MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council has approved the installation of two engineer protective barriers as part of efforts to help residents of three households return to their homes after the 14 January 2025 landslide.
The barriers will be installed on council owned land on Penny Lane in McCrae to address the risks associated with the land slides.
After assessing options, the council determined the best approach was to instal two engineered barriers using ballasted shipping containers.
According to the council the barriers can be installed quickly and are designed to provide robust safety measures and can be painted or screened.
The barriers have been commonly used around the world to address similar land slide risks.
The shire has confirmed there are four properties still subject to emergency orders following the landslides and that the council will continue to work with the owners of the fourth property to enable their return which they assured will happen soon.
Mayor Stephen Batty said council’s priority was to get effected residents safely back into their homes as soon as possible.
“We understand this has been an extraordinarily difficult and frustrating period for affected residents,” said Batty.
“Our focus is simple – we want these residents back in their homes as soon as it’s safe to do so.”
“This approach mitigates land slide risks, can be delivered quickly and is a responsible use of taxpayer funds.”
“Although the shire does not accept responsibility… we are committed to helping our residents to return to their home and to ensure the hillside is stabilised.”
The shire say they will move quickly to progress the necessary design and approvals and construction arrangements to begin works on the barrier walls and see them completed as soon as possible.
Any return home will remain subject to the required engineering, safety and regulatory assessments, including the variation or removal of existing emergency orders.
Property owners will also be responsible for any remining works required on their private properties to enable to emergency order to be lifted for them to return home.
The shire say they will continue working directly with affected residents as the works progress.
The board of inquiry’s report into the McCrae landslide of 14 January 2025 found the landslide, which destroyed a house and injured a council worker, was due to a burst water main owned by South East Water (SEW) (“Inquiry finds burst water main caused McCrae landslide”, The News, 14/10/25).
Inquiry chair Renée Enbom KC found the burst water main was located 450m south of the destroyed property, near the corner of Bayview Rd and Outlook Rd. Prior to its repair on 31 December 2024, the water main leaked 40.3 million litres of water undetected; the equivalent to approximately 16 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
In the months leading up to the landslide, McCrae residents reported concerns and complaints about water in the area. It was creating potholes, flowing down streets, bubbling up through the roads, and saturating nature strips.
The report concluded the shire did not share information with SEW regarding the high landslide risk in McCrae and that overall “landslide risk was, and is, largely forgotten”.
In March 2026, the Mornington Peninsula Shire and SEW issued a joint statement, detailing critical works to be undertaken to provide a new pathway for the affected residents to return home (“Statement indicates mediation progress for landslide victims”, The News, 24/3/26).
First published in the Mornington News – 6 October 2026
