MISS Galaxy Australia title holder Jessica Martini is all set to jet off to the United States next weekend to compete for the international Miss Galaxy crown. The 26-year-old Hastings resident, who represented the Mornington Peninsula when she won the Miss Galaxy Australia crown on the Gold Coast earlier this year, will compete against national winners from across the globe in Orlando, Florida, from 2-12 August for the prestigious international beauty pageant crown. In the lead-up to the international final, Ms Martini said she had been working hard to help raise funds for the competition’s chosen Australian charities, Make a…
Year: 2014
BLAIRGOWRIE Yacht Squadron is playing down the effects of storm damage on its marina – despite the beach being littered with polystyrene beads broken off floating wave attenuators. The attenuators have now been dragged onto the beach. Over the past few weeks high winds and pounding waves have broken up the concrete and polystyrene attenuators which act as a floating breakwater designed to reduce waves entering the marina. General manager Amanda Jacobs said the wild weather had placed some of the attenuators “under distress” forcing the club to hire contractors to remove them. It is the second time in less…
AS GAMBLES go, building the Southern Peninsula Aquatic Centre ranks with the punt of the Iowa farmer who, hearing a voice whisper “If you build it he will come”, ploughed in his corn crop and built a baseball field. Shazam! Up popped baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson (deceased) to flesh out the plot of ‘Field of Dreams’, an American fantasy film of 1989 starring the forgettable Kevin Costner. The “build” quote has transmogrified into “Build it and they will come”, a nice entrepreneurial spin line used to reel in the gullible. The question: “Who will come to the SPA?” demands…
A PROMINENT Portsea family is behind a $100 million plan to make Point Nepean National Park “a world-class tourist destination and education precinct”. The Premier Denis Napthine was at the park’s Quarantine Station on Friday to announce government backing for the bid to develop the precinct by the Point Leisure Group. The group’s directors and Myer family members Richard and Trine Shelmerdine said their plan would “transform Point Nepean’s historic Quarantine Station in a way that shares and maintains its unique heritage and natural environment”. They predict Point Nepean will become a “world-class destination … combining its natural beauty and…
THE peninsula has been rocked by the loss of two of its own with the tragic deaths of Mt Eliza couple Liam and Francesca “Frankie” Davison after the Malaysia Airlines flight they were passengers on was shot down over Ukraine last Friday morning. Early evidence points to flight MH17 being hit by a surface-to-air missile as it flew over a war zone on its way to Kuala Lumpur. The commercial airliner was downed while flying over Russian separatists-held territory in eastern Ukraine. Mr and Mrs Davison were on their way to Melbourne via KL and boarded the flight in Amsterdam.…
IT may be one of the country’s most pop tourist destinations, but the Mornington Peninsula doesn’t even rate a mention among the state’s top 12 “experiences and destinations”, according to the latest edition of Lonely Planet Melbourne & Victoria. Taking out top spot in the ninth edition of the travel company’s Melbourne and Victoria guide book is the Great Ocean Road, with Melbourne’s laneways, The Grampians, Melbourne’s “cultural and sporting hub”, and Wilsons Promontory rounding out the top five. The closest the peninsula comes to rating a mention among Victoria’s “must visit” locations is the listing of Phillip Island and…
CLAIMS of a lack of transparency are being made over plans to lease and redevelop the former Southern Peninsula Rescue Service building in Sorrento. Mornington Peninsula Shire had called for expressions-of-interest for the commercial or community use of the 857 square metre site at 4 Hotham Rd, which operated as an ambulance station and helicopter pad since 1987. Tenders closed on 12 June and a shortlist of preferred occupants will go to the special purposes committee on Monday week. It is believed the likely tenant is a peninsula wedding reception operator. However, this could not be confirmed by The News,…
On Saturday 12 July, a large crowd braved the winter wet to attend a dedication ceremony in honour of Dermot O’Toole. It was a year to the day since his murder, but Bridget, Trent, Christian and Dale O’Toole stepped out in front of a big crowd to remember their husband and father. A laneway and memorial bench were named in his honour. The rain didn’t abate, and reference was made to the weather being more reflective of Dermot’s country of birth. Crowded in tight the crowd, many dressed in green, listened to speeches about Dermot’s murder and the profound effect…
ROSIE Batty may have acted differently on the day her son Luke was killed by his father had she been made aware her estranged partner had made disturbing death threats towards a housemate just weeks earlier, the ABC’s Four Corners program revealed on Monday. Greg Anderson, who murdered Luke by bashing him with a cricket bat and stabbing him with a knife following a mid-week cricket practice session at Tyabb on 12 February, threatened to cut his housemate’s head off during an argument at the Chelsea Heights home they shared. Police failed to mention the incident to Ms Batty despite…
BOGUS pamphlets advertising a free hard waste collection in Mornington last Monday had shire officers – and residents – scratching their heads. Neither the pamphlets – nor the hard waste collection – was organised by the shire. But, as a result, hundreds of residents mistakenly placed hard waste on their nature strips – and now many have had to take it back inside or arrange to dispose of it through the shire’s hard waste collection services. Residents said “professional-looking” pamphlets were dropped into letterboxes around the Nepean Highway-Bentons Rd area, fooling them into thinking the council was planning an unscheduled…
VOTERS participating in the August poll for a new Red Hill ward councillor are being urged to “look for character and ability and try to see through the inevitable running mate strategy of politicised groups”. The tips for choosing the right candidate come from David Gill, a one-time shire president of the former Shire of Mornington and member of the Balnarring Beach Community Association. Mr Gill, who has criticised state government planning policies on the Mornington Peninsula, told The News on Monday that “at this stage I won’t be a candidate”. At this stage, it will be a three-way contest…
TYABB Cricket Club wants Mornington Peninsula Shire to help pay for new cricket nets at Bunguyan Reserve after the old nets were taken down following the murder of Luke Batty earlier this year. President Sam Taranto said the club had already raised almost $100,000 towards the estimated $120,000 cost of building replacement cricket training nets at the Tyabb sports ground and had put in a funding request as part of the shire’s draft budget process. The old nets were removed as a sign of respect after 11-year-old Luke was killed by his father during a cricket practice session at the…
POPULAR peninsula tourist attraction The Enchanted Adventure Garden was last week named as a finalist in two of the five business categories in the prestigious Telstra Business Awards. The Enchanted Adventure Garden, which is located at Arthurs seat, was the only business from the tourism sector and also the only Mornington Peninsula selection among the 25 Victorian finalists named in the national awards. First opened in 1997 as a small maze and garden attraction, the business has grown into a thriving tourist drawcard for the peninsula. The family owned business has grown to include adventure tube slides, tree surfing and…
HIGH-profile Winter Olympian and long-time peninsula resident Belle Brockhoff is ready to go above and beyond to help turn the tide against discrimination. The Olympic snowboarder, who grew up on her family’s estate in Dromana, was last week appointed a beyondblue ambassador and said she plans to use her new position to highlight the issue of homophobia. Brockhoff was also the only openly gay member of the Australian team at the Sochi Winter Olympics earlier this year and spoke out against Russia’s anti-gay laws. Not only is Brockhoff proud to be gay, the 21-year-old has also shared her story of…
THE Mornington Peninsula bore the brunt of last week’s fierce wind storm which damaged homes, cut power supplies and created havoc for commuters as train services were suspended and major roads closed to traffic. Dozens of trees and power lines were brought down by wind gusts of up to 122km/h as an icy storm front labelled by the Bureau of Meteorology as a “winter weather bomb” blasted the state’s south-east on Tuesday. Emergency services were stretched to the limit clearing roads, rail lines and homes from fallen trees, branches and other debris, while police were kept busy responding to chaos…
A MORNINGTON resident has hit out at the shire council after being rebuked for voluntarily helping maintain a beach access track. For the past four years, Peter Ritchie says he has trimmed back overgrowth, cleared fallen trees and branches and levelled washed away areas of a track leading from The Esplanade to the leash-free area at Fossil Beach. But last week, Mr Ritchie made the apparent mistake of informing shire officials of his voluntary efforts after writing to the shire to suggest a number of measures to help improve the safety and amenity of the beach. Not only were his…
A THIRD wave monitoring and modelling investigation is to be carried out at the badly eroded Portsea front beach. The $290,000 investigation will cover Port Phillip Heads, the Great Sands and the shoreline from Pt Nepean to Portsea and is expected to take 18 months. The two earlier studies were reviewed by the CSIRO which noted that there is limited wave measurement data in this part of the bay, limiting the accuracy to which any model can be calibrated and adding a degree of uncertainty to any results. Both studies recommended more extensive measurements of waves as they move into…
FOUR architectural firms have been invited to compete in a design competition for the $40 million Southern Peninsula Aquatic centre planned for Rosebud foreshore. Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors last week endorsed an officer’s report recommending concept proposals, drawings and presentation images be sought from Cox Architecture, Peddle Thorp, Suters Architects and Williams Ross. The firms will each be paid $20,000. As well as designs they will provide cost estimates for construction of the complex as well as their services to be “independently checked by the shire’s appointed quantity surveyor”. A 71-page report to council by project manager Davis Langdon “defines…
OPPOSING factions in the “Great Flinders Sculpture Debate” are set to battle it out at a specially convened meeting of the Flinders Community Association next weekend. At stake is the erection of “a magnificent” four-metre high bronze sculpture by internationally renowned peninsula artist Andrew Rogers. The sculpture was to be “gifted” – at cost-price of about $100,000 – to the Flinders community to commemorate the town’s 150th birthday and a site in the middle of a roundabout at the intersection of Cook and Wood streets had been agreed upon. A town hall meeting in March voted in favour of the…
A BY-ELECTION will be held Saturday 23 August to fill the vacancy on Mornington Peninsula Shire Council created by the resignation of Cr Frank Martin. The outcome of a postal ballot will decide the new councillor for the Red Hill ward position held by Cr Martin for the past six years. Cr Martin resigned in May due to recent poor health. He was first elected in 2008 and served as mayor in 2011/12. The Red Hill ward – established in 2004 as part of the shire’s amalgamation – and includes Red Hill, Red Hill South, Main Ridge, Balnarring Beach, Somers,…
CONCERNS about over-fishing by commercial netters at the southern end of Port Phillip have prompted a petition to state parliament to have them banned. Organiser Ken Tainton, of Third Ave Rosebud, said he had “easily 1100-1200 signatures” on several petitions from local anglers worried that stocks of snapper, whiting, flathead, salmon and flathead are in terminal decline. A member of the Tootgarook Boat Ramp Club, and long-time former commodore of the Rosebud Motor Boat Squadron, Mr Tainton is meeting with Nepean MP Martin Dixon on Friday to discuss the anglers’ fears. The petitions will then be combined as one and…
CELEBRATIONS marking last week’s 50th anniversary of the Beatles tour of Australia struck a resonant chord with Rosebud’s John (Johnny) Chester. The popular musician was a support act for the Fab Four when they played to packed – and screaming – houses in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and then New Zealand. Memories came flooding back when the phones ran hot last week after the screening of an ABC documentary on the landmark tour. Australia had never seen anything like it before, with half of Adelaide’s population jamming the route from the airport and Melbourne’s streets a sea of eager young faces…
THE situation could not have been more exciting for the gunners at Fort Nepean – or those on the German merchant ship steaming for The Heads – on the first day of the war in 1914. Hostilities had been declared officially three hours and forty-five minutes before the Pfalz made her run for it, hoping to escape to open sea before her new enemy could intern her. But it was not to be: the gunners aimed well and a six-inch shell from gun emplacement number six roared into the water only a short distance from Pfalz and the Australian pilot…
IT is nearly a year since 64-year-old Dermot O’Toole was killed in his jewellery store on High St, Hastings. As sentencing approaches for the man who has pleaded guilty to Mr O’Toole’s murder, his widow Bridget O’Toole has broken her silence about the events of that horrific day on 12 July, the profound effect it has had on her family, and her views on the justice system that allowed it to happen. At midday last Sunday, the lounge room of her home was filled with reporters and television cameramen, as Bridget sat – supported by her three adult sons –…
FORMER Mornington MP and state government minister Robin Cooper has renewed his opposition to the sale of the Mt Martha quarry. Mr Cooper says the quarry reserve should be made safe and opened to the public. “No development should happen there. They should let people in; it’s not the place for multi-storey development, we’re not Hong Kong.” The quarry has been earmarked for sale by Mornington Peninsula Shire which badly needs money to help pay for a $40 million swimming pool complex it wants to build on the foreshore at Rosebud. It is understood the shire has been told it…
HUNDREDS of mourners bid farewell to senior Frankston SES and CFA member Peter Doutch at a funeral service at the Peninsula Aero Club at Tyabb last week following his death in an ultralight aircraft crash on 27 April. The service, which was held in the club rooms at 1pm on 10 June, was attended by about 400 family members, friends and colleagues, including his five-year-old daughter Emily, who was critically injured in the crash. Dozens of SES and CFA personnel formed a guard of honour along the airstrip to pay tribute to the dedicated father of two, who had devoted…
THE Country Fire Authority has warned Mornington Peninsula residents of the heightened dangers of house fires during the cooler months following a spate of deadly blazes across Melbourne’s south-east. There have been four fatal house fires so far this year compared to just two at the same time last year in the CFA’s District 8 region, which takes in the peninsula, Frankston and Melbourne’s bayside suburbs. CFA District 8 operations manager Trevor Owen said that while the coroner was still examining the causes of the deadly fires, residents need to be vigilant of potential fire hazards. “Tragically four people have…
CRUNCH time is coming for young sports star Chelsea Ford. The 13-year-old from Frankston North is in the Victorian girls’ under-13 soccer team, has won five out of six boxing bouts and swims in a squad. While there is no doubting her capabilities in each of these sports, her mother Cathy Steele says Chelsea must soon decide which one to pursue. Before the deadline for that decision, Chelsea, who plays for the Peninsula Strikers, will represent Victoria in the under-13 girls’ national soccer championships at Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales north coast. “She needs to make up her…
FORMER mayor Christine Richards and the Frankston Community Coalition ‘gang of six’ are pushing an idea to improve Frankston train station’s surrounds. The group has been talking to Frankston Council about relocating several sculptures from the McClelland Gallery in Langwarrin to the station precinct in an effort to make the area more welcoming for visitors and residents alike. Ms Richards said McClelland Gallery was on board with the plan but it had to be agreed by council before it could become reality. “It’s a terrific way to leverage Frankston’s cultural assets and it would connect the station and central Frankston…
IT’S taken two and a half years, but the wait is finally over – well, almost. The new Hastings CCTV street cameras have been installed and could be switched on later this week. Western Port area councillor David Garnock said the cameras would be connected by United Energy and tested, then switched on at Hastings police station and “hopefully they will be tuned in and ready to go by next weekend”. And United Energy says all they need is the “paperwork” from the shire’s electrical retailer before “flicking the switch” – possibly later this week. “This is all managed by…