Day: May 2, 2017

PUFFING Billy took on 2500 intrepid runners on Sunday in the 36th Great Train Race between Belgrave and Emerald – including four from Tyabb. The 13.5km course was tortuous and hilly, the competitors said. At the start, to even things up, Puffing Billy’s driver Graeme Hind had to start on the road beside the runners and run the length of the train to board his mount and get things under way. Then, at Lakeside station, he had to run to the finish line further along to get Puffing Billy’s official race time. Among the Tyabb contingent, Gemma Maini, who grew…

POPPIES picked on Flanders Fields, France, during WWI have been found in the pages of a book donated to the Victorian Maritime Centre Museum, Crib Point. Honorary member Norman Oates donated the book Seamanship Manual Vol I, 1932, to the museum among a number of items that had been left to him by his father, R J Oates. Mr Oates (senior) picked the poppies at Flanders Fields and pressed them in the book where they have remained ever since. The Victorian Maritime Centre’s Di Maloney said the poppies still showed tinges of red in their petals – even after 100…

WHILE there is no shortage of volunteers wanting to get the Holy Trinity Anglican Church’s opportunity shop back in business, its reopening depends on engineers’ assessing the building’s “structural integrity and safety”. The op shop and adjoining church were gutted in an early morning blaze on Friday 31 March. Police have said they believe the fire was deliberately lit. “We are waiting for forensic investigators and structural engineers to complete their assessments of the structural integrity and safety of the building,” church warden Don Johnston said. “Once those reports are completed, we should know if rebuilding this historic old church…

HASTINGS and Bittern CFA brigades fought a yard fire at a Hastings garden supplies business, corner of Frankston-Flinders Rd and Haddock St, 11pm, Wednesday 26 April. First Lieutenant Alan Millar, of Hastings CFA, said the fire was contained to a pile of scrap metal and rubbish, with no buildings involved. He said an occupant had lit a small fire for warmth but it got into the debris pile and he could not extinguish it himself. Four appliances with 15 fire fighters took a couple of hours to extinguish the blaze and mop up. It is not considered suspicious. First published…

A MAN fishing off the rocks at Cape Schanck on Sunday 30 April was lucky to escape with his life after being swept into the sea seas by a wave, 1pm. Senior Sergeant Phillip Hulley, of Frankston police, said the man, 46, of Kew, was one of seven men swept into the water when a large swell caught them unawares. Six clamoured back but the seventh was in a bad way when he managed to climb back to safety. The Air Ambulance took the man to The Alfred hospital with serious but not life threatening injuries. Senior Sergeant Hulley said…

A STATUE of Bunjil – the wedge-tailed eagle creator and spiritual being – now sits at the entrance to the Willum Warrain Aboriginal gathering place at Hastings. The unveiling of the statue on Friday was also timely in that it marked the recent reopening of the centre which had been closed due to lack of money. “This is a significant day for our mob,” Wullum Wirrain president Peter Aldenhoven said. “We have recently been closed for four and a half months as we temporarily had no funding for staff and operating costs. “This [its temporary closure] caused great dismay to…

TENDERS close in eight days for consultants to prepare “comprehensive business case” for a Cowes to Stony Point car ferry. An economic study produced six years ago put the overall cost of the project at $47 million and predicted it would lead to greater employment on Phillip Island and the Mornington Peninsula during and after construction of two new terminals. The shires of Mornington Peninsula and Bass Coast are now awaiting their call for submission from consultants to prepare a business case. The state government has conributed $250,000 and the shires $25,000 each. There is nothing new about the ferry…