Month: March 2017

IT gobbles fuel and emits smoke and steam like a legendary dragon, but the historic 75-year-old steam train K163 is a drawcard for children where it is stabled at Moorooduc railway station. The engine will be all fired up on Sunday (19 March) when the train again takes to the tracks to see if it can beat a bunch of fleet-footed children. Mt Eliza Rotary Club’s annual kids’ fun run is open to children aged three to 12 and has graded distances (150-1200 metres) according to competitors’ ages. The children race on a separate purpose built and secure track alongside…

BOOZE on the ratepayers’ tab was nearly back on the menu at Mornington Peninsula Shire when councillors considered revising their councillor expenses policy. A bid by Cr Hugh Fraser to reintroduce alcoholic drinks for councillors after meetings was not supported by fellow councillors. “In so far as the consumption of alcohol is concerned, that [should be] permitted after council meetings — not before council meetings and not during council meetings,” Cr Fraser said at the 27 February meeting. Councillors in August voted to stop filling up council liquor cabinets at ratepayers’ expense. Other councillors voiced discomfort at reintroducing ratepayer-funded booze…

A MORNINGTON boy who was stung by a stingray at a Rosebud foreshore camp and then had his bike stolen the same night has had his faith in human nature restored. James Gardner, 12, stood on the stingray while standing knee-deep in the bay and received an excruciating sting, Friday 24 February. Mum Fifi, who rushed to help him, said the normally tough young man was “beside himself with pain”. But then, to make matters worse, his valuable Pilgrim BMX bike and several other bikes owned by campers were stolen by young thieves – who had the cheek to try…

Our Letter Box. Sir,–It is amusing to note in your journal that the shire councillors of the Frankston and Hastings shire have agreed to support the venture of the Lilydale Shire Council in an effort to secure the non use of powerful (or search) lights on motor cars. Frankston has the most dangerous and worst conditioned roads of which I know, and yet these wise? Crs. in committee, have decided to try to prevent motorists, driving cars of big value, from using a protection for the safety of their lives and their expensive motor cars; for only in these searchlights…

A BLUE over the colour of a heritage-listed fish and chip shop in Sorrento has led to Mornington Peninsula Shire looking at ways of having the original colour scheme restored. It says it is “working with the tenant and the building owner to look at potential options to remove the paint” – despite having issued a permit for work. The contentious bright blue of the old The Esplanade building has shocked many locals, with Cr Bryan Payne describing it as “another blot on the heritage buildings in Sorrento”. But shop proprietor Julian Gerner, who is behind with the $50 million…

THIS year’s Winter Blanket Appeal will not be about blankets. St Vincent de Paul and Southern Peninsula Community Support at Rosebud are reportedly “awash with blankets”. And the view of the appeal’s organisers is that given the relative cheapness of reasonable quality doonas, young families prefer them. So organisations which provide warm bedding and clothing this year are focussing on doonas. However, the army of knitters that provides hundreds of blankets and warm hand knitted clothing, could start on beanies, scarves, gloves, jumpers and jackets for all ages. “Unwanted wool from unfinished projects to help those knitters who can’t afford…

THE Disabled Surfers’ Association Mornington Peninsula branch set a new record in the number of participants at one of its surfing event. With 163 taking to the surf at Point Leo on Saturday 4 March the branch broke the national record of 160. Australia’s 16 DSA branches are in Victoria, NSW, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. There is also a branch in New Zealand. The day at Point Leo was “a relief” for DSAMP secretary Bill Hallett as it followed an event scheduled in January which had to be cancelled because of sharks being attracted to the decomposing body…

LAST year’s protests which forced Mornington Peninsula Shire to scrap its plans for a concrete footpath in Somers has prompted talk of a new community supergroup to represent residents in the seaside township. While the Somers Village Community Association (SVCA)  had a minor win at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last year when the council’s case was rejected, the battle is not over, as council prepares to pursue another footpath scheme. Somers Residents Association (SRA) president Gerry Lewis, whose group supported the council’s proposal to build the concrete paths, said residents needed to “work together”. Plans to build a…

DINNERS will still be dished out to ratepayers who sit down to break bread with councillors at regular community council meetings despite some misgivings about the cost of the meals. The meetings, held six times a year, see elected representatives mix with the people they represent, but some councillors at the latest public council meeting, on 27 February, questioned spending ratepayers’ money on feeding ratepayers. Council officers had prepared a report – at the request of unnamed council-lors – that suggested the meetings either be axed, continue as they are or offer finger food instead of a full meal. Governance…

NOT too many 15-year-old girls would voluntarily shave off their hair, but for Rye teenager Jemma Tolson, the loss of her enviable long tresses is a small price to pay to help others. The year 10 Rosebud Secondary College student is raising money for the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave and will say goodbye to her mane on Thursday in front of the entire school. Jemma’s grandfather died of leukaemia two years ago, but the idea to be brave and shave was a seed planted long before that. “I have thought about it for years as a good way to…

A PORTSEA resident who lodged a submission to Road Safety Camera Commissioner John Voyage relating to his speeding fine says it “probably never reached him due to administrative errors”. David Gilder, who uses Peninsula Link regularly, said perhaps many others were in the same situation. “When I became aware of the commissioner’s investigation I wrote to Civic Compliance Victoria asking that I be added to the list of names that he required. I informed them that I had already paid my fine,” he said. “My request was forwarded to the Department of Justice and Regulation. I next received two letters…

RYE residents are being asked to help shape the future of the community and have a say on what happens to 7.2 hectares of vacant land in French St. A group of residents have set up a campaign website called the French St Project to encourage Mornington Peninsula Shire to keep the land for community use. The council has indicated initial support for reserving the land – zoned public open space – and has opened up the issue for comment with an online survey asking for suggestions. Campaigner Heidi Duell said a community meeting organised by the French St Project…

By Tony Duboudin A HASTINGS resident believes he can throw some light on the mystery disappearance in 1937 of the American aviator Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan while on a flight around the world. Earhart was last seen taking off from the territory of Papua New Guinea, then administered by Australia. Patrick Gibbons, who has lived in Hastings for the past 13 years, remembers his then father in law, Allan Roberts, who was assistant district officer in Wau in PNG at the time, telling him about witnessing Earhart taking off from Lae on what proved to be her…

A LIGHT plane which made an unscheduled landing on a beach at the eastern tip of French Island later had to be removed by barge. The A22LS Foxbat with two people on board was on a sightseeing trip from Tyabb airfield when the pilot decided to land on a strip of sand where they had previously seen other planes land. Despite doing a fly-past and seeing no impediment to landing, the sand was deeper and softer than expected and the plane sank deeper than would allow it to take off again. No one was injured but some damage was caused…

A BOY attending a Rosebud foreshore camp got a painful surprise when stung by a stingray, then a worse one when he discovered his prize Pilgrim BMX bike had been stolen while he was receiving treatment. Mornington boy James Gardner, 12, was enjoying the camp’s activities and standing knee-deep in the bay when he was stung. “He got such a fright and it really hurt him,” his mother Fifi Gardner said. “He started yelling to the other kids to watch out because he didn’t know what it was and, by the time he got back to shore, he was beside…

AFTER 31 years of tuition, demonstrations and exhibitions, McClelland Guild of Artists is being shown the door by its landlords – McClelland Gallery Trustees. Gallery director John Cunningham met representatives of the artists’ guilds on Studio Park, Langwarrin in February to advise their time was up. McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park has been home since the 1970s to guilds of artists, lapidarists, spinners, weavers and woodturners, bringing thousands of students and practitioners of each discipline through the gallery gates. The guilds are now looking at options to move or amalgamate with other societies. They occupy modest premises on Studio Park…

MEMORIES good and bad came flooding back when a former child patient of a now-dilapidated and disused Mt Eliza children’s hospital visited the Jacksons Rd site last week. Don Lawson, 83, but only “three or four” at the time, spent many weeks at the 100-bed Royal Children’s Orthopaedic Hospital in 1939 when it cared for children with tuberculosis, osteomyelitis, club foot, curvature of the spine, and infantile paralysis. He was there to have his feet “straightened”, as was the way in those days, which meant fracturing the bones and resetting them in plaster. Visiting from Toora last week with his…

A FRANKSTON woman has been duped into handing over several hundred thousand dollars to a man she never met in an online dating scam. The lonely woman, 63, was contacted in December by a potential “friend” who said he was in Australia but was soon returning to Turkey. The man said he was a civil engineer who was working on a project in that country and “needed funding to finalise the project” which he wasn’t able to provide himself.  “They continued with online conversations which were quite affectionate and made it sound like they were a couple and had been…

FOR Mt Martha resident, father of three and Melbourne firefighter Rob Newton, the path to becoming an author was anything but conventional. It started innocently a few years ago with a series of funny, lively and “embellished” letters about his life to his brother Chris, in Sweden. It soon spiralled into a whole lot more, as Chris and his friends became intrigued with the crazy made-up tales Rob was spinning and egged him on to send monthly “instalments”. “I was never very good at writing letters, so I just started making things up and the stories just grew and grew,”…

FOR Mt Martha residents Tony and Leeanne O’Connor, the Mornington Peninsula’s natural environment and abundance of wildlife are the jewels in its crown. The O’Connors have rejected the lure of the development dollar and the temptation to keep up with the Jones’s to create a sustainable lifestyle and wildlife haven on their five-acre property. Since buying their bare block 17 years ago, the O’Connors have transformed it into a sustainable habitat, complete with a wetland, vegetable and fruit gardens, and nature corridors. With limited funds and a passion for sustainability and recycling, Tony built his own mud-brick, solar-passive house using…

EARLY risers got a glimpse of Hart Marine’s newest high performance pilot boat as it was transported by low-loader to Mornington boat harbour, 5am, Tuesday 28 February. The $2.5 million self-righting composite design will work out of the port of Burnie in Tasmania. Its wide hull, wave-piercing “beak” bow, oversized rudders, and spacious side decks combine to allow easy pilot transfer while steaming alongside slowly moving ships. The wheelhouse is suspended from the hull to reduce noise and vibration, easing crew fatigue. “Hellyer” – named after a region in north-west Tasmania – took 70 Hart boat-builders 10 months to complete.…

STATE Planning Minister Richard Wynne is now the deciding factor in whether or not a skateboard park is built close to Mt Martha Tennis club’s courts. Mr Wynne has been asked to approve changes to the Mornington Peninsula planning scheme enabling the shire to compulsory recover land it has leased to the tennis club until December 2023. The shire’s property and strategy manager Yasmin Woods expects to get the all clear to advertise the proposed planning scheme change “in the next two to three months”. The shire’s grand plan for a $825,000 skatepark on the former parade ground came to…

RESIDENTS of a historically-significant “garden” suburb in Mt Eliza have launched a legal challenge to protect the character of the estate amid fears protection overlays are being watered down. The Ranelagh Residents Association has lodged an appeal with the Victorian Civil and Administrative and Tribunal over a planning application for a multi-storey house in Rendlesham Av. Houses in the tightly-held bayside Ranelagh Estate, a 1920s, 800-lot residential subdivision designed as a “seaside garden estate” by American landscape architect Walter Burley Griffin, are subject to covenants that allow one dwelling on each allotment to retain the neighbourhood character and prevent over-development.…

By Ben Triandafillou ROSEBUD Country Club member, Andrew Schonewille, has recently joined the professional ranks after a very impressive amateur career on the Australian circuit. Schonewille’s amateur career was far from ordinary leading a Victorian Open after the second round in 2014 and receiving a full scholarship for the 2016 Victorian Elite Squad. Schonewille is currently in New Zealand for a couple of weeks competing in the ISPS Handa New Zealand Open with fellow Rosebud professional golfer, James Marchesani. Marchesani has noticed considerable improvement in Schonewille’s game over the years and is impressed with his transition to a professional golfer.…

SOCCER By Craig MacKenzie A BROKEN leg, a 9-0 thrashing, send-offs and melees involving players, both benches, coaches and spectators – the 2017 FFA Cup had it all last weekend. Rosebud Heart veteran Simon O’Donnell suffered a broken fibia and tibia of his right leg during Saturday’s 3-1 win over Dandenong Warriors at Knox Regional Centre. “That’s my career over. I don’t want my son ever seeing that again and will just focus on my weekends with him,” said O’Donnell on Sunday awaiting surgery at Knox Private Hospital. Heart was 2-0 up after 11 minutes thanks to a sizzling strike…

SUB-DISTRICT TOOTGAROOK will play Hastings for the second week in succession after comfortably booking its place in the MPCA Sub District finals on Saturday. The Frogs needed to win its final match of the season against the ladder leaders to assure themselves a place in the finals. The teams will meet again in the semi-final this Saturday and Sunday, while in the other semi-final, Ballam Park and Frankston YCW will go head-to-head. Whilst Hastings would have liked to have won its last home and away game, the prize for a win was much, much bigger for the home side. Tootgarook…

DISTRICT FLINDERS has snatched the final place in the MPCA District top four after knocking over Heatherhill in the final home and away game of the season. Mt Martha held onto fourth place going into the final round, while both Heatherhill and Flinders sat outside waiting to pounce. The Reds couldn’t get the job done against Delacombe Park, giving the Hills and the Sharks the opportunity to grab the final spot. It went down to the wire but the Sharks got there in the end with nine balls to spare. Heatherhill batted first at BA Cairns Reserve and didn’t get…

PROVINCIAL LONG Island has avoided relegation to District grade after pulling off a memorable victory over Pines on Saturday in MPCA Provincial cricket. The Islanders came into the final match of the season a game clear of the Ducs and its percentage was just a smidge better. Whilst it was unlikely that Moorooduc would beat Mornington at Alexandra Park, the Islanders still needed to win to guarantee them of preventing relegation. As it turned out, the Ducs thumped the Doggies, which made the Islanders’ win crucial. At the other end of the table, Mt Eliza belted Somerville and stamped its…

WE regret to have to record the death of Mr H B. Hanton, of “Ashburnham” Frankston. He has been in failing health for some 18 months past, and about 6 months ago went under an operation for an internal complaint, from which he never seemed to properly rally, but gradually sank and died peacefully on Monday morning last. He wa engaged for many years in the fish mongering business, carrying on the business of two shops in Melbourne. After retiring he resided for some time at Tooradin, and about 8 years ago purchased “Ashburnham” where he resided up to the…

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