FISHERIES officers have arrested five men and seized their car for allegedly taking 399 blacklip abalone from waters around Cape Schanck. Victorian Fisheries Authority director Ian Parks said 12 Fisheries officers backed up by police caught the “highly organised illegal fishing syndicate” from Pakenham, Cranbourne East and Botanic Ridge, Wednesday 18 March. “This type of alleged illegal fishing has the potential to do serious damage to the sustainability of Victoria’s abalone population, which is highly valued by commercial and recreational fishers,” Mr Parks said. Officers said they saw four men walk from the car park down to the rocks leaving…
Day: March 24, 2020
A commercial flower farm that allowed thousands of litres of fuel oil to spill into a Moorooduc waterway has been ordered to pay Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) $500,000 in compensation and fined $150,000. On Wednesday 11 March, Aaree Pty Ltd and its director Admir Isovski, faced five charges under the the Environment Protection Act 1970 at Frankston Magistrates Court for causing environmental hazard, pollution of water and failing to comply with the requirements of an EPA notice The incident occurred in July 2017 at Barakee Reserve Outfall Drain, Moorooduc when a greenhouse on the Coolart Road property, which used…
CUSTOMERS flocked to Hastings Centrelink in High Street on Monday (23 March) after the MyGov website crashed and they could not access services online. This meant many had to be there in person to apply for reference numbers for coronavirus payments after losing their jobs. Safe distancing rules seemed to apply. “MyGov is currently unavailable,” a message on the government site said, blaming a cyber attack (where hackers flood a website with users so that the site becomes overloaded, similar to problems on census night). “We’re experiencing unprecedented demand for the service right now. We’re working on expanding capacity for…