Day: February 9, 2016

EMMA Hopkins’ determination to help restore fire ravaged parts of Crib Point led to a successful clean-up operation, Saturday. About 100 residents and 25 defence personnel spent five hours picking up rubbish and packing utes and trailers. Areas targeted were the foreshore, train station, cemetery, Bay, Lorimer and Disney streets, and Governor Rd. Mornington Peninsula Shire provided two rubbish skips which Ms Hopkins said “were full within the first half hour”. They were due to be picked up yesterday. “The amount of rubbish we collected was phenomenal,” Ms Hopkins said Monday. “We found ovens, fridges, freezers, a full toilet, tyres…

FLUKER posts have given Western Port residents and visitors a novel way to monitor and appreciate their natural environment. The posts were installed by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning as part of a “citizen science system” in which people can contribute to the natural environment by taking photos from fixed points (Fluker posts) and sending them to flukerposts@gmail.com which acts as central depository. Three posts have been installed near Lord Somers Camp allowing people to send their images to a database where information about the local foreshore and ecosystem can be collated. Two of the posts are…

FLINDERS MP Greg Hunt last Friday defended the federal government’s policy of returning 267 asylum seekers, including 39 children and 33 babies, to the Nauru detention centre after they have received medical treatment in Australia. He explained the government’s asylum seeker policies to 21 members of Amnesty International’s Mornington Peninsula branch gathered outside his Hastings office. Amnesty member Murray Anderson said the group was unable to get assurances from Mr Hunt that children would not be detained or sent back to Nauru. Amnesty has stepped up its campaign against offshore detention centres following a High Court decision which said the…