THE 43 candidates lining up for the 11 seats on Mornington Peninsula Shire have little opportunity for physical interaction with voters, making this the first election that may be decided in large part by social media. Most candidates have Facebook and other social media accounts and online debate has, in some cases, been fast and furious for weeks. The Victorian Electoral Commission will mail out ballot packs between 6 and 8 October and votes must be either mailed back or delivered to electoral offices by 6pm on Friday 23 October. Ominously for some, results will be announced on Friday 13…
Year: 2020
BLAIRGOWRIE Yacht Squadron’s Sailability program has won this year’s Australian Sailing Victorian Inclusion Program of the Year award. The aim of the program is to make sailing available to participants from all backgrounds and of all ages and abilities. Volunteers from a group of 30 run the program on Tuesdays, at weekends and on holidays. Since 2002 donations and the use of the yacht squadron’s facilities have enabled a fleet of eight Hansa 303 purpose-built yachts to get young sailors on the water. Footage of the yachts in action and stories from those involved can be seen on YouTube (search…
THE ANZ bank is moving out of Mount Eliza. The branch, which closed in March, is believed to have been in Mount Eliza Way for the past 40 years. The bank’s general manager for Victoria and Tasmania Michael Wake blamed the decision not to reopen on a drop in customers. “Our customers aren’t using branches for their everyday banking like they used to and each year we see a 10 per cent reduction in customer transactions,” he said. “At the same time demand in many of our non-branch roles, such as customer contact centres and the operations team, which manages…
PLANS have been unveiled to transform a 3.41-hectare site at Mount Eliza into a $160 million “retirement community” called Beachleigh. Australian-owned developer Hengyi Pacific last year bought the 33 Jacksons Road site, overlooking Canadian Bay, from the Department of Health and Human Services. Its 19th century residence and two other buildings were originally part of a private estate built in 1878. They were later transformed into a hospital and then an aged care centre. The buildings have a heritage overlay and will be retained and restored. The developer has lodged plans with Mornington Peninsula Shire Council to build 105 low…
SOCCER LANGWARRIN has re-signed Scott Miller as head coach for the 2021 season. It will be the former Fulham and Socceroo assistant’s third year at the helm. “I signed on again because I’ve enjoyed my time there,” Miller said. “I think the club needed a little push in a different direction and that’s what I like to think we’ve provided there. “Obviously this year was out of our control but we’d put together a good squad and were performing well in pre-season and starting to play a game style we wanted to play. “My intention and the coaching staff’s intention…
HORSE RACING CHRIS and John Meagher’s speedy mare, Pippie, ran her rivals off their legs to take out the Group One Moir Stakes and pick up her second Group One success on Friday 25 September at The Valley. The five-year-old daughter of Written Tycoon extended her flawless first-up record to four wins by making every post a winner in the feature $1million sprint. Replicating her first-up win in the Group One Oakleigh Plate last preparation, Pippie again utilised her blistering early speed and controlled the race before holding on to land a 0.8-length victory over Godolphin’s Trekking and the Will…
AT the Frankston Police Court, on Monday last, before Mr Knight, P. M and local justices, Messrs Williams, Grant, and McLean, John Daley, age 35 years, and Harriet Bailey were charged with having been drunk and disorderly in a public place, and with having been guilty of indecent conduct on the foreshore. The female was additionally charged with having used insulting language. Senior-Constable Bray gave evidence to the effect that on Saturday last, he, with Constable Delaney, arrested Daley and Bailey at Frankston. Both were intoxicated, and were behaving most indecently on the foreshore at Frankston. When arrested, the female…
TIME is a relative concept. Probably a second cousin twice removed. Or an uncle you see twice a year and who mumbles a lot and monopolises the cabana at family functions. (Come to think of it, that uncle may well be me.) But I’ll admit the news that our stage four lockdown would be heading into extra time, if not a penalty shoot out, was something of a blow. Not just a swift clip behind the ears, either, but a full-booted kick to the solar plexus. I’d been looking forward to a change. If I’m being honest, I was looking…
VOTERS will choose 11 of 43 candidates to form the next Mornington Peninsula Shire Council. The state government decided to go ahead with the October elections despite the COVID-19 restrictions which will impact on candidates’ campaigns. Nominations closed Tuesday 22 September and voting, postal only, will close at 6pm on Friday 23 October. Voting is compulsory and the Victorian Electoral Commission will mail out voting packs between 6 and 8 October. Just five of the 11 current councillors are seeking re-election, which means a majority of the new council will be new to the job, although at least one candidate…
AN exhibition to raise awareness of the campaign to stop AGL’s proposed gas import terminal from being built at Crib Point will run 3-25 October. Art is in our Nature includes the work of 54 artists while raising money for community group Save Westernport’s legal challenge to the proposal alongside Environment Victoria and the Victorian National Parks Association. “I reached out to the broader art community and was struck by the incredibly generous response of artists,” curator Penelope Gebhardt said. “Many have personal connections to the Mornington Peninsula and it has been heart-warming to hear their stories. Our community is…
THE federal government has given $335,000 to help eradicate the estimated 100 feral cats remaining on French Island. About 1100 feral cats have already been removed from the island but their total eradication is described as an “ongoing challenge”. The money from the environment restoration fund is aimed at protecting species such as the king quail, orange-bellied parrot and long-nosed potoroo. Flinders MP Greg Hunt said the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority, Parks Victoria and French Island Landcare had been working with landowners on a cat control program on the island which is said to be fox free.…
THE collapse of the steel cofferdam around the new Hastings boat ramp has thrown the reopening of fishing into jeopardy. Work to complete potentially the busiest ramp in Western Port, which started 20 July, is now behind schedule and will not be completed in time for the remainder of the snapper season. The cofferdam is a four-metre high dam or rectangular wall of sheet steel driven into the mud. Once erected water is pumped out to provide a dry area so workers can construction the all-tide concrete ramp and walkway. The deepest, most vulnerable section buckled under the weight…
THIEVES who broke into a shipping container at Crib Point last week stole specialist equipment used to train search and rescue dogs. They also vandalised other equipment causing an overall loss of $3300. Search and Rescue Dogs Australia’s Julie Cowan said: “This is the third time we’ve been targeted. After all we’ve gone through with COVID-19 and with business down the sewer – now we are hit with this.” Ms Cowan, of Somerville, said an angle grinder had been used to cut through four padlocks to access the container on the Esplanade sometime over the 12-13 September weekend. “We thought…
SOCCER ANDY Lancaster has made a sudden departure from the Seaford United coaching setup. The club icon emailed president Willie Lyn recently to tell him of his decision to end his coaching partnership with senior player-coach Matt Morris-Thomas. Lancaster had a long and distinguished playing career at North Seaford Reserve. He is a three times senior best and fairest winner and is the club’s second highest scorer behind legendary goal ace David Greening. He also has served on the committee and only stepped down earlier this year from his role as sponsorship coordinator to concentrate on his coaching duties. There…
AFL SYDNEY Swans captain Luke Parker played his 200th AFL game this season. He has won a premiership, made the All Australian team, finished second in the Brownlow voting, and won two best and fairest medals. Despite his many achievements in the AFL, a lone senior outing for the Langwarrin Football Club still ranks high on the list of Parker’s best memories. Before making the move to New South Wales to start his AFL career in 2011, Parker pulled on the blue and white guernsey he had grown up wearing for a solitary senior game. “It was an incredible memory,”…
HORSE RACING MORNINGTON-based trainer Dean Binaisse broke through for an elusive Group-class victory on Saturday 19 September with his ever-consistent mare, Felicia. Having previously placed six times at black-type level, Binaisse finally broke through with his four-year-old daughter of Unencumbered, as she convincingly put away a handy field in the $160,000 Group Three How Now Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield. Ridden by Craig Williams, Felicia sat up on the speed before finding plenty in the straight to kick clear for a comfortable two-length victory ahead of the Mitchell Freedman-trained Broadwayandfourth and the Chris Waller-trained Fiesta. The win brought up Williams’ third…
THE case of the Nobles, dealt with in the Frankston Police Court on Monday last, will probably excite a good deal of interest throughout the State, leaving an impression on the public mind that the accused were, perhaps, “more sinned against than sinning.” The attitude of the police in conducting the prosecution was wholly sympathetic. The Melbourne daily papers followed the lead thus given, and pictured to the astounded public the spectacle of a stricken family driven to crime to avert starvation. The story, as related in the Police Court, and reproduced in the Press, was sufficiently startling to give…
DROMANA Drive-In’s Paul Whitaker is on a Grand Final mission to convince the state government to allow him to run a live screening of the AFL’s biggest game of the year. Permission would be manna from heaven – however unlikely – if his beloved Saints were one of the team’s playing. “We hosted a successful live telecast of the St Kilda football match on 14 June, during stage two restrictions,” Mr Whitaker said. “It was a fantastic night. Lots of people commented that it was like the old VFL days with cars parked around the oval, horns and lights flashing…
SEAROAD Ferries has resumed its weekend service between Sorrento and Queenscliff following last week’s lifting of restrictions in regional Victoria. CEO Matt McDonald said the lifting of restrictions would allow the “‘recovery” to begin and hoped to see the Mornington Peninsula and metropolitan Melbourne soon “move in line with regional Victoria”. The changes allow people from regional Victoria to use the ferry service to drive from Geelong to Phillip Island. “During stage three and stage four we have continued to move our customers who, ultimately, rely on the service,” Mr McDonald said. Permitted travel has included food supplies, emergency services,…
RESTAURATEUR Michelle Loielo hopes to set a legal precedent preventing state premiers from having the powers to declare a curfew like the one Victorians are under during the COVID-19 restrictions. Her decision to challenge the power of the Premier Daniel Andrews in the Supreme Court has led to widespread support, and condemnation. Ms Loielo’s legal team last Monday (14 September) filed a motion in the Supreme Court against Michelle Giles, who is Victoria’s Deputy Public Health Commander, for the curfew to be declared “unlawful and invalid”. A further Directions Hearing was scheduled for Monday (21 September) this week. Ms Loielo,…
BUSINESSES are pitching in to help Victorians cope with the stresses and strains of dealing with restrictions imposed in a bid to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While regional Victoria is feeling the benefits of restrictions being eased, the Mornington Peninsula and Melbourne remain under stage four restrictions. Charlie Ryan, of Red Hill, who started design agency Five Creative with James Baker in 2009, said they launched their V for Victoria campaign in the hope of “spreading a unifying message of love, hope and solidarity across the country”. The stylised hand forming a peace sign has been reproduced on posters…
KYLE Llewellyn, who was diagnosed with cancer twice as a child, is not one to take it easy. Later this month he will tackle the gruelling 4x4x48 Challenge to mark the end of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Mr Llewellyn, 20, of Rosebud, will run four miles (6.4km), inside every four-hour block over 48 hours on 29-30 September. The aim is to encourage children with cancer to focus on something positive to help get them through their treatment and to never lose sight of their goals. “I hope that by doing this challenge I can show kids currently going through treatment…
A DROMANA real estate agent is urging the state government to reduce fuel loads on the forest floor at Arthurs Seat before the summer fire season. A “frustrated” Roger McMillan has been keeping a paper trail of emails sent to Nepean MP Chris Brayne over the past two months asking what was being done to prevent the “imminent bushfire threat this summer … and the resulting devastation of lives, properties, flora and fauna”. To start the clean-up process, he told Mr Brayne: “You need to organise a meeting up on the hill, walk the roads and tracks, see firsthand the…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is pressing the state government to classify it as a region – and not part of metropolitan Melbourne – to liberate it from the stage four coronavirus restrictions. The shire says the harsher zoning “makes no sense on several levels and is unsafe”. In 1966 the entire peninsula was included in the metropolitan statistical area. The mayor Cr Sam Hearn in a letter to Premier Daniel Andrews last week blamed “lines on an administrative map and not any COVID-19 specific considerations” for its inclusion into the Melbourne metropolitan area. He said a letter from Chief Health Officer…
THE leasehold of Mornington’s landmark Grand Hotel has been sold for an undisclosed sum. The changing of the guard comes after long-time owner and businessman Bernie Taylor died in November. Mr Taylor bought the hotel’s freehold and leasehold in 1976 and set about establishing it as Main Street’s pre-eminent drinking and dining establishment. Its current co-general managers are son-in-law Cameron Price and daughter Pir Taylor Price. Mr Price said the family would retain the freehold of the 1889 heritage-listed building after a “pretty emotional” sale process. “Pir has spent almost 25 years working for her dad and I’ve been here…
FRANKSTON had 71 unintentional overdose deaths between 2014 and 2018, making it the third highest of any Victorian region. The Mornington Peninsula, with 50 recorded deaths, was fifth on the list of 14 regions listed by the Penington Institute. Topping the list of unintentional overdose deaths was Geelong, with 82, followed by Dandenong, 78, Frankston, 71 and Melbourne, 60. The Carlton-based institute’s 2020 Australia’s Overdose Annual Report said more than 2000 people died from overdoses in the previous year. CEO John Ryan says drug-induced death is not confined to either illegal drugs or those taken as medicines. “When used in…
MOUNT Eliza’s Geoff Nyssen will be going all out for Sunday’s annual MY Mount Eliza Run & Fun Festival raising money for the Snowdome Foundation to find a cure for the terminal blood cancer, multiple myeloma. Everyone, including pets, can join 8am-12pm on the day on Facebook. The virtual event will include live entertainment, challenges, promotions, prizes, silent auction and physical activities. Mr Nyssen was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2014, and despite COVID-19 restrictions is determined to go ahead with this year’s festival. “We plan to engage and connect around the core values of empowerment, wellness and community,” he…
THE smiles on their faces said it all when children were allowed back to the playground at Hastings on Monday. As the easing of COVID-19 restrictions took hold, three-year-old William Caufield, of Bittern, was happy to be back on the swing, while sisters Sari, three and Mila Barr, six, began the climb up to the cubbyhouse (and normality). All the playground equipment was soon being given a workout as parents took the time to stand back and appreciate the benefits of seeing their children mingle with others who had also been locked out for weeks. “Drop in numbers a positive…
ANN Smith and husband Les get as much enjoyment out of their Meals on Wheels deliveries as their clients. The Hastings couple enjoy “doing something worthwhile” and are good mates with their often-vulnerable client base. “We get to know them and their funny little ways and always make sure they are OK, especially during lockdown,” Ms Smith said. Last month’s National Meals on Wheels Day (26 August) aimed to highlight the contribution made by more than 700 Meals on Wheels services and 80,000 volunteers across Australia. It’s a big operation on the Mornington Peninsula, with the service relying on 130…
SOCCER THE long-awaited announcement of Football Victoria’s refunds policy was made late last week. The policy was prefaced by a reference to a recent Australian Sports Foundation survey on the severe economic impact of the pandemic. It estimated the total financial loss to Australia’s 70,000 community sports clubs to be around $1.6 billion which jeopardises the survival of many. FV hasn’t been immune to the impact of having its competitions disrupted by suspension and eventual cancellation. The federation stood down most of its staff from March and all of its staff from August. It has been formulating a refund policy…