount of footy we have seen this season. In Peninsula, there were a total of 66 players nominated in the squad. In Nepean, there were 60 players nominated. It was then my responsibility to put the teams together. This was done…
NEPEAN LEAGUE ROSEBUD is now raging hot favourite to win the Nepean Division premiership after beating Somerville for the third time this season. The Buds led for all but two minutes of the second quarter of Saturday’s second semi final at Rye’s RJ Rowley Reserve, eventually winning 10.17 (77) to 9.7 (61). While the Buds advanced straight to the grand final, Somerville will play Sorrento in this Saturday’s preliminary final at Tyabb. Rosebud was always in control of the match against Somerville and never looked as though they were going to lose it. Coming off a bye and two 100…
Peninsula based rock band Munster Terrace have been performing around the traps for 30 years now, and they will be celebrating this milestone with a special show at the Rye RSL on Saturday the 12th of September. The band first formed in 1985, and their debut gig was on the 7th of May of that year (supporting The Saints on their return to Australia after some years based in the U.K). It took a year or so for the early version of “Munster” to find its’ feet, but by late 1986 the line-up was stable, and the band was a…
POWERFUL owls might be 60 centimetre s tall and have white plumage, but they are rarely seen; heard maybe, but not seen. Being a nocturnal bird of prey they are most active at night and make themselves scarce during the day. They are the largest of the avian night hunters and, as their name suggests, capable of preying on medium to large tree-dwelling mammals: ringtail possum and great glider. They also take roosting birds and animals on the ground, such as rabbits and small marsupials. Despite their strength and hunting prowess, powerful owls are listed as being endangered. The Mornington…
THERE have been countless happy campers at Mt Eliza over the past 90 years. Apart from when being used to recuperate US soldiers wounded in the Pacific campaign during World War II, the camp has provided a place to get away from it all for families and groups since 1925. The Sunnyside Rd camp site was given to the YMCA by Thomas and Alice Baker. Camp Manyung’s 90th anniversary last month and the unveiling of a historic interpretive display of the camp’s history from 1925 to the present brought back family memories for Jenny Little (nee Stevens), a camper from…
THE opening of Mt Eliza Bowling Club’s season last week with new synthetic greens and floodlights helped members showcase bowls as a sport which the whole family can play. The additions mean the club can open all year and stage twilight and evening bowls events. A highlight of the night was watching three generations of club life member John Gregson’s family – aged seven to 70 – take part in a special bowling demonstration. Gregson’s grandsons – Victorian and national representative Dylan Fisher and seven year old Jett Simmons – joined him on the green along with Jett’s father, Todd,…
A LONG-TIME peninsula resident with a yen for adventure will celebrate her 100th birthday on Sunday. Thelma Adams will be joined by her two children Roy and Joan, as well as seven grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and eight great, great-grandchildren, and friends, making it a family affair to remember. Mrs Adams, who lived at Somers for 30 years and for the past year at an aged care home at Mornington, was born in South Melbourne on 13 September 1915 and spent her early years there. She left school at 13 as her mother was unwell and she was needed at home.…
MP News Group journalist David Harrison is in Thailand supporting his mate Alan Morison and his wife Chutima Sidasathian, who were charged in late 2013 with criminal defamation and computer crime over a story they published on their online website Phuketwan about abuses against Rohingya migrants in Thailand. The charges centred on a paragraph in Phuketwan on 17 July 2013 citing an investigative report by Reuters alleging that some navy officials were involved with trafficking Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar (Burma). The trial generated widespread condemnation from human rights groups and the United Nations. Morison and Sidasathian faced up to seven…
VISUAL arts students at Chisholm Frankston are taking their work to the walls of Monash Health this month to cheer and stimulate patients, visitors and staff. Their show, featuring paintings, sculptures, drawing and printmaking by art and illustration students, will open in the Monash Health Art Space, 3.30pm, Thursday 17 September. The opportunity came about after a meeting between art student Eleni Theodoridi, who also works as a medical interpreter at Monash, and senior manager and curator at Monash Health, Kim Minett. Their mutual vision and enthusiasm for the role that art plays in the public health setting created the…
RABBIT numbers in Mt Martha’s Briars Park wildlife sanctuary are going down as eradication action continues. Mornington Peninsula Shire rangers closed the sanctuary to the public on 25 August and it is expected to reopen on Monday 23 September. Park staff are making a determined attempt to rid the sanctuary of rabbits, which have existed inside the predator-proof fence since it was erected. Several attempts have been made in recent years but this effort is the most comprehensive with eradication techniques including filling in burrows to force rabbits into the open, allowing members of the Sporting Shooters’ Association to cull…
MORNINGTON builder L Clarke and Sons has asked Mornington Peninsula Shire for approval to build a two-storey apartment complex on the Mornington Youth and Community Centre site in Wilsons Rd, Mornington. The project would include 28 apartments, basement car parking, vegetation removal and “associated works”. Clarke and Sons bought the old youth club hall and land from the shire for $2.1 million at an auction in mid-2014. The council made the decision to sell the property in 2011. More than 100 people attended the sale but it went ahead under a cloud as residents and neighbours made a last-ditch appeal…
THE state government last week warned Victorians about a long, hot and dry fire season ahead but made no mention of a key driver of drier conditions and hotter temperatures across southeast Australia – El Nino. The Bureau of Meteorology said the El Nino weather pattern now building in the Pacific Ocean could be worse than the record-breaker of 1997-98, which was one of the drivers of the so-called Millennium drought, which lasted from 1995 to 2010 in some parts of Australia. The drought in Victoria broke in March 2010 when storms pounded the state but it was not declared…
IT might be getting to the pointy end of the season for the AFL, but players were not too busy when asked to sign surfboards for a charity auction. The players stayed off the field long enough to take turns with black markers to autograph boards made in their team colours for the Disabled Surfers Association Mornington Peninsula branch. The auction for the 18 boards starts 2.30pm Sunday 13 September at the Baha taco and music bar, 2201 Point Nepean Rd, Rye. Bids, starting at $650 a board, will be taken from the floor and over the phone. Unsold boards…
CRIME gangs with a disciplined culture and ability to plan and set targets has given a new potency to crime in Frankston and on the Mornington Peninsula. The tech savvy gangs use social media, including Facebook, and encryption apps to co-ordinate activities, allowing their members to mobilise and disperse quickly, recruit members and plan their next hit. Easy access to stolen cars and quicker freeway travel times mean that our once sleepy hamlets are now high on the agenda of the often race-related gangs who regard “slap on the wrist” penalties as green cards to commit more crimes. Mornington Detective…