Day: March 23, 2020

Mornington Peninsula Shire is rolling out emergency measures to look after our community’s most vulnerable in the face of COVID-19. Schools close, businesses shut, and the future is uncertain for many. Long lines formed outside Centrelink Mornington this morning, as phone lines backed up and the MyGov website went down due to increased traffic. Key facts from today’s Victorian COVID-19 update: Sixty-one new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) were confirmed yesterday – bringing the total number of cases in Victoria to 355. The new cases include 34 men and 25 women, with people aged early-teens to mid-eighties. Two cases remain…

FREE parcels of food and personal care items are to be delivered to needy and socially isolated people across the Mornington Peninsula. The food parcel plan is part of the rollout of emergency measures by Mornington Peninsula Shire to help lessen the spread and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the Caring for our Community program volunteers and staff left without jobs by the closing of shire services due to the coronavirus outbreak will be redeployed to deliver packages being put together with the help of health and welfare agencies, Red Cross, the Department of Health and Human Services and…

SCHOOL is out early and many businesses will be forced to shut their doors as part of the latest COVID-19 precautions implemented across Victoria. Premier Daniel Andrews announced late last week that school holidays would begin from Tuesday 24 March in an effort to “combat the spread of coronavirus”. “This is not something that we do lightly, but it’s clear that if we don’t take this step, more Victorians will contract coronavirus, our hospitals will be overwhelmed and more Victorians will die,” Mr Andrews said. “Victorians will still be able to go to the supermarket, the bank, the pharmacy and…

FUNDRAISING efforts including a charity auction last month have helped Red Hill Fire Brigade raise more than $225,000 for building works. The auction, held at Many Little Bar and Bistro on Friday 21 February, raised $80,000. “The day was a huge success with a raffle and auction and was attended by more than 200 people,” First Lieutenant Sam Norris said. “Hamish McLachlan as the MC did an incredible job.” Donations and pledges helped raise the total to a staggering $225,000. “We are incredibly humbled by the generosity of our community,” First Lieutenant Norris said. First Lieutenant Norris said the works…

A COUNCILLOR is waiting to “see what response comes back from the community” before again considering a move to have foreshore toilet blocks opened to all beach users – not just campers and beach box owners. Cr Hugh Fraser was speaking after fellow Mornington Peninsula councillors at their 25 February meeting knocked back his push to have all 26 toilet blocks open daily. Claims by officers that this would cost the shire an extra $750,000 a year may have swayed their votes. “That was a ridiculous sum of money and it certainly frightened the other councillors,” Cr Fraser said. “We…

A MAN, above, who spent counterfeit money at a Baxter motel on 31 January is being sought by police. Detectives from Mornington Peninsula CIU said the offender approached the gaming counter in the Baxter-Tooradin Rd business and exchanged a counterfeit $50 note for two $20 notes and one $10 note. The attendant realised the note was not a standard note. The offender is described as being of medium height and build, red hair, unshaven and was wearing a black shirt with multi coloured board shorts. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000 or submit a…

UP to 16 CFA trucks, police and the EPA attended a crane truck fire at Tyabb, 1pm, Wednesday 18 March. The blaze began when diesel from a faulty hose ignited and began burning the cab and spreading throughout the truck at the corner of Frankston-Flinders Road and Western Port Highway. EPA crews set up a hazmat site to prevent fuel leaking into water courses. Four semi-trailers and another larger crane truck arrived to hoist the blackened wreck onto a low loader. The driver was not injured. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000 or submit…

A CAR rolled twice and ended up on its side after running into the rear of a car waiting to turn into The Briars, Nepean Highway, Mt Martha, last week. A 44-year-old Mornington woman driving a Toyota Kluger was trapped for an hour after colliding with a Holden Commodore driven by a 74-year-old Dromana woman, 3.40pm, Tuesday 17 March. CFA crews from Mount Martha, Mornington and Dromana attended. CFA Commander Brandon Crowder said the Jaws-of-Life was used to free the woman by cutting off the roof of her car to gain safe access and maintain spinal stability. She was flown…

FRAYED tempers in public and barbs on social media have so upset a Mornington Peninsula Shire Councillor that she is calling on her critics to “back off”. Cr Julie Morris said she has endured “12 months of snide comments” from Tyabb Airfield supporters voicing a “whirlwind of abuse” towards her and her family, both online and in public. “I’m almost at the point where I don’t know if I can send my daughter to the local school anymore,” Cr Morris, a senior constable with Victoria Police, said. “I feel I am at the point where we will have to move.…

RED Hill Mountain Bike Club will host the 2020-21 Gravity Enduro National Championships. Races will be held 24-25 October this year and 23-24 October 2021 in what’s being described as “exciting news” for the club. It’s the first time the Arthurs Seat venue has hosted a national championships event. “We will be crowning champions in each category and also issuing a personalised jersey to the first-placed rider in each category,” Red Hill Riders Mountain Bike Club’s Mark Jessup said. “The top riders across the country will be travelling to our wonderful Mornington Peninsula to battle it out. I’m aware of…

MORNINGTON Railway Preservation Society has trucked its steam train K163 to Newport for repairs where it became a drawcard during the Steamrail Victoria Open Day, 7-9 March. The arrival of K163 was a homecoming of sorts as it was built at Newport in 1941 at workshops which were built in 1882. The K class locomotive was a mainstay of the Victorian railway network from the 1920s up to the end of the steam era in the 1960s. Renowned for their dependability, the locomotives ran mostly on branch lines and several have been preserved and are operating around Victoria. The Mornington…

LINES of people stretching on to Main Street, Mornington on Monday morning would have been forced to join others queuing at Frankston if the latest COVID-19 emergency measures had come a week later. With phone lines backed up and the MyGov website offline across Australia, there were no answers from the federal government about whether it would proceed with the closure at the end of this month of Mornington Centrelink. A rally protesting about the closure slated for the end of this month was called off last week due the coronavirus. This week’s queues are likely to get longer as…

HORSE RACING IT was a day to remember for the Mornington-based training partnership of Amy and Ash Yargi who scored a winning double on Mornington Cup day on Saturday 21 March. Despite racing without a crowd, the Yargi Racing team were thrilled to land back-to-back winners at their home track of Mornington as the inform mare, Jamaican Hurry, and the enigmatic, I’m Telling Ya, rose to the fore in races two and three. Co-trainer Amy Yargi said it was an odd feeling to see Mornington so empty on its featured Cup meeting but was glad that racing was still able…

SOCCER MORNINGTON import Josh Heaton cost Scottish Premier League club St Mirren £75,000 in June 2018. The then 21-year-old became the most expensive signing in 25 years for the Buddies but the following year he joined Darlington on a free. “A lot of it comes down to the manager really and sometimes it just happens that way,” Heaton said. The young central defender is among thousands of players in Britain subject to the vagaries of the professional game and a look at his CV highlights the circuitous route he has taken to arrive at Dallas Brooks Park. Heaton is from…

POLICE V. GRIFFITH, charged that he did unlawfully ignite certain inflammable material whereby the property of one, Jos. Baker, was damaged. Sub-Inspector Trainor conducted the prosecution, and Mr. Backhouse appeared for the defence. Fredk. Merrit, residing at Langwarrin, said that on the 10th February last, between 7 and 8 o’clock p.m. he noticed a fire start on Griffiths’ property, about 300 yards distant from witness. On the following day he noticed a kind of haze over the place where the fire had been, and having occasion to get on to the roof of his dwelling to fasten a loose sheet…