Author: Mike Hast

MORNINGTON pier’s new outer section will open on Saturday week, Ports Minister Luke Donnellan announced last Thursday when he visited the town’s iconic structure with members of the Parks Victoria board. Parks Victoria will hold a “community celebration” at 10am on Saturday 8 August that will include a free sausage sizzle and other activities. The opening will end a multi-stage construction project that started in 2010 under the Brumby Labor government, continued under the Liberal-Nationals Coalition government and is being opened by the Andrews Labor government. The outer section has cost $15.3 million and the middle part $3.6 million for…

GOOD news for the endangered hooded plover and other species last week with environment minister and Flinders MP Greg Hunt announcing a five-year threatened species strategy that will see $6.6 million spent on killing two million feral cats and creating new safe havens for native animals. It is an attempt to save 20 mammal, 20 bird and 30 plant species at risk of extinction. On the bird list is the hooded plover, which breeds in South Australia and Victoria, including on Mornington Peninsula beaches and foreshores where just four birds out of 150 eggs survived to flying stage during the…

THE shire council approved the controversial $135 million RACV resort expansion at Cape Schanck at its meeting on Monday night last week in front of a packed and sometimes unruly gallery dominated by resort opponents. Just four councillors were needed to approve the development, which was first publicly proposed in mid-2013. The council was reduced from 11 to seven councillors with three absent (Tim Wood, whose ward covers the resort, Lynn Bowden and Hugh Fraser) and one declaring a conflict of interest and leaving the council chamber, Graham Pittock (who has shares in the National Golf Club, which adjoins the…

THE southbound freeway service centre on Peninsula Link at Baxter is scheduled to open on Thursday. It will end controversy that has lasted more than five years and saw Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors butt heads with the well-connected developer AA Holdings as well as former roads minister Terry Mulder and former planning minister Matthew Guy, who approved an amendment to the shire’s planning scheme to enable the centres to be built and ignored the shire council’s desire to stop commercial buildings in the green wedge. The southbound servo is a “twin” and its northbound version will likely open in December.…

STATE ports minister Luke Donnellan is this week expected to announce the completion date of the $15 million Mornington pier replacement project. The long-awaited opening of the 75-metre, new outer section is unlikely to match the pomp and circumstance surrounding the opening of the original pier in the late 1850s attended by many of the 2600 residents in the district. The genesis of a pier at Schnapper Point (as Mornington was called until 1864) occurred in 1856 when a Ports and Harbours Commission looking into the state of piers in the colony of Victoria met prominent citizens of the town…

TOXIC foam produced in large amounts during strong winds in May killed coastal vegetation at Mt Eliza like it had been sprayed with weedkiller. The foam is generated when a high tide coincides with a strong west-northwest wind. It is whipped up by the wind and waves, and blown inland. The most recent event was during the big blow on 6 May and results of scientific tests just released reveal the foam contained anionic surfactants (used in detergents) and hydrocarbons (mostly found in crude oil and then refined into fuels). Foam and foam residue samples were collected by Jeff Yugovic…

MOTORCYCLISTS from Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula joined about 300 riders outside Parliament House on Saturday last week to protest anti-association laws being introduced by state governments in Tasmania and South Australia. They follow the so-called Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment (VLAD) laws introduced in Queensland by the Newman government in 2013. Riders also protested in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra where they rode around Parliament House. Co-organiser Dale Maggs of the Freedom Riders Association, who is known to many people in the region through his former role organising Christmas toy runs, said riders would stand together to prevent any…

THE final two hooded plover chicks to hatch on the Mornington Peninsula in the 2014-15 breeding season died just days before they were able to fly. An autopsy done at Deakin University revealed one chick was killed by a dog and the second drowned, possibly frightened into the water when its mate was attacked. They were about five days away from fledging (being able to fly). They would have been the fifth and sixth birds to survive on the peninsula this year. The deaths devastated Friends of the Hooded Plover, who were confident the birds had a higher chance of…

VICTORIAN politicians are again playing political football with infrastructure – not the abandoned East West Link but the state’s future port needs and the fate of Port Phillip. And the Liberal and Labor “players” in their nice new shiny jumpers with no actual mud on them have been joined by a ring-in from another team – federal environment minister Greg Hunt, who is no doubt wearing his Team Australia jumper and knows the field of play quite well being a Victorian and living on the peninsula near Melbourne’s vast waterway. The past few weeks have seen claim and counter-claim about…

THE shire saving almost $700,000 on its insurance for this financial year occurred due to a number of factors including a more competitive insurance sector. The News reported on 30 June that the savings came from putting its insurance out to tender rather than staying with MAV Insurance. The windfall was revealed when councillors approved the budget in late July and added 10 items totalling $600,000 after saving $690,230 on the estimated cost of insurance. The items included sealing a car park in Mornington, a contribution for an access road near Tyabb airfield, money for cliff stability at Safety Beach…

A PRAYER vigil is the latest action by peninsula Christians to pressure the federal government over its asylum seeker policies. More than 50 people joined three Uniting Church ministers for a 90-minute vigil outside St Mark’s Church in Mornington on a cold Sunday afternoon last week. It was organised by Reverends John Haig (Mornington), Paul Chalson (Mt Martha) and Cameron McAdam (Mt Eliza). It was followed by a sausage sizzle with proceeds going to Dandenong Asylum Seeker Centre. Rev McAdam said most Mornington churches had representatives at the vigil. He and other Christians have taken a high profile in recent…

WORKERS employed by the shire’s long-term contractor Transfield Services held a day-long protest outside the company’s depot in Watt Rd, Mornington, last Wednesday. It is believed to be the first industrial action for 15 years at Transfield. James Weissmann of the Australian Services Union said employees and the company were at a standoff after negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) broke down. The ASU is the main union of local government employees. Mr Weissmann said the EBA expired in April but Transfield and union had failed to agree on “three important items”: Workers asked for a 3.5 per…

PORT Phillip Heads will have to be widened and deepened with a massive project that will make the controversial 2008-09 dredging pale into insignificance if the state government goes ahead with a 70-year lease of the Port of Melbourne, says peninsula MP Martin Dixon. Mr Dixon was speaking in the Parliament last week as the controversy over the government’s port bill reached fever pitch with the Opposition and Greens vowing to block the bill in the Upper House. The Port of Melbourne Lease Transaction Bill 2015 passed the Lower House last Thursday but the government does not have the numbers…

THE insurance savings in the budget have allowed Mornington Peninsula Shire to bring forward the sealing of the unmade car park at Currawong Community Centre in Mornington. The car park is number one on the shire’s list of 250 unmade car parks, revealed in late May when councillors adopted the Unmade car park construction strategy. The multi-building Currawong centre is home to more than 1000 University of the Third Age (U3A) members who use it every weekday. Also using the centre are two church groups, two programs that provide meals for children, and community groups that hire the hall. U3A…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has saved almost $700,000 by putting its insurance out to tender rather than staying with MAV Insurance, a company associated with the Municipal Association of Victoria, the peak body of local government. The windfall was revealed last Wednesday when councillors approved the budget for 2014-15 with its expected rate increase of 5.9 per cent and no change to the municipal charge of $180, which ratepayer groups claim is a regressive fee as all ratepayers have to pay it whether they own property in Portsea and Flinders or Rosebud and Hastings. The shire had allocated almost $1.5 million…

THE shire has released a plan it says will protect the heritage of Sorrento’s main street, Ocean Beach Rd. A draft of the Ocean Beach Road Heritage Policy is out for public comment for about six weeks. Area councillor Tim Rodgers said the policy had its genesis about a decade ago when a supermarket chain built an outlet in the town and there was concern about the future loss of heritage buildings. “We needed a heritage policy to protect the streetscape,” Cr Rodgers said. Sorrento is famously the site of the first European settlement in Victoria in 1803 – a…

THE first of four fitness stations made of 100 per cent plastic waste has been installed on the Dromana foreshore. It’s a double-whammy win devised by Rob Tannahill of Dromana foreshore committee of management – a place to get or stay fit for people using the Bay Trail, and keeping the equivalent of 95,000 plastic bags out of landfill. The fitness equipment is made by award-winning Carrum Downs-based company Replas, which has been turning waste plastic into useful items such as bollards, seats and decking for more than 20 years. Now its “RE-fit” fitness station equipment is becoming popular. Mr…

SHIRE councillors have been told to get on with the job and vote on the RACV’s contentious Cape Schanck resort expansion. Councillors baulked at voting on the $135 million project mid-May when they got cold feet over potential conflict of interest. This was despite the council having legal advice from its lawyers Maddocks that councillors who were members of RACV roadside assist could vote on the controversial project. The council also had advice from Local Government Victoria, which said councillors were clear to vote. But a third legal opinion obtained by one of the councillors spooked the council and a…

THE good news of early April about improvements to street safety in Mornington has lost some of its gloss after it was revealed CCTV cameras will not be installed until October at the earliest. Federal MP Bruce Billson said on 9 April that the town’s commercial area would “soon be safer, with work finally underway to expand the CCTV network and street lighting in local laneways”. “Resolving issues associated with the transfer of the existing CCTV network from Mornington Chamber of Commerce to shire council control, power billing disputes, and grant conditions have combined to produce frustrating project delays, so…

WELL, for two lucky towns on the peninsula it will have taken only 14 years from first to final promise – a “super-fast broadband network” that will enable homes and businesses to join the “information superhighway”. Yes, the National Broadband Network is coming to Mornington and Mt Martha next year, NBN Co announced last Wednesday. Spokesman Michael Moore said the company, which is owned by the federal government, had added 18 towns to its “green maps” showing “build preparation work for the … network has started for a further 70,400 homes and businesses across Victoria”. Mr Moore said parts of…

BUSINESSES using Blamey Place car park in Mornington have had enough of the winter ritual of dodging water-filled potholes and corrugations and are calling on the shire to seal it. The call comes after the council approved its “Unmade car park construction strategy”. The shire has 250 unsealed car parks and asphalting the top 25 on a new list could take up to 15 years and cost $10 million. Blamey Place is number 12 on the list, behind other town car parks at Currawong Community Centre, Mills Beach, Civic Bowls Club, Albert St car park and Barrett Lane car park…

THE orange-bellied parrot wild population has been hit by a disease that can kill young birds or adults with weak immune systems. Two-thirds of 30 birds born in the wild last summer in Tasmania have been diagnosed with common beak and feather disease, also known as Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease. This is the parrot that once graced the saltmarsh shores of Western Port and became famous as a political football when its endangered status was blamed for delaying a wind farm in Gippsland in 2006 and the proposed marina expansion at Yaringa boat harbour near Somerville in 2012. The…

OPPONENTS of the RACV’s proposed $135 million resort at Cape Schanck are using image warfare and the internet to win converts and keep pressure on decision-makers. The latest tactic is an internet survey that allows comments both for and against the controversial development that will rise five storeys – almost 30 metres – and accommodate 650 conference delegates, up from the existing 250 limit. A pamphlet promoting the six-question survey includes an arresting image of the proposed resort dwarfing Cape Schanck’s iconic lighthouse. The new anti-resort push comes as the issue gained complexity following an abandoned meeting of Mornington Peninsula…

SUMMER saw a record number of campers on the Mornington Peninsula with people staying during the so-called shoulder periods either side of peak periods increasing by 25 per cent in comparison to the previous year, CEO Carl Cowie has stated in his most recent monthly report. The figures were contained in his April report, which was presented to the council in late May. Mr Cowie said the department running foreshore camping was one of few in the shire that turned a profit. “The 2014-15 season is now closed with a record occupancy of 112,000 nights being achieved,” he said. “This…

JOAN Kirner’s influence on the Mornington Peninsula will be felt long into the future. Victoria’s first and only woman Premier co-founded the Landcare movement in 1985 when she was Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands. With Victorian Farmers Federation president Heather Mitchell, Ms Kirner oversaw the development of a program that has reversed the degradation of farmland, public land and waterways throughout the state. Last week the Landcare organisation paid tribute to Ms Kirner, who died on Monday 1 June at age 76 of cancer of the oesophagus. (Ms Kirner never smoked.) The organisation said the former Labor MP “recognised…

THE shire’s distinctive mobile library has gone to the renovators for a $285,000 makeover that will include expanding its middle section. It will away for about eight weeks and has been replaced by a more modest vehicle that will trundle around the shire’s 16 mobile library stops to keep far-flung readers happy. The book bus was driven to a truck body specialist in Melbourne last week to receive a new expandable middle that will take it from about 2.5 metres wide to six metres, enough room for a small lounge area, according to the shire’s library boss Geoff Carson. “The…

NEGOTIATING steep Wooralla Drive in Mt Eliza by foot is to be avoided by all but the most experienced walkers but that’s about to change with the shire getting ready for the construction of a footpath between the Tower Rd roundabout and Emil Madsen Reserve. Tender documents are being prepared and the shire is likely to call for prices from construction companies in about four weeks. It is hoped work will start in August or September. The long-awaited path will wind down the steep hill and have a bridge over Balcombe Creek. It will also cross the railway line, which…

WORK to redevelop Andrew Kerr Frail and Aged Care Complex in Mornington is set to start as early as July. The much-anticipated start comes after almost four years of negotiations with Mornington Peninsula Shire as well as debate over the future of Glenbank, the 1875 Italianate mansion at the heart of the complex on the corner of Barkly St and Tanti Ave. The not-for-profit company initially wanted to demolish Glenbank but faced stiff opposition from the shire, neighbours, other Mornington residents, historical societies and the peninsula branch of National Trust. It withdrew its demolition application in early 2013 and, encouraged…

THE shire’s cultural heritage officer Adam Magennis has presented to deputy mayor Cr Graham Pittock a painting of Aboriginal motifs inspired by Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali. The gift was to mark the council’s annual presentation of the Reconciliation progress report as well as recognition of National Reconciliation Week 2015. Other activities included a smoking ceremony and ceremonial dancing. Mr Magennis – a qualifed archaeologist who advises shire planners, government agencies and developers about cultural heritage management – said his work contained everything from “insects in the soil to stars in the galaxy”, and included elements such as “surf at…

THE shire has more than 250 unsealed car parks and asphalting the 25 at the top of a newly created priority list could take up to 15 years and cost $10 million. These and other mind-boggling statistics were presented to the council at its 25 May meeting in Rosebud when councillors wrestled with the usefulness or otherwise of the shire’s new “Unmade car park construction strategy”. A large number of resident complaints are generated by unsealed car parks scattered throughout the 720-square kilometre shire with its 42 townships. Residents ring and complain about potholes. They complain about dust in summer…