Browsing: Balcombe Creek Estuary

A RESIDENT has expressed serious concern after discovering a pile of what he believed to be old asbestos roofing material discarded near the boardwalk at the Balcombe Creek Estuary in Mt Martha. Steve Jones reported the find to the Mornington Peninsula Shire on 8 April requesting they assess the potentially hazardous material but to his disappointment, it had only been taped off. Jones, a professional firefighter who created the Country Fire Authority’s only training program related to asbestos, believed the material was old roofing that had likely been dumped for many years. He said the material, most likely corrugated asbestos…

A CONTENTIOUS proposal by Mornington Peninsula Shire to charge locals for road sealing to address sedimentation runoff into the Balcombe Creek and Estuary has been dropped following overwhelming opposition. The shire had considered a 50-50 funding proposal by applying a “Mt Martha special charge scheme” to property owners near the estuary to help cover the costs of sealing dirt roads including Mark St, Gregory St and Matthew St (known as the Augusta Street group of roads) to reduce sedimentation in the Balcombe Estuary. According to a shire report, silt runoff from the unsealed roads has been “one of three leading…

NEW measures to protect plant and animal life in the Balcombe Creek Estuary and nearby land in Mount Martha have been put into place.The state government gazetted planning scheme amendment C241morn earlier this month. The amendment implements recommendations from the 2022 Balcombe Estuary and associated reserves: Ecological and Planning Study report. The gazetted planning scheme amendment covers 76.9 hectares of land. It reads that new zones have been applied to provide greater protection to indigenous wildlife and plant species.Among a swathe of changes, a new overlay has been placed over the site “to identify and protect native vegetation specific to…