HASTINGS police are searching for a man aged in his late 30s who is alleged to have grabbed an 11-year-old girl by the arm as she was walking to school. The girl told police she was in William St at about 8.10am on Monday when approached by the man who asked her to go with him. The girl says that after refusing him she was grabbed by the arm but managed to break free and run to the Kmart shopping centre. The girl reported the incident to principal Richard Mucha when she later arrived at St Mary’s Primary School. Senior…
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HASTINGS police have uncovered an amphetamine laboratory allegedly operating in a factory in Marine Parade. A private house in Hastings was also raided as part of an ongoing investigation into amphetamine manufacture and trafficking in the Hastings area. Detective Sergeant Ron Fauvel of Hastings crime investigation unit said the six-week operation was conducted with members of the clandestine laboratory squad. As a result of the raids on Friday 30 November, two Hastings men aged 36 and 37, and a 48-year-old woman of Templestowe were charged with multiple offences relating to the manufacture and trafficking of amphetamines. The woman and the…
THE Victorian Labor Party has rejected more than six years of planning for an expanded Port of Hastings. Last week it released a jobs and investment strategy dumping its support of Hastings in favour of the so-called “Bay West” option, a new port proposed for the western side of Port Phillip between Geelong and Werribee. The decision is a massive about-face as the ALP proposed building a three-stage port at Hastings when it was in government. Hastings Liberal MP Neale Burgess said “Labor has abandoned more than 40 years of bipartisan support for the Port of Hastings, deserted the people…
DELIBERATELY lit fires wrecked two cars and damaged a third in Hastings early Saturday morning. The cars were torched within two hours of each other, although police have been unable to link the crimes. In the first blaze a Toyota Camry station wagon was burnt out on a nature strip in Villawood Drive, Hastings. Heat from the burning vehicle seriously damaged a Land Rover Discovery that was parked alongside the Camry. Detective Leading Senior Constable Nick Sweetman, of Hastings CIU, said the owner of the Discovery, a volunteer Hastings CFA firefighter, was awakened by his pager calling him to the…
FEDERAL politicians are about to get a colourful reminder that polio survivors still exist. The disease was declared eradicated in Australia in 2000, but it has left a legacy of complex health issues for an ageing population of survivors. Hastings resident Fran Henke is one of 46 people with post-polio syndrome going to Canberra next week to lobby politicians for more money to support Polio Australia. They will be dressed in orange and have appointments to meet with MPs from their respective areas, in Mrs Henke’s case Flinders MP Greg Hunt and Dunkley MP Bruce Billson. “There are hundreds of…
THE $6 million “affordable” homes project in Marine Pde, Hastings, will not be finished until next year. A halt was called on work to complete the 20 homes earlier this year when builders unearthed a disused fuel tank. Since then the land has been extensively tested to gauge the extent of contamination from the tank left over from a former service station. “It’s really sad this has happened,” state manager for Community Housing Ltd Brett Wake said on Monday. “We’re very confident we’ll be able to finish the project, but it won’t be until the next calendar year.” Mr Wake…
BLUESCOPE’S wharf will fall silent in November as the last wharfies are paid off and the last steel-carrying ship leaves Hastings. Wharf operator Patrick is set to issue redundancy notices to the last nine permanent stevedores, 11 guaranteed wage employees and 14 casual workers. Patrick runs the wharf for BlueScope, which has been using chartered bulk carriers to bring hot rolled coil steel from Port Kembla since the Iron Monarch made its final voyage to Hastings last October. Iron Monarch carried slab steel from Port Kembla for rolling at BlueScope’s Hastings hot strip mill. The company closed the mill, commissioned…
A WOMAN found with severe head injuries in thick scrub next to Hodgins Rd in Hastings has been placed in an induced coma. A man and his wife found the Hastings woman after hearing cries for help at about 12.30 Monday morning. Detective Leading Senior Constable Darren Sherren, of Hastings CIU, said the woman, aged in her 50s, had been taken by ambulance to the Monash Medical Centre. After undergoing surgery she had been placed in an induced coma and was now in the intensive care unit. “We believe she was walking home from doing some shopping,” Detective Sherren said.…