Locals deserve clarity on Dromana Pier
For Dromana’s cafes, restaurants and shops, summer trade helps pay the bills long after visitors have headed home. It supports local jobs and keeps businesses operating through the quieter months.
That is why concerns about the Dromana Pier redevelopment deserve urgent attention.
Traders have told council that foreshore closures, reduced parking and construction arrangements have affected their businesses. Residents want to know when they can enjoy their pier and foreshore again. Both are asking a reasonable question: when will the work be finished?
At present, uncertainty is adding to the frustration.
Reports of further delays are circulating. These have not been verified yet speculation helps nobody. Parks Victoria need to provide a clear public update explaining what remains to be done, when access is expected to be restored.
People can plan around reliable information. They cannot plan around an information vacuum.
The new pier will be an important asset for Dromana. Investment in safe, accessible public infrastructure is welcome. But the way a project is delivered matters to the people living and working alongside it.
Businesses need customers to be able to find them, park and move safely through the precinct. Visitors need clear information about which areas remain accessible. Residents need confidence that closures are necessary and will last no longer than required.
I am seeking urgent action from the state government to address these concerns ahead of summer.
That means a credible reopening timeframe, regular updates and a practical plan to minimise disruption.
Construction signage and visitor directions should be reviewed so they accurately explain access and help people reach local businesses.
Dromana deserves a new pier. Its residents and businesses also deserve clear answers, practical support and every reasonable effort to prevent disruption extending through another summer.
Mayor Cr Stephen Batty, Mornington Peninsula Shire
Editor’s note: The News reached out to Parks Victoria seeking confirmation on the timeframe of the pier’s opening and received the following statement:
“The new Dromana Pier will open this year. We will let the community know about the exact opening date as soon as it is confirmed.”
Hospital risks
I attended the shire’s Nepean candidates’ forum on 15 October 2026 and found the entire session most informative. Well done to the shire for facilitating and moderating the session and encourage everyone to review the discussion through the shire’s website.
The main topics were, not surprisingly, Rosebud Hospital, homelessness, affordability and transport.
It was pleasing that all candidates were most supportive of the immediate redevelopment of the Rosebud Public Hospital in a staged approach, to ensure that the facility is not closed for a prolonged period.
It was also agreed that the range of public hospital services should be increased to include maternity, cardio-thoracic, etc.
With the exception of the One Nation candidate, how the rebuild would be paid for was not addressed. Intriguingly, the ON candidate has been on the public record indicating that the rebuild would be undertaken as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) and then spoke about funding from “from the private sector” that would result in a $345m saving.
As a person who has had a career in formulating, procuring and commissioning PPP projects, there is a world of difference between a PPP and a private financing and without a comprehensive project brief being created, costed internally and then put out to tender for a contracted fixed price, it is impossible to accurately predict what savings – if any – may be achieved through such project delivery methods.
It is also unclear if the current Rosebud site is sufficiently large enough to incorporate the private facilities for a PPP to be viable.
While Victoria’s financial position is not currently strong, it nonetheless should be able to raise finance at a cheaper rate than the private sector whom, afterall, would be borrowing against the risk of the state repaying the debt!
Be careful what you wish for.
Stuart Allen, Dromana
Mayoral independence
I’m thrilled that $250,000 has been pledged for the Mornington Community Support Centre, Southern Peninsula Support, Fusion and other local services. These organisations carry a heavy load on the peninsula, and this money will help.
The pledge comes from the Victorian Liberals. What I can’t accept is what came with it. At the announcement, mayor Cr Stephen Batty told those assembled to vote Liberal so the money will flow. Chris Crewther then posted that message on social media and gave it a much bigger audience.
Cr Batty is a Liberal Party member and is free to campaign for his party. But a mayor speaking to people from organisations that depend on this funding shouldn’t be telling them how to vote. It puts them in an impossible position, and it makes help for people doing it tough sound like a reward for political loyalty.
Essential services should be funded on need, not on how the community votes.
That’s why I’m running as an independent. I’ll work with whoever forms government, and push for the peninsula’s fair share from either. No party room will tell me how to vote. I can back good policy and oppose bad policy, whoever proposes it, and I’ll never have to weigh Nepean’s needs against a party’s statewide strategy.
I’ve lived on the peninsula for more than six years and I know the people and services doing the hard work. I answer to this community and no one else.
Kim Robbins, Independent candidate for Nepean
Pen pusher
I think J. Cox (“Who checks the checkers?, Letters, 13/10/26) would be best advised to stop listening to Fox News, Pauline Hanson and Donald Trump.
For their information Australians have always used pencils for marking ballot papers, pens are a recent occurrence for a few paranoid people.
I was just wondering who J. Cox thinks these nefarious actors who are? Somehow they are going to grab large numbers of ballot papers to spend a few unobserved hours rubbing out ballots and changing them, then surreptitiously returning them to the official count.
Australia has a very robust electoral system controlled by the politically neutral AEC. The possibility of cheating as implied by J. Cox is negligible or non-existent.
Ross Hudson, Mt Martha
Conspiracy theory
The vision created by J Cox (“Who Checks the Checkers?, Letters, 13/10/26) of electoral staff bending over ballot papers with their erasers, scratching out voter intentions written in pencil and replacing them with their own preferences, is indeed captivating.
Having worked for the electoral authorities at many elections, I can assure you staff do not put a finger on those ballot papers except to count them into piles. It is a laughably absurd notion that anyone in those positions has the opportunity, time, intent or desire to alter votes. Counters are constantly scrutinised by the AEC/VEC’s roaming supervisors.
Pen or pencil – it’s your choice. Take your own if you wish. Preference selection – also your choice. You don’t have to follow the How To Vote Card provided by your party. What you mark on the ballot paper is what gets counted, exactly as you intended.
Please don’t peddle conspiracy theories about the outstandingly rigorous and transparent election processes we in Australia are fortunate to have in place.
Debbie de Laps, Rye
Election predictability
It’s said there are two certainties in life, death and taxes, but as a long time reader of this paper, I’m pretty sure I have found a couple more.
Firstly Cr Gill. I can’t remember the last time I read the paper without reading “ the motion was passed with only Cr Gill voting against.” In fact in last weeks paper two articles contained much the same phase on two different issues.
Then we have Joe Lenzo. Much the same as Cr Gill, Joe has been a model of consistency when it comes to being out of step with the majority of his fellow peninsula residences with his backing of every losing candidate for as long back as I can remember, with the highlight being his avalanche of letters in support of independent candidate Dr Sarah Russell, who then failed to garner enough votes to beat the informal vote.
If I was Kim Robbins I would politely ask Mr Lenzo to put his support elsewhere if previous results are anything to go by.
M. G. Free, Mt Martha
Library defence
I live in the Mornington Peninsula Shire and love our community libraries.
A library is more than a collection of books. It is an essential community service where everybody is welcome and supported regardless of age, ability, background or circumstance.
Our qualified, dedicated librarians make this possible.
They bring years of study, professional expertise and a commitment to helping the community.
Now the professionals face the prospect of demotion, reduced pay, and diminished recognition of their qualifications.
While library services are cut, and their staff voices silenced.
Our libraries deserve investment, not erosion, and our community deserves services that remain accessible, inclusive, and professionally staffed.
Shame on council if it allows these vital community services to be diminished.
Lynne Twaits, Mt Martha
Tree devastation
What price a Tree? Capital letter for Tree intended.
Hard to put a price on something that time and nature have created and nurtured for possibly over one hundred years or more.
Councils all over Australia have been made aware that Trees are highly valuable for so many reasons. Green canopy cover is a hot topic right now. Trees provide health, well-being and ecological benefits as well as helping to combat the effects of climate change.
The Mornington Peninsula Shire Council purports to know this when it states, “Trees matter on the Mornington Peninsula – The Shire is taking a proactive approach to tree management”.
The felling of these particular Messmate Trees, fully supported by the shire and a qualified arborist on a site that is subject to significant landscape and vegetation overlays, makes me seriously wonder about the meaning of the words “proactive approach to tree management” and to question the protective power of overlays.
If this act of apparent arboricide is the shire’s idea of “proactive tree management” then I believe the council should reconsider its statement reflecting their view on Trees because it is not ringing true with regard to Tree protection.
I am gutted to learn these Trees quite possibly may have had a further one hundred years of life left in them had they not been killed to make space for a shed! Would they still be there today if it wasn’t for the request for a shed?
I am certain everyone who cares about the loss of the Messmates would want to read the arborist’s report to find out exactly why they were approved to be cut down. Where can we see this report?
Tori Potter, Flinders
Health rebate
I am an older person who has private health insurance, it’s a choice I make. I do not understand why I should receive a higher rebate for health insurance than younger people.
Yes, I understand that it might affect some older people on limited incomes, but there are many younger people also on limited and low incomes, why should they receive a smaller rebate than I do?
I would much rather see savings go towards a measure that will help all older people, with more accessible aged care services than to the limited group who choose to pay for health insurance.
Marg D’Arcy, Rye
Real community
I cannot get enough of Mornington Tanti estate.
Created from a farm in the 1960s by the Housing Commission, Mornington Park or Tanti as it was called, is tucked behind Bungower Rd and the Nepean Highway in arguably one of the best real estate positions in Mornington.
If it’s not on the highest score expensively it would be difficult to match communally and it has a real sense of community past about it. Numerous families have an intergenerational history.
From my experience with Mornington Park Primary that combines with its Steiner school, the opportunities for children could only be equalled. Mornington U3A is centred in Mornington Park with a program including the school.
The children have introduced me to a community activity established by ‘BT’ where throughout the year every Thursday evening he puts on a free BBQ for the locals at the Currawong Community Centre park. Food aplenty, excellent and various, the happiest opportunity for neighbours to come together and they do. Here the local kids, their families and other residents enjoy just being together. A happy space complete with live music, great food, easy come-and-go. Such a far cry from what can often be silence with next-door. Where else does this happen?
A reminder of a mostly disappeared past, but yes Mornington Park has it.
There might have been some negative baggage for this estate but I’m reminded of the Heinze ad where this “little brother” has definitely been brought up a bit! I live beachside but this is my happiest place.
Max Garrard, Mornington
