Author: Stephen Taylor

HEAVY rainfalls forecasted late last week prompted Mornington Peninsula Shire to evacuate a house near The Esplanade, Mount Martha. This followed a warning to shire’s emergency management team that up to 50 millimetres of rain could fall from Wednesday “increasing concerns of a further [soil] collapse”. The Esplanade remained closed at the start of the last week following a landslide between Bradford and Ellerina Roads on Tuesday 29 September (“Landslip closes Esplanade” The News 6/10/20). “While there was no concern for the houses above the slip, there is concern a further collapse will cut access and utility services,” the shire…

IT was a busy weekend of rescues at Mornington Life Saving Club and the season hasn’t even started … Club patroller Jonathan Dark accompanied by mate Adam Brand and another lifesaver from Point Leo rescued five youngsters in trouble off Mills beach, Saturday 3 October, and then, an hour later, did the same again when another group found themselves in trouble. This time they had help from junior club members – Nippers – on their boards who paddled out to assist the five youngsters caught in a rip halfway between the beach and the markers and perilously close to the…

SCIENTISTS play a crucial role at ExxonMobil Australia which is celebrating National Science Week. The company is keen to inspire future generations to think about maths and science as a career pathway. Since 2009, ExxonMobil Australia, through its subsidiaries Mobil and Esso, has inspired a new generation of engineers and scientists through its Bright Future grants program. Western Port Secondary College principal Chris Quinn said the school had used Bright Future grants to buy technology and equipment for senior biology lessons in which students learned how to analyse DNA. “Earlier this term our Year 12 biology students conducted Gel electrophoresis…

FORMER police officer Susan Norman has found that art helps relieve the stress and sense of isolation among those suffering from trauma and PTSD. On Victorian Police Remembrance Day, Tuesday 29 September, she used her painting skills to honour the memory of the four police killed on the Eastern Freeway, Kew, in April. On the same day, Victorian police held a virtual service to honour the fallen officers, as well as the other 19 Victorian officers, public service staff and police chaplains, who died in the past year. “I painted the picture in memory of the four police officers killed…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is recruiting staff to be trained as swimming pool and spa safety inspectors to cope with greater demand under stricter state government safety rules. On current numbers – and as the November compliance deadline approaches – there are not enough inspectors. The government introduced new regulations last December to make swimming pools and spas safer and prevent young children from drowning. Shire municipal building surveyor David Kotsiakos said: “We are currently recruiting suitably qualified staff to ensure we will be able to meet our statutory requirements under the legislation. “On current numbers, we believe [we] will have…

MORE free time due to COVID-19 restrictions has led to people venturing into the great outdoors – some on illegal monkey bikes. Southern peninsula police are determined to curb the numbers of unlicensed riders on unlicensed bikes, especially in Tootgarook. Rosebud Senior Sergeant Natalie Dollard said police would step up their patrols in the Weeroona Reserve and surrounding areas. “Our aim is to curb unlicensed riding and prevent any potential accidents and injuries,” she said. “We want to remind the community that riding any type of recreational vehicle, which includes monkey bikes, is prohibited by the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.…

A SINGLE-use plastic policy and Beyond Zero Waste Strategy 2030 are the focus of Mornington Peninsula Shire Council as it aims to stop sending waste directly to landfill by 2030 and phasing out “problematic” single-use plastics. The shire says the plan complements its position as a “leader in best practice waste management for over a decade”. “With the adopted policy and strategy in place we can look to an innovative and progressive future where waste is repurposed, recycled or reused and single-use plastics are eliminated.” The mayor Cr Sam Hearn said there were “better choices [for consumers] than single-use plastics”.…

MOUNT ELIZA Primary School’s new principal Kim Wheeler has had more than her share of interesting and life-changing experiences. She’s been a senior educator at various schools, a scholarship-winning classical musician, professional singer who has entertained in Europe and the UK and was chair of Mathematics at the American Overseas School of Rome. Ms Wheeler and her Italian husband have three children, As a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (University of Melbourne), Ms Wheeler for many years had a dual career as both a teacher and professional singer. In 1995, she was awarded a place to study…

STORMWATER run-off is being blamed for a landslip which closed the Esplanade at Mount Martha last week. The scenic, two-lane road was closed between Bradford and Ellerina roads after about 2200 cubic metres of soil and debris came crashing down, Tuesday 29 September. Up to 14 workers using excavators and front end loaders worked to clear the soil while Mornington Peninsula Shire Council engineers assessed the stability of houses above the road. The council also installed water barriers on an upper access road. The shire on Friday said it hoped the road would be reopened sometime this week. Graeme Ainsley,…

AN EDUCATION program at Western Port Secondary College is said to be achieving its goal of ensuring that every student meets expected academic benchmarks – from kinder through to year 12. The Learning Guarantee program, initiated and financed by the Mornington Peninsula Foundation, is part of the Western Port Education Pathway. “We realised we needed a new approach to keeping kids engaged … from falling through the cracks,” foundation executive director Stephanie Exton said. “Now, thanks to the dedicated staff across all programs, we’re seeing more and more children and young people reigniting their excitement for learning.” The Western Port…

MORNINGTON Peninsula travel agents held a zoom meeting with Flinders MP Greg Hunt last week to discuss their struggles under the pandemic and to seek tailored financial support. The “gathering of the troops” was arranged by Mornington Travel principal Lee Midson, Thursday 24 September. The 30 agents – all members of the Australian Federation of Travel Agents – are seeking federal and state government support for a $125 million travel agent support package “given the travel downturn and refund backlog”. They briefed Mr Hunt on the “critical” need for financial aid for their businesses, which “are all locally owned and…

SMALL business owners are breathing a sigh of relief after Mornington Peninsula Shire Council knocked back plans to build a large convenience store on a busy corner site at Safety Beach. The council received almost 1000 objections to AA Holdings’ proposal to build a McDonald’s restaurant on the site of the company’s existing BP service station, corner Marine Drive and Nepean Highway. The high level of local opposition prompted the council to hold an online community information session, 10 September, to “provide the community with more information and to answer your questions”. (“Q&A session eyes fast-food outlet” The News 25/8/20)…

PLANS have been unveiled to transform a 3.41-hectare site at Mount Eliza into a $160 million “retirement community” called Beachleigh. Australian-owned developer Hengyi Pacific last year bought the 33 Jacksons Road site, overlooking Canadian Bay, from the Department of Health and Human Services. Its 19th century residence and two other buildings were originally part of a private estate built in 1878. They were later transformed into a hospital and then an aged care centre. The buildings have a heritage overlay and will be retained and restored. The developer has lodged plans with Mornington Peninsula Shire Council to build 105 low…

THE federal government has given $335,000 to help eradicate the estimated 100 feral cats remaining on French Island. About 1100 feral cats have already been removed from the island but their total eradication is described as an “ongoing challenge”. The money from the environment restoration fund is aimed at protecting species such as the king quail, orange-bellied parrot and long-nosed potoroo. Flinders MP Greg Hunt said the Port Phillip and Westernport Catchment Management Authority, Parks Victoria and French Island Landcare had been working with landowners on a cat control program on the island which is said to be fox free.…

THE collapse of the steel cofferdam around the new Hastings boat ramp has thrown the reopening of fishing into jeopardy. Work to complete potentially the busiest ramp in Western Port, which started 20 July, is now behind schedule and will not be completed in time for the remainder of the snapper season. The cofferdam is a four-metre high dam or rectangular wall of sheet steel driven into the mud. Once erected water is pumped out to provide a dry area so workers can construction the all-tide concrete ramp and walkway. The deepest, most vulnerable section buckled under the weight…

THIEVES who broke into a shipping container at Crib Point last week stole specialist equipment used to train search and rescue dogs. They also vandalised other equipment causing an overall loss of $3300. Search and Rescue Dogs Australia’s Julie Cowan said: “This is the third time we’ve been targeted. After all we’ve gone through with COVID-19 and with business down the sewer – now we are hit with this.” Ms Cowan, of Somerville, said an angle grinder had been used to cut through four padlocks to access the container on the Esplanade sometime over the 12-13 September weekend. “We thought…

DROMANA Drive-In’s Paul Whitaker is on a Grand Final mission to convince the state government to allow him to run a live screening of the AFL’s biggest game of the year. Permission would be manna from heaven – however unlikely – if his beloved Saints were one of the team’s playing. “We hosted a successful live telecast of the St Kilda football match on 14 June, during stage two restrictions,” Mr Whitaker said. “It was a fantastic night. Lots of people commented that it was like the old VFL days with cars parked around the oval, horns and lights flashing…

A DROMANA real estate agent is urging the state government to reduce fuel loads on the forest floor at Arthurs Seat before the summer fire season. A “frustrated” Roger McMillan has been keeping a paper trail of emails sent to Nepean MP Chris Brayne over the past two months asking what was being done to prevent the “imminent bushfire threat this summer … and the resulting devastation of lives, properties, flora and fauna”. To start the clean-up process, he told Mr Brayne: “You need to organise a meeting up on the hill, walk the roads and tracks, see firsthand the…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is pressing the state government to classify it as a region – and not part of metropolitan Melbourne – to liberate it from the stage four coronavirus restrictions. The shire says the harsher zoning “makes no sense on several levels and is unsafe”. In 1966 the entire peninsula was included in the metropolitan statistical area. The mayor Cr Sam Hearn in a letter to Premier Daniel Andrews last week blamed “lines on an administrative map and not any COVID-19 specific considerations” for its inclusion into the Melbourne metropolitan area. He said a letter from Chief Health Officer…

THE leasehold of Mornington’s landmark Grand Hotel has been sold for an undisclosed sum. The changing of the guard comes after long-time owner and businessman Bernie Taylor died in November. Mr Taylor bought the hotel’s freehold and leasehold in 1976 and set about establishing it as Main Street’s pre-eminent drinking and dining establishment. Its current co-general managers are son-in-law Cameron Price and daughter Pir Taylor Price. Mr Price said the family would retain the freehold of the 1889 heritage-listed building after a “pretty emotional” sale process. “Pir has spent almost 25 years working for her dad and I’ve been here…

ANN Smith and husband Les get as much enjoyment out of their Meals on Wheels deliveries as their clients. The Hastings couple enjoy “doing something worthwhile” and are good mates with their often-vulnerable client base. “We get to know them and their funny little ways and always make sure they are OK, especially during lockdown,” Ms Smith said. Last month’s National Meals on Wheels Day (26 August) aimed to highlight the contribution made by more than 700 Meals on Wheels services and 80,000 volunteers across Australia. It’s a big operation on the Mornington Peninsula, with the service relying on 130…

THE outgoing commodore of the Canadian Bay Club at Mount Eliza says he has been unsuccessfully fighting for years to get Mornington Peninsula Shire Council to resurface the public car park. Grant Haworth says the shire had obfuscated on the necessary works for “five or six years”. “Yet during that time they hypocritically demanded that the club resurface its driveway to make it safe at a cost to the club of $3500,” he said. Mr Haworth said the car park surface is so bad that older members have complained they would not be renewing [memberships] because they felt unsafe on…

RESIDENTS and staff at the Village Glen Aged Care Residences, Mornington are this week expecting to be tested for COVID-19. If the Department of Health and Human Services does arrive, it will be for the “fourth or fifth time” since five deaths and 37 positive cases were recorded at the home in August. Chief operating officer Peter Nilsson said on Saturday (12 September) that while five residents had died “with COVID-19”, the home had been virus-free for 23 days. He said DHHS had been told that it was wrong to keep saying there were still active cases. He expected DHHS…

HMAS Cerberus – the Royal Australian Navy’s oldest commissioned base – has celebrated its centenary. Known as the “cradle of the navy”, the 15 square kilometre base at Crib Point faces Hanns Inlet, between Sandy Point and Stony Point in Western Port, was bought in 1911 and formally commissioned as Flinders Naval Base on 1 September 1920. To commemorate the milestone, Commanding Officer Captain Mike Oborn and his senior leadership team this month unveiled a centenary plinth at the site of its original commissioning. Cerberus provides training for recruits from all three branches of the Australian Defence Force. About 1800…

AN “ambitious” climate emergency plan has been adopted by Mornington Peninsula Shire Council one year after declaring a “climate emergency”. The Ensuring Our Future: Our Climate Emergency Response plan aims to guide the peninsula towards having no carbon emissions by 2040 through seven “summits” and 21 “action steps”. However, the shire says the outcome “can only be achieved by the community and the shire working together”. A 10-year program includes targets around leadership and governance, climate advocacy, zero carbon energy, resilient and adaptive community, sustainable transport and travel, sustainable land use and environmental restoration, circular economy and zero waste. The…

ELDER abuse, an insidious stablemate of family violence, is rampant on the Mornington Peninsula during these strained days of COVID-19. With Victoria’s second highest population of elderly people, the peninsula has the highest number of police callouts per capita for family violence in metropolitan Melbourne. Data presented to Peninsula Health shows family violence presentations to emergency departments and inpatient settings have increased 88 per cent in the past year. Similarly, elder abuse presentations are up 59 per cent. Statistics suggests that at least 10 per cent of those living on the peninsula aged over 65 are at risk of, or…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is one of 13 councils representing two million residents in Melbourne’s east and south east lobbying for more social housing to “end homelessness”. Their focus was informed by research commissioned by Monash Council through the Council to Homeless Persons: ‘Making a Difference – effective local government responses to homelessness.’ It identified that the “single, most powerful way” councils can contribute to preventing and ending homelessness was to advocate for more social housing across Victoria. This housing is owned either by the state government or not-for-profit community providers and rented to low income households at either 25 per…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has the fifth highest number of male suicides in Victoria – one less than Frankston. From 2013-17 suicide was the cause of death for 100 people on the peninsula: 70 men and 30 women. For every 50 male deaths one is by suicide. Grim figures released this week show the municipalities with the highest number of male suicides from 2013-17 were Greater Geelong, with 113, Casey 102, Wyndham 71, Frankston 71, Mornington Peninsula 70 and Brimbank 70. The statistics are being used by Australia’s peak body for men’s health, the Australian Men’s Health Forum, as it calls…

MORNINGTON police were surprised and caught off guard last week by a protester who used a thin bike lock to chain herself to a pillar outside their Main Street headquarters. The Mornington woman, who arrived about 10am, Thursday 3 September, said she was protesting in support of a Ballarat woman charged with incitement after allegedly taking to social media to organise an anti-lockdown rally. The mother-to-be was handcuffed in her home, which saw police accused of being “heavy handed”. Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson described it as a “disproportionate” response. Undeterred, an exasperated Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius said police were sick…

MORE than $34 million has stayed in the pockets of Mornington Peninsula pokies players prevented from getting their gambling fix during COVID-19 restrictions. Poker machine players across Victoria have saved themselves $1 billion. “COVID-19 is presenting us with a unique opportunity to rethink the dire situation Australia has gotten itself into with the prevalence of gambling,” Alliance for Gambling Reform chief advocate the Reverend Tim Costello said. “Australians lost $25 billion gambling last year – the highest rate of losses per head in the entire world.” The mayor Cr Sam Hearn said gambling-related harm could affect health and community services,…