Month: October 2015

WHAT’S claimed to be a Victorian record blue fin tuna was caught just outside the Heads by a Mornington angler Wednesday. Abalone diver and keen fisherman Aaron Crocombe hooked his 163.65kg catch using a Pakula Mouse lure 9.30am and had it in the boat 20 minutes later. The regular big gamer – a member of Snapper Point Angling Club – was with mates on a Pro-line Charters boat out of Sorrento when the fish struck. “I knew it was a big one but it’s hard to know how big until you get it in the boat,” he said. “We put…

FIVE Western Australian councils are keen to see results of trials of an alternative waste treatment plant that includes an incinerator that generates electricity. The plant is designed to handle 33,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste a year for the five member councils, plus waste from the City of Stirling. Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors voted on 14 September to send all shire waste off the peninsula to landfill but to continue a commitment to alternative waste technology, which is generally understood to include incineration of some domestic waste. The shire was forecast to send just more than 23,000 tonnes of…

MT MARTHA mum Libby Turnbull is at her wit’s end having lost an heirloom blanket made by her great grandmother, and is seeking public help in finding it. “My great grandmother knitted the blanket for me when I was born and the last time I remember seeing it was in Mornington shopping centre,” Mrs Turnbull said. “The blanket is very sentimental to my family. Mum wrapped me in it when I came home from hospital and I have used it for my two baby girls as well.” The knitted lavender blanket has a cream trim around the edge. “I realised…

THERE is “movement at the station” of Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery with the shire last week advertising for a “concept design and landscape precinct plan for the redevelopment and expansion” of the peninsula’s premier art centre. The shire’s advertisement in the tender section of The Age stated: “The design should facilitate a good public environment for the community users and visitors, through the application of best design practises [sic]. “Consultants will also develop a business case and project delivery plan for the redevelopment and providing [sic] a detailed and well-supported case for investment in the project by government and potential…

RESIDENTS at a Mt Martha nursing home slept on as their lodgings were raided by thieves last weekend. Mornington’s Detective Senior Sergeant Nick Vallas said thieves entered 20 separate units at the Osborne Dve premises and pilfered small items, such as iPads and mobiles, cash and jewellery, from eight of the units. None of the elderly residents was disturbed in the overnight raids. “There were no confrontations,” Detective Vallas said. “Nothing of great value was stolen.” But the sense of violation felt by the residents can cut deep. “They feel threatened and violated in these circumstances,” he said. “It’s especially annoying when…

THE 80km/h speed restrictions on Peninsula Link freeway near the Baxter twin freeway service centres will revert to 100km/h when the northbound servo is opened, says a Peninsula Link spokeswoman. The southbound servo opened in late July but the speed limit on the freeway remains at 80. In July, a spokesman for service centre owner AA Holdings said it was hoped the northbound centre would be “ready by December”. The two centres are costing AA Holdings about $30 million including two new lanes on a freeway bridge as well as on and off ramps. The final task at the northbound…

THE $1 million being spent on roundabouts on Wooralla Drive at the St Kilda and Brighton streets intersections, Mt Eliza, is a waste of money, a resident claims. “It seems like there’s no shortage of cash floating around if the shire is planning to build two unnecessary additional roundabouts,” Greg Dixon, of Tower Rd, said. “This mad obsession with destroying roads in the name of some imaginary Black Spot program will increase the danger of this particular section of a key arterial connecting road – particularly as the visibility in both directions is already hampered by an unkempt verge. “It…

GANGS of youths drinking and carousing on Mt Martha beach broke into and damaged 33 bathing boxes overnight, 21 September. Planks and panels from the boxes were stripped off to fuel bonfires and beach chairs and furniture was stolen and later burnt or smashed. Police said three separate gangs – from Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula – caused thousands of dollars damage in the night-long spree. They said many box owners would be unaware of the damage until they visited or heard from neighbours. “It coincided with the school holidays,” Detective Senior Sergeant Nick Vallas said. “We know that lots…

ALMOST three years after opening in January 2013, Peninsula Link freeway will get directional and tourism signs that were omitted from the original brief for the $850 million road. The signs come courtesy of intense lobbying by federal Dunkley MP Bruce Billson and peninsula tourism officials, and will be installed in time for this “year’s peak summer holiday period”, Mr Billson said. About $175,000 of the cost will come from a federal Coalition government grant organised by Mr Billson in what some people will see as an unfair cost burden as the freeway is a private public partnership between the…