Author: Keith Platt

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have rejected a proposed media policy that limited their ability to make public statements and have “off the record” conversations with journalists. The draft stated that information about the shire could only be released to the media by the mayor Cr Bev Colomb, CEO Carl Cowie, and communications, media and events manager Mark Kestigian. The policy was drawn up by Mr Kestigian who withdrew it from the Tuesday 13 June council meeting agenda after a majority of councillors expressed concern that it restricted their roles as elected representatives of the public. Cr Colomb told The News…

AUCTIONEER Andy Reid will be wielding his hammer and hoping his voice will draw a crowd of football fans when he steps up at Mornington’s Wednesday market on 28 June. For 20 minutes from midday Mr Reid, of freelance auctioneers SoldBy Auctions will be calling for bids for framed packs of action cards featuring Richmond’s Dustin Martin, Geelong’s Patrick Dangerfield and former Collingwood champion Dane Swan. Money raised from the sale will go to Clean as Casper mobile showers, a charity which provides a mobile shower service for homeless people. Clean as Casper was started in 2015 by Steve and…

THE imbalance in spending of ratepayers’ money across the Mornington Peninsula is starkly shown in amounts allocated for Australia Day, a national celebration aimed at bringing communities closer together. The latest figures presented to councillors show the disparity between money allocated to communities facing Port Phillip to those on the Western Port side of the peninsula. While representing just a small part of the shire’s $212 million overall budget, the Australia Day proposal further illustrates the widening gap in spending between the communities. Although not yet adopted, councillors were last week asked to give tacit approval – with a view to…

A NEW database will provide the public with details about sewage being poured into the ocean, estuaries and rivers. The database developed by the Clean Ocean Foundation, which successfully campaigned to clean up sewage being pumped into the ocean at Gunnamatta, has been compiled with a $400,000 federal government grant announced by Flinders MP Greg Hunt in October 2015. Now based at Wonthaggi, the foundation’s head John Gemmill joined Mr Hunt at Gunnamatta on Friday to announce the establishment of the national outfall database, or NOD. Citizen scientists were recruited to monitor and take water samples from many of Australia’s…

USUALLY the bad news story of the breeding season, hooded plovers on the Mornington Peninsula this year have set a new record with 13 chicks taking to the air. The successful breeding season coincides with regulations which banned dogs at all times from beaches within Mornington Peninsula National Park, the plovers’ main nesting area. Elsewhere, storms battered beaches, wiping out hundreds of nests in Victoria and South Australia leading to the lowest breeding success for many species over the past 10 years. At this time last year just two hooded plover chicks had managed to survive. One nest at Gunnamatta…

THE state government has adopted new planning rules that open the way for three-storey houses in towns across the Mornington Peninsula. Previously protected by restrictive planning overlays, the shire’s planning policy is now likely to be overruled by state laws. Council officers – without reference to council – will be able to issue permits for developments worth up to $250,000 in green wedge zones, $500,000 in commercial areas and $1 million in industrial areas. The mayor Cr Bev Colomb last week issued a statement which said the council “has expressed concern” at the changes and wants to meet with Planning…

KILLER whales, or orcas, have returned to Port Phillip. A group photographed off Point Nepean included a male known as Ripple, who has been tracked and catalogued by whale watchers since 2005. Marine wildlife consultant with the Dolphin Research Institute David Donnelly said Ripple was last sighted in Port Phillip in 2015, but has also been recorded in waters off southern NSW, western Victoria and south eastern Tasmania. “Australian killer whales are highly mobile and on the east coast rarely spend longer than a few hours to a day in any one location,” Mr Donnelly said. While killer whales were…

THE state government has been told that it should rule out Hastings for the state’s next container port on economic and environment grounds. Infrastructure Victoria last week recommended that a container port be built at Bay West, in Port Phillip north of Geelong. The Advice on Securing Victoria’s Ports Capacity report also states that it is unlikely there will be a need for a new container port until 2055, with detailed planning needed to begin in 2040. The recommendation is not binding and state government’s are becoming notorious for overturning decisions made by their predecessors. While a previous state Labor…

MARATHON swimmer Chloe McCardel was crouched in the near-empty car park near Safety Beach Yacht Club slapping on sun protection and a concoction of Vaseline and lanolin. Thursday’s cloudy skies and 15-20kph winds made the water unappealing, but McCardel was on a training mission. She holds the world record for an unassisted ocean swim (124.4 kilometres in the Bahamas in October 2014) and has swum the English Channel 21 times (eight crossings between June and October last year). Without wanting to give the game away, she admits to be training for another record swim, but says the details have to…

HUNDREDS of signatures are being added to a petition calling for an aquatic centre at Rosebud. Pressure for a pool follows Mornington Peninsula Shire’s abandonment in 2014 of its long-held plans for an aquatic centre on the foreshore at Rosebud. After commissioning architect drawings for the foreshore complex the shire spent $5.1 million buying shops and commercial land in Wannaeue Place as an alternative site. The commercial land is next to Rosebud library. Councillors have been told this week that there are now 1736 signatures on a petition calling for an aquatic centre at Rosebud, 442 more than when it…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors are likely to drop the Peninsula Pet Expo which has been running for the past decade. A report to councillors says the free expo at Rosebud – originally known as the Pet and Pony Expo – has become unviable because of the declining number of visitors and a doubling of the cost to $80,000. “Furthermore, there are limited animal-related entertainers and stallholders available to take part,” communication, media and events manager Mark Kestigian stated in a report to council’s Tuesday (23 May) meeting. Mr Kestigian said many of the stallholders who had been provided with “free…

HASTINGS MP Neale Burgess says he is outraged “at the incredibly harsh decision of the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council to increase rent tenfold for the local Hastings Club”. Mr Burgess has joined other critics upset with the shire demanding the club pay “a ridiculous $42,000 per year, rising to more than $52,000 in year three, up from just $4000 currently”. He says the council has refused to meet with him “to discuss this outrageous rent increase”. Mr Burgess wants the shire to grant the club a 21-year lease with “a peppercorn rent”. “Any rent charged above this amount is simply…

DIVERS are continuing to uncover acts of cruelty to fish caught from piers in Port Phillip and Western Port. The killing of a “resident” smooth ray on Rye pier on 2 April resulted in a 25,000-signature online petition calling for a ban on the killing of rays in Port Phillip, including stingrays and banjo sharks. The CEO of peak Victorian recreational fishing body VRFish, Michael Burgess, says his organisation “encourages all fishers to return unwanted rays to the water unharmed and comply with fishing regulations”. “We all need to work together to stamp out this unacceptable and illegal behaviour. Rays…

MID-year is the latest sailing date set for the Western Port Oberon Association’s MV Wyuna to leave Tasmania for Melbourne. The 64 metre cutter was given to the association in 2013 and plans were made to have it join the submarine Otama as part of a maritime museum in Western Port. However, both vessels remain tied up in red tape and anchored offshore – the submarine at Crib Point and the Wyuna at Launceston. Otama association president Max Bryant last week was confident the project would receive a “kick start” once the Wyuna arrives in Melbourne. He said it would take…

EFFORTS being made to cut the road toll on the Mornington Peninsula will be outlined to an international audience in Canada in August. Road safety specialist Bruce Corben will outline the shire’s Towards Zero strategies and objectives to the ninth international conference on urban traffic safety Committee in Banff, Alberta, Canada in August. It is now one year since Mornington Peninsula Shire agreed to instigate road safety programs designed to make it Towards Zero municipality and at the start of this month there had been no deaths recorded on the peninsula’s roads this year. The last recorded death was in…

The Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has determined that the planning permit for the former Pioneer quarry in Boundary Rd, Dromana has expired. Community groups are hailing the decision as a victory over Hillview Quarries although one leading campaigner cautions “we’ve won a battle, but not the war”. “We’re over the moon and I’d love to think that was the end, but I think it will go on,” Dr Mark Fancett, of the Sheepwash Creek Catchment Landcare group said. The decision handed down on 27 April is the second win for the protesters who also four years ago successfully campaigned…

TENDERS close in eight days for consultants to prepare “comprehensive business case” for a Cowes to Stony Point car ferry. An economic study produced six years ago put the overall cost of the project at $47 million and predicted it would lead to greater employment on Phillip Island and the Mornington Peninsula during and after construction of two new terminals. The shires of Mornington Peninsula and Bass Coast are now awaiting their call for submission from consultants to prepare a business case. The state government has conributed $250,000 and the shires $25,000 each. There is nothing new about the ferry…

BATHING boxes on Mornington Peninsula beaches will be checked for asbestos. Councillors have been asked to approve $50,000 in the 2017/18 budget for an audit of the 830 bathing boxes managed by the shire. If any of the asbestos on bathing boxes is seen as a risk to public health the owners will be told to “undertake necessary corrective works”, Mornington Peninsula Shire’s property and strategy manager Yasmin Woods said. “Many of the boatsheds and bathing boxes on the Mornington Peninsula may contain asbestos due to the era in which they were constructed,” she said. “Asbestos-containing material is an important…

FIVE Mornington Peninsula beaches make the top 10 of cleanest beaches in Port Phillip, according to summer testing by Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA). Water quality recorded by the EPA over summer saw Eastern Beach, Geelong, The Dell, Portarlington and St Leonards tied at the top. Portsea came fifth and Blairgowrie and Sorrento sixth; Dromana and Rosebud were equal 10th. Over summer the EPA provides twice-daily forecasts for 36 beaches of either good, which equates to suitable swimming conditions, fair, meaning beaches may not be suitable, or poor, which advises beaches are not suitable for swimming. Other peninsula beaches ranked…

PUBLIC comment is being sought on plans to build a two-storey ferry terminal at Sorrento. The terminal is part of a $30 million upgrade at Sorrento and Queenscliff by ferry operator Searoad Ferries. “This is important infrastructure and we want to get it right. We want to hear from local people, ferry users, community groups and businesses,” CEO Matt McDonald said. Describing the terminal as a “once-in-a-generation proposal” Mr McDonald said the design would “provide safer access and better amenities for the local community and ferry users”. “If the proposal attracts community and government support it will include significant funding…

A PAIR of wedge-tailed eagles has moved into Pearcedale and, with the birds’ known longevity, they are almost certain to be long term residents. The eagles are living in a specially-constructed aviary at Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park and cannot be released into the wild because of being domesticated while under treatment for injury. The 30-metre aviary is based on a raptor rehabilitation design that is free of any wire and includes slatted wooden sides and a seven-metre high dome with double netting, to ensure the huge birds – Australia’s largest birds of prey – do not injure themselves and…

THE not-for-profit club which has been running Devilbend Golf Course for the past 43 years may be sidelined to make way for a commercial manager. Mornington Peninsula Shire officers have told councillors that appointing a manager for the 18-hole golf course in Loders Rd, Moorooduc would create “a reasonable commercial return to council”. The recommendation to advertise for a manager follows a request for renewal of its 21-year lease by the 450-member Devilbend Golf Club. The club has six full time and seven part time staff and last year showed a net operating profit of $71,642 from a turnover of…

THE Hastings Cricket and Football Social Club is contesting plans by Mornington Peninsula Shire to increase its rent by more than 900 per cent. The club says it “cannot be a signatory” to the proposed lease as it is “a contradiction of the Gambling Act (2003)”. Councillors last month agreed to increase the annual rent for the club’s Marine Pde, Hastings, premises – which also houses gaming machines run by The Hastings Club – from $4000 to $42,234 for the first year of a new 21-year lease (“Rent rise tied to pokies”, The News 11/4/17). The club will then face…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is expected to approve changes to its planning scheme to allow a two-storey ferry terminal to be built at Sorrento. The terminal is part of a $30 million proposal by Searoad Ferries to extend and update buildings and car parks at both Sorrento and Queenscliff. Under present zonings the transport terminal at Sorrento should be run by Parks Victoria, but the shire is likely to agree to amend the planning scheme and override the prohibition. The proposed terminal will be 9.5 metres high and include a cafe, shop, souvenir shop, “Museum at the Bay” and offices for…

A NEW memorial will be unveiled during Tuesday’s Anzac service at Balnarring. The memorial comes four years after Commander Matt Keogh, above, discovered that there was no official place set aside to honour the more than 35 people from Balnarring and district who “were sent to fight for the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) in World War I – seven never returned”. “The only acknowledgement of their sacrifices is a list of names on honour boards located in the Balnarring hall and in St Marks Church,” Commander Keogh said. “I felt that they, and those who followed them in subsequent conflicts…

A CAMPAIGN has been launched to stop the mostly hidden killing and maiming of a group of fish known as smooth rays. The rays are rarely sought after for food but are often killed so they won’t waste a second bait or out of fear, in the case of stingrays. Although the rays will only attack if provoked, scuba diver PT Hirschfield says the level of fear has risen noticeably since Australian wildlife expert Steve Irwin died in 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming for the documentary, Ocean’s Deadliest. Hirschfield likens the subsequent…

IT’S taken just 14 months for nine-year-old Cadel Ambrose to get to the front in go karting. Cadel, of Bittern, won the second round of the Australian kart championships at Geelong two weekends ago when racing in a field of 18 seven to nine year olds, including last year’s winner. The next championship race will be in late May at Monarto in South Australia. “He’s come a long way in a short time,” his mother Suzie Morrell said. “It’s not surprising he likes to drive as his father [Rohan Ambrose] and my father [Geoff Morrell] raced cars in the improved…

SIX-year-old Abigail Court has become something of an orange-bellied parrot expert since learning of how close they are to extinction. The youngster was taken to Moonlit Sanctuary, Pearcedale, by her mother Rebecca soon after the opening last year of a breeding aviary designed to help increase the number of orange-bellied parrots. The species is clinging onto survival with Zoos Victoria – which also runs a breeding program at Healesville Sanctuary – estimating there could be as few as 50 birds left in the wild. The 200mm long mainly green and yellow parrots are larger than budgerigars and only breed at…

TRIBUTES for satirist John Clarke flowed from far and wide on Monday as news spread of his death the previous day while hiking in the Grampians National Park. The location of his passing indicated his love of nature, which for many years had included a deep concern for the future of Western Port. Born in New Zealand, Clarke, 68, was a founding member of Western Port Seagrass Partnership, an independent trust formed in 2001 to lobby for the protection and restoration of Western Port and its catchment. Regarded by many as the funniest satirist in Australia, Clark three years ago…

MEMBER councils have bailed out the Western Port Biosphere which in January warned money would run out by this month, April. Executive officer Cecelia Witton says the biosphere foundation has survived a “hectic” few months with the help of “our biosphere councils and others, [and] secured the funding required to meet the projected cash flow shortfall”. In a bid to secure future funding a memorandum of understanding (MOU) is now being drawn up between the biosphere and its member councils: Mornington Peninsula Shire, Bass Coast, Cardinia and Casey. Frankston Council withdrew its $20,000 commitment four years ago, leading to the…