THE peril to wildlife of unwanted or lost fishing tackle was brought home to Rob and Robyn Varney during a walk along Portsea back beach toward London Bridge. Inspection of a clump of washed up seaweed showed it had apparently acted as a sea anchor to two Australian gannets that had become entangled by fishing line wrapped around the weed. Mr Varney said the birds’ beaks were tied together by the “fine yellow string or possibly a crude fishing line”. “The twine was wrapped around their bodies,” he said. A band attached to one of the bird’s legs will be…
Author: MP News Group
REPLACEMENT of trees and bush cleared for the proposed $14 million Arthurs Seat chairlift gondola could come from three nearby shire reserves, says gondola chairlift spokesman Simon McKeon. Mr McKeon, one of four shareholders of Arthurs Seat Skylift Pty Ltd, revealed the “native vegetation offset” plan at a public meeting last week organised by the Association for Building Community in Dromana. It was the first public meeting since Mornington Peninsula Shire put Skylift’s plans on display for public comment. Mr McKeon said 55 hectares of “shire-controlled” land had been identified by shire and Parks Victoria officers as a suitable vegetation…
A WAR of words has broken out between state Planning Minister Matthew Guy and Mornington Peninsula Shire Council over the proposed Peninsula Link freeway twin service centres at Baxter. The council has complained about Mr Guy approving the servos without input from the council but Mr Guy says he wrote to the council on 31 August last year and received no reply. Mr Guy approved the scaled-down version of the so-called freeway service centres (FSC) in February, just days before the council discussed the matter at its 24 February meeting. The original proposal was knocked back by the council in…
VISITORS are staying away from Dromana’s historic property Heronswood and its Diggers Club following the fire that destroyed the property’s thatched roof cafe on 14 January and threatened nearby homes. Heronswood erected a semi-permanent marquee to replace the cafe and only about 7 per cent of the gardens sustained fire damage, but visitor numbers have plummeted. But there is a silver lining as it is hoped Heronswood’s annual harvest festival on 15 and 16 March will kick-start visitations. Diggers Club education manager Talei Kenyon said the lack of visitors had been “incredibly hard for staff morale” and was “having a…
ABOUT 2000 CFA volunteers from the Mornington Peninsula have been battling the open cut coal fire at Morwell. As the fire enters its fourth week, buses are leaving Moorooduc twice daily taking members of Peninsula and Western Port CFA groups to 12-hour shifts at the fire, which is forcing the evacuation of people from smoke-affected parts of Morwell. Firefighters were at first affected by carbon monoxide from the fire, but smoke and particles have now spread from the open cut to the town. The state government and health authorities have been criticised for not acting soon enough to issue health…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire attempts to keep service stations out of its green wedge appear to have failed. State Planning Minister Matthew Guy has ignored the council’s policy by approving twin freeway service centres on Peninsula Link at Baxter. This is despite council’s refusal of the plan in 2011 and the state planning tribunal VCAT confirming the knock-back in mid-2013. But the shire is not rolling over without a sound and will ask Mr Guy to reconsider his decision. Mr Guy has disappointed councillors and the shire’s executive team by approving an amendment to the shire’s planning scheme to enable the…
ONE of Frankston’s most colourful personalities at the turn of last century was an unlikely celebrity who sought obscurity in a hermit’s existence. According to stories circulating at the time, his exile was a self-imposed penance for sins committed during his wayward youth. But this did not stop people from all over Melbourne seeking him out and dining out on stories of having met the “Frankston Hermit”, as he became known. One has to wonder if the hermit was entirely genuine in his desire for solitude; his camp on the foreshore between Frankston and Carrum was not especially hard to…
Contact Us Office: Street: 8 High Street, Hastings, 3915. Mailing: PO Box 588, Hastings, 3915 Phone: (03) 5979 8564. Group editor: Keith Platt – 0439 394 707. Email: keith@mpnews.com.au Journalist (Mornington News, Southern Peninsula News, Western Port News and Frankston Times): Mike Hast – 0457 550 117. Email: hast.mike@gmail.com Journalist/Production (Chelsea-Mordialloc News): Neil Walker Email: neil@mpnews.com.au Photography Manager: Yanni Dellaportas Email: yanni@satlink.com.au Production Manager: Stephanie Loverso: Email: steph@mpnews.com.au Production: Email: production@mpnews.com.au
By Chris McLennan of Western Port Festival THE annual Western Port Festival, held 21 to 23 February on the Hastings foreshore, is shaping up to be one of the largest and most exciting festivals in its 45-year history. The festival is becoming known for being the largest volunteer-run community event on the Mornington Peninsula, and this year has seen a huge spike in people wanting to get involved. Festival committee secretary Ross Topham said interest in the event has gone through the roof since last year. “Entries for the street parade have almost doubled, stall participation has increased, more community…
AN out-of-control car smashed through the fence of a Rosebud property last Sunday night, rolling multiple times across the length of the garden before smashing into a parked car and landing just metres from the front of the house. The Holden sedan, believed to be travelling in excess of 100km/h, failed to negotiate a bend on Elizabeth Drive near the corner of Rosebud Ave shortly after 8pm. The car narrowly missed a power pole after leaving the road and becoming airborne, before crashing through the property on the opposite side of the road. The impact sent fence palings flying and…
AS the peninsula copes with a long, hot summer and record-breaking temperatures, Mornington scientist Amelia Travers has been rugged up to cope with the frozen world of the Arctic where the sun makes only a brief appearance each day. During January, Ms Travers, 26, was on Norway’s Svalbard Island in the Greenland Sea close to the Arctic Circle, the nation’s most northern permanently inhabited island. She was part of an international team of scientists studying marine life with the Marine Night field campaign, part of Mare Incognitum. The team used high-tech underwater robots, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs for short) as…
MORE than 20 million trips have been made on Peninsula Link freeway since it opened just over a year ago. The freeway has been credited with a big jump in the number of tourists staying on the peninsula this summer as well as an increase in the number of day-trippers. Word is out that you can drive from many parts of Melbourne to the peninsula in an hour or just over. Commuters also are taking to the Link, said Nepean MP Martin Dixon when he visited the freeway control centre in Golf Links Rd, Frankston South, which is operated by…
THE world’s second-largest semi-submersible transport ship MV Blue Marlin steamed through The Heads into Port Phillip early on Friday morning carrying the newest vessel of the Royal Australian Navy. The hull of LHD Adelaide, the second of the navy’s new amphibious ships, was built at the renowned naval shipyard in Ferrol in northern Spain by Navantia and launched in July 2012 prior to further work being completed. It is a sister ship to LHD (Landing Helicopter Dock) Canberra, which arrived on Blue Marlin in October 2012 and is expected to start sea trials next month before being handed to the…
By Isabel Cassidy HOMICIDE detectives who investigated the murder of 14-year-old Shirley May Collins (pictured), whose battered body was found in September 1953 at Mt Martha, described the murder as “one of the most vicious and sadistic in the history of Victoria”. The investigation was said to be one of the biggest and most intensive manhunts in the history of Australian crime. Shirley Collins was described as a young, shy, smiling and innocent girl. Her father had died and her mother remarried and moved to Queensland. She was one of four foster children living with her foster parents, Mr and…
HE may have had little to do with art and even less with the Mornington Peninsula, but King Solomon is the name four artists have chosen for a new gallery in Sorrento. The quartet’s first exhibition in the heritage-listed Masonic Centre in Point Nepean Rd opened on Australia Day weekend and ends on Sunday. Foundation member John Bredl said the gallery space in the centre would in future feature “select artists from the peninsula and beyond”. The four artists involved initially are Bredl, Beverly Whiteside, Jennifer Feller and Hans Van Vlodrop. Mr Bredl said he and Mr Van Vlodrop were…
THE centenary of Anzac is to be commemorated in Flinders with a diverse range of community projects. Flinders federal MP Greg Hunt used Remembrance Day on Monday to announce that the Flinders Anzac Centenary Community Grants Committee has approved 22 local projects from across the Mornington Peninsula, Western Port and Phillip Island. The projects will be put to the Minister for Veterans Affairs, Senator Michael Ronaldson, for final approval. The new government has boosted funding to Flinders to $125,000, a small increase on the $100,000 already allocated by the previous government. Projects approved include a re-enactment of the firing of…
Police are appealing for witnesses following a road rage turned criminal damage incident, last month in Frankston. On Thursday 31 October, the victim was driving along Hillcrest Road, when he noticed a man riding erratically on a motorcycle. Both the victim and the motorcycle turned into Bloom Street where the abuse began. Initial verbal abuse soon elevated, as the offender began kicking the victim’s car – a Hyundai Getz used for driving lessons. In an effort to escape, the victim turned into Lardner Road but was followed by the offender who sped up on his motorcycle, and continued to kick…
JOHN Bloggs’ life was turned upside down when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He was left feeling “lost” and unsure of the future after the cancer was removed and he was in remission. On the advice of a dietician, Mr Bloggs joined five other participants in a seven-week cancer rehabilitation program run by Peninsula Health. The program aims to improve quality of life, in particular the physical function, fatigue, stress or anxiety and diet of cancer survivors. It includes exercise, education settings and self-management strategies. “After I had received my treatment I felt cut off. It was more of…
Victoria Police is preparing to activate fixed speed cameras along Peninsula Link for the first time within the next two weeks. Six camera sites have been installed, with two point-to-point sections and three instantaneous detection points in each direction. Police are also issuing a warning to Peninsula Link road users after more than 7500 motorists were detected speeding during a recent 14 day live testing period. More than 500 motorists were detected travelling 15km per hour above the posted speed limit and 66 of those drivers would have lost their licences. Six drivers were detected hooning at speeds of 45km…
An elderly man has had his license suspended after blowing more than three times the legal limit in Carrum Downs on Sunday night. The 85-year-old Seaford man was intercepted by members of the Frankston Highway Patrol in Ballarto Road just after 7pm. After supplying a positive preliminary test, the man attended the Carrum Downs police station where he allegedly returned an evidentiary reading of 0.18% Leading Senior Constable Scott Woodford from Frankston Highway Patrol said it was unusual to find a person of that age driving under the influence of alcohol. “It’s disappointing that people who obviously should know better…
Arson and Explosives Squad detectives have located a small amount of explosives at a house at Frankston. The News believes the explosives to be gelignite. A local tradesman doing building works at the property today came across the explosives secreted in the house and alerted police immediately. Frankston SES were called in to help after the initial gelignite was removed from the property. They helped clear the area so the Bomb Response Unite could do a thorough search. The explosives will be taken to a quarry in Skye and disposed of under the direction of the forensic explosives chemist and WorkSafe…
SOCCEROO Archie Thompson loves taking his own children to soccer training and weekend matches. He’s now using his football knowledge to develop a program aimed at promoting soccer’s fun and enjoyment to other youngsters. He was at Padua College in Mornington on Friday promoting his Archie Thompson School of Soccer, which is aimed at teenagers who are already playing at school or a club, or those keen to give soccer a try. “I have often been approached to be part of holiday and after-school soccer programs, although I have never found the one that really fitted the way I thought…
MEMBERS of the public are being asked to turn over any old steamy pictures they may have hidden away as part of a new line of inquiry into the shire’s past. Mornington Peninsula Shire is looking to collect any photographs or memorabilia from the now-defunct Red Hill to Bittern railway to help reconstruct the historic line’s history. The Red Hill–Bittern line was opened in 1921 mainly to carry produce from the highly productive orchard areas of the peninsula to market in Melbourne but was closed just over three decades later in 1953. The shire council has commissioned a heritage management…
The operators of Waterfront Cafe in Hastings have placed the business into voluntary liquidation. Part of the shire-operated Pelican Park, the current operators of the cafe won the tender to run the business last year and took over on 1 July 2012. The operators of the cafe are believed to have been in dispute with Mornington Peninsula Shire over their plans to sell the cafe. The closure has resulted in the loss of four full-time and 10 casual staff. A sign in the door of the cafe advises the business will be closed until further notice.
NEW assessments of the durability of imported sand at Mt Martha Beach North may be required in the wake of last week’s storms. Thousands of tonnes of sand were trucked to the site in May 2010 after a series of storms had eroded the beach down to underlying clay and rock. A two-year study commissioned by the Department of Environment and Primary Industries estimated the beach was continually losing sand and would need renourishing in five to 10 years. “Nourishment sand has also been moved to the back of the beach, distributing itself along the cliffs. This increased berm height…
THE cost of Frankston’s aquatic centre has risen $3.35 million from $46.35 to $49.7 million. Frankston Council chief executive Dennis Hovenden said the increase came when the council approved the final design and awarded the tender for its construction to builder ADCO. “One of the final design decisions by the council was widening of the main pool hall concourse, which increased the size of the building by about 1200 square metres,” he said. Australian construction company ADCO recently built the Greensborough Regional Aquatic and Leisure Centre and is completing the Hawthorn Aquatic and Leisure Centre. On Tuesday, the council announced…