WORK valued at $481 million to replace outdated infrastructure and facilities at HMAS Cerberus is likely to start this year. The work was foreshadowed in a Defence White Paper in March. It will include “improved underground services”, technical and physical training facilities, survival-at-sea facilities, and refurbishment of dining and accommodation areas. The funding is expected to secure the future of the base as Australia’s principal naval training base and pump money into the economies of Crib Point, Hastings and surrounding areas. “When the base opened in 1920 it could not have been envisioned how much it would grow and expand,”…
Day: July 11, 2017
THE 450 members of Devilbend Golf Club seem set to retain control of the future of their golf course. Mornington Peninsula Shire Council has agreed to a new 21-year lease for the Loders Rd, Moorooduc, golf course. However, the operations of the golf club are to be subject to a review by private consultants hired by council. The lease effectively rules out advertising that the golf course was available for lease or appointing a commercial manager, as recommended by the shire’s property operations team leader, Greg Collins. The report to a council meeting in April with Mr Collins’ recommendations…
GENEVIEVE Beacom of Somerville flies to Japan this week as part of the Australia-Japan Women’s Baseball Youth Leaders Exchange. Last week she trained with the high performance squad in Sydney, focusing on skills, fitness, leadership and game development. The squad will compete against Japanese youth teams and train with professional Japanese women’s teams. Genevieve, 12, played the summer season as a left-handed pitcher for Cheltenham Baseball Club and was a member of the premiership sides in the under-12 and under-14 age groups. The year 7 Flinders Christian Community College student won the under-12 pitching award at the club and was…
POLIO support lobbyist Fran Henke of Hastings is the first to admit she has been “gently nagging” her local federal MP Greg Hunt for many years about the unmet needs of Australia’s polio survivors. When Mr Hunt was appointed federal Minister of Health in January (replacing Sussan Ley who resigned over a travel expenses scandal), Mrs Henke requested a meeting, and no doubt Mr Hunt knew what was coming. Last week he announced that a request to support Polio Australia’s Late Effects of Polio (LEoP) clinical practice workshop program had been successful. The federal government will fund the program for…
THREE flags were raised at the “hut by the sea” at Hastings to mark the start of NAIDOC Week. “Hut by the sea” is the English translation of the Boon Wurrung phrase Willum Warrain, the name of the Aboriginal community’s gathering place in Pound Rd, Hastings, that opened in 2014. NAIDOC Week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and a week of events on the peninsula was started by raising the national flag, Australian Aboriginal flag, and the Torres Strait Islander flag. This year’s theme was “Our Languages Matter” to highlight the importance…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is reconsidering its decision to increase the rent for The Hastings Club after being told the calculations on which it was based contravened the Gambling Regulation Act 2003 (the Act). The original plan, which saw the club’s rent rise from about $4000 to $42,000 in the first year and climbing to $54,000 in three years, was met with dismay by the members and supporters of the Hastings Cricket and Football Social Club who immediately sought legal advice. Councillors were last month (June) told by property and strategy manager Yasmin Woods that the calculation method she used in…