THE Somers Residents Association (SRA) is calling for the reinstatement of a community committee to oversee the Somers Foreshore Reserve amid growing concerns of the reserve’s deteriorating condition. Residents say the coastal asset, which currently sits on Crown Land, had been left in a state of neglect with overgrown vegetation and poor maintenance of public facilities having prompted increased frustration.
The reserve is currently managed by Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) but the SRA said the site had been in poor condition for a long period of time “including extensive weed growth, cessation of revegetation works, and deterioration of community facilities and path infrastructure including art installations”.
The SRA has appealed to Hastings MP Paul Mercurio and are “hopeful that the reestablishment of the Somers Foreshore Reserve committee of management will occur,” which, if approved, would be made up of community and government representatives.
The absence of a committee of management, which ended about ten years ago, “has effectively ended the involvement of volunteers in the management of the foreshore,” the SRA said. Authorised community works are only currently allowed in council-controlled areas “despite many requests and offers for action over many years in those areas managed by DEECA.”
According to the SRA, DEECA had advised “of their intention” to appoint a new land manager for the Somers foreshore, and “disappointedly, they ruled out any community consultation prior to an announcement being made”. But a DEECA spokesperson said, “while discussions are continuing with Mornington Peninsula Shire Council on the management of the reserve, no decision has been reached at this stage”.
The SRA’s secretary Michael Borowick said members of the Somers community were passionate about maintaining and improving the foreshore environment and remained “deeply concerned about its current state”. “Our community wishes to revive the long tradition of Somers residents volunteering, which in the past involved landscaping, weeding, cleaning up and revegetating,” he said. “An example of significant disrepair is the Banksia Picnic area installed in 2007 by the former Somers Foreshore Reserve committee of management with the assistance of volunteers.”
Borowick also noted areas surrounding the car park near The Somers General store were in “urgent need of significant attention,” and had been reported to DEECA (and formerly Parks Victoria) over many years to no avail. “Serious community concern has been mismanaged and/or ignored despite the notified risks to the public including sightings of snakes in overgrown weeds,” he said. “The SRA believes that improved environmental outcomes can only come about by reconstituting a Somers Foreshore Reserve committee of management, which enables collaboration between community and government representatives.”
Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Cr Anthony Marsh, in a statement, said the council has not agreed to take over management of the reserve. “DEECA has been seeking to enter into a funding agreement to carry out work at Somers Foreshore Reserve, however the shire is not in a position to deliver works on behalf of DEECA,” Marsh said, adding “it is not the shire’s role to complete works on behalf of others in areas where we don’t have management responsibilities”. The department confirmed that where a committee of management or land manager was appointed, they were responsible for the management of the reserve.
Borowick said the SRA had written to the Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos in March to “not sign off on a management proposal with council unless it features a committee of management on which residents are represented”. This is in addition to the SRA writing to the shire as DEECA “won’t engage with us”. “We want the Minister and the council to talk to us before any decision is made. We don’t want DEECA continuing as the sole manager, and that’s why we welcome a change,” Borowick said.
Borowick pointed to the state government having recently appointed three new community representatives to the Point Leo Foreshore and Public Park Reserve, with an advertisement also seeking expressions of interest for the Tooradin Foreshore committee of management.
DEECA has been contacted for comment about the degraded state of the Somers Foreshore Reserve.
Cr David Gill told The News, “It’s a disgrace that the state government are not looking after Victoria’s foreshore, in particular a foreshore that is very valuable environmentally for visitors like Somers foreshore”.
First published in the Western Port News – 30 April 2025
