Browsing: Safety Beach

PLANS for a 24-hour fast food restaurant and convenience store at Safety Beach have been knocked back for a second time by Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors.Councillors last week took turns emphasising to a packed public council meeting that they believed the proposal would increase existing traffic problems and lead to “anti-social behaviour” and vandalism on the beach opposite.Council’s original refusal to grant a permit in September 2020 was subsequently upheld by the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in November 2021.This time around, council officers considered the proposal “acceptable” as it had been amended to include changes recommended by VCAT. However,…

A STORM is brewing in Safety Beach and Dromana, and it’s got nothing to do with the weather.Renewed concern that a McDonalds fast food restaurant could take up residence in the redeveloped Dromana BP complex in Marine Drive has reignited a debate about whether the area needs more fast food franchises. A planning application is now before the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council for the development of a petrol station/fast food complex on a corner site bordering Safety Beach and Dromana, despite a similar application being knocked back at the Victoria Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in 2021.The council, which will…

Emergency services responded to reports of a collision between a cement truck and bus causing the bus to crash into two houses in Safety Beach this morning. It is believed a concreter truck, travelling north on Prescott Avenue, collided with a bus travelling west along Marine Parade about 11am. The impact of the collision caused the bus to crash through a front fence of a house on Prescott Avenue before clipping its roof. The bus continued to career through an adjoining boundary fence and crashed into a house on Dromana Parade causing extensive structural damage. The driver of the bus,…

ROADWORKS to repair a landslide on the Esplanade between Mt Martha and Safety Beach are unlikely to be finished until February. VicRoads originally announced the road would reopen in time for Christmas, but now says the contractor “struck rock” leading to a “minor change in the scope of work”. The landslide occurred in July last year, but repairs were delayed for some months because the affected area required preparation of a Cultural Heritage Management Plan to protect Aboriginal artefacts. Two other landslides on the Esplanade in recent years were fixed without the need for a CHMP, despite the entire coast…

A TRACK leads down to rocky ledges below the site of the latest landslide on the Esplanade between Mt Martha and Safety Beach. The jagged rocks are partly covered by bright orange lichen and the clear water gurgles up and down as a westerly wind chops up Port Phillip. The landslide itself has uncovered what appear to be the remains of a rock retaining wall built into the cliff as well as undermining the bitumen road. It may have also revealed, or swept away, traces of people who lived here long before Europeans set foot on the shores of a…