RESEARCHERS are excited and confused by early sightings of whales in Port Phillip and Western Port. Dolphin Research Institute executive director Jeff Weir said whales usually showed up in June “so this is quite extraordinary – but then again so is 25 degrees in Mornington harbour”. Mr Weir said the first report of whale off Seaford “sounded more like a false killer whale”. Since then reports of a humpback whale have come from sailors at Somers and Balnarring. “One of the people from Somers Yacht Club seems very knowledgeable about humpbacks. We also had a reliable sighting of a humpback…
Browsing: Port Phillip
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…
TOWNS and suburbs on Port Phillip including Rosebud and McCrae could be submerged by coastal flooding combined with heavy rain events by the end of the century, says an unpublished confidential report. Port Phillip Coastal Adaption Pathways Program studied four bayside areas – Rosebud-McCrae, Mordialloc, Elwood and Southbank as well as a low-lying area in North Melbourne. The existence of the report was revealed after Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors held a private meeting on 24 September. This was after the public gallery was cleared at the end of the final public meeting before the council went into caretaker mode in…
THE heavy lift ship MV Blue Marlin steamed through The Heads into Port Phillip on Wednesday morning carrying the newest vessel of the Royal Australian Navy. The hull of LHD Canberra, the first of the navy’s two new amphibious ships, was built at the renowned naval shipyard in Ferrol in northern Spain by Navantia and launched in February 2011. Canberra is a Landing Helicopter Dock ship and will be fitted out by BAE Systems at Williamstown shipyard before going into service in 2014. The hull of her twin, Adelaide, will arrive in Australia in 2014. They are 230 metres long,…
MORNINGTON Peninsula’s oldest house is in danger of closing unless more volunteers are found to help run the historical property. The National Trust has appealed for assistance to keep McCrae Homestead open to the public. McCrae Homestead manager Sharon Bowen said peninsula residents could “keep alive our pioneer heritage”. “There is an urgent need for more people to assist in guiding visitors, housekeeping and maintenance of the house, visitor centre and gardens,” she said. Volunteers are asked to give two half-days each month. Built in 1844 on Arthur’s Seat Run, the largest lease in the fledgling Port Phillip colony, the…