Author: Keith Platt

JOHN Schultz knows a thing or two about football jumpers. He’s grabbed plenty as their wearers flashed past on the footy field. But he also knows they were once the best thing to keep you warm in the surf. Young surfers of today wouldn’t know about the footy jumper-in-the-surf trick. They have the luxury of being able to choose wetsuits for summer and winter, or even a spring suit for the in-between seasons. One of the footy jumpers former Footscray ruckman Schultz wore in the surf at Point Leo back in the early 1960s has a history. The tradition of…

JOHN Clarke made a name for himself as a stalker of politicians and hypocrites. He managed to pour scorn with a twinkle in his eye and a half smile, leaving his target little choice but to respond in the same way. Sometimes his barbed comments were so sharp his victim would be impaled before he or she had a chance to realise the space they now occupied. But Clarke, who died Sunday 9 April this year, also enjoyed a sometimes-solitary pastime that also involved a great deal of subterfuge and stalking. The cutting comedian photographed birds. He had a special…

A STAINED glass window by renowned artist David Wright has been installed at St John’s Church, Flinders. The design by Wright, who has a studio and lives at Flinders, incorporates the emblem of St John, the golden eagle, and represents the Bun Wurrung people with indigenous plants. Glass used by Wright in his windows is layered and moulded in the kiln to produce “rich colour and texture”. The window can be viewed by the public in the Kings St, Flinders church on 4 and 5 November during the annual flower festival. Wright, whose past commissions include work for the new…

TWO of the four MPs whose electorates cover Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula voted against the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill passed by the Victorian Parliament’s lower house. The upper house is expected to vote on the bill in the next few weeks. Mornington Liberal MP David Morris and Frankston MP, Labor’s Paul Edbrooke, voted for the bill. Mr Morris’s Liberal colleagues, Neale Burgess (Hastings) and Martin Dixon (Nepean) were against. MPs of all parties were allowed a conscience vote for the contentious legislation proposed by the Andrews Labor government, which took four days to debate before it was passed 47…

TRAINS on the Stony Point line have set a new low when it comes to reliability, according to Hastings MP Neale Burgess. In a news release headed “Stony Point line snags some horror results” Mr Burgess says the train from Frankston to Stony Point fails to meet targets set by train operator Metro Trains. “The Stony Point train line has recorded some of the worst results for reliability and punctuality in the state, with the most recent figures showing the service is not meeting its targets,” Mr Burgess stated. He said the 99.3 per cent reliability recorded when the Labor…

A CAMPAIGN is underway to short circuit a $3 million road making scheme in Mt Martha. Signatures are being collected on a petition opposing the proposal and councillors are being lobbied in a bid to stop it before it appears on a council agenda for approval. The scheme to seal Augusta St and the adjacent Mark, Mathew and Gregory streets may be placed on hold pending release of a review of the shire’s policy of requiring property owners to pay part of road and footpath construction costs. Under the present policy the shire can proceed in the face of resident…

AGL Energy’s plans to use a floating gas terminal at Crib Point will be outlined later this month at Port Phillip Conservation Council’s annual general meeting. The power retailer’s community relations manager Jay Gleeson will provide a presentation on AGL’s assessment of options for shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Crib Point from interstate and overseas. The company plans to inject the LNG into a pipeline supplying south-eastern Australia. Crib Point, in Western Port, was chosen for the floating terminal after an assessment sites around Australia (“Crib Point choice for gas terminal” The News 15/8/17). Mr Gleeson will outline of…

THE history of a koala rescued from a mooring near Warneet and its safe delivery back home to nearby Quail Island can be traced back to the 1920s. Research by Hastings historian and author Ruth Gooch tracing the rise and fall of the island’s koala population shows that the one picked up on Sunday 8 October by the Coast Guard is one of just a few still calling the island home (“Soggy koala finds solace in blanket” The News 10/10/17). Gooch’s book, Quail Island, Western Port, Victoria, tells of campers in the 1970s hearing koalas “bellowing” during the night and…

DESPITE strong opposition, Mornington Peninsula Shire is determined to force a massive increase in the rent it receives from the Hastings Cricket and Football Social Club. Councillors last week decided to advertise their intention of offering the club a new 21-lease lease, but with a rent increase from $4000 a year to $42,000 in the first year. The rent will rise $5000 a year for the following two years and then three per cent a year until expiry of the lease. The latest offer, which will be advertised and open for public comment, is virtually the same as that proposed…

THE backyard swimming pool is covered in plastic to keep away messy ducks. The wind, swell and tide are not quite right at the beach, but Rod Jones is a satisfied surfer. Better known as Dr Surf to listeners of radio station 3RRR, Jones sits on a creaking, weathered cane chair besides the pool at his Mt Eliza house flipping through old magazines where he identifies waves and recognises surfers. Inside his house there are surfboards in various rooms, they’re perched on the top of book cases, stashed on the floor behind couches, stored in purpose-built racks and decoratively hung…

THERE is little interest being shown from any level of government for a memorial service in December to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the disappearance of then Prime Minister Harold Holt from a beach at Point Nepean. Mr Holt was presumed drowned at Cheviot Beach on 17 December 1967, although his body was never recovered. Neither the federal, state or local governments have agreed to pay for a proposal by the Harold Holt Memorial Committee, auspiced by the Nepean Ratepayers’ Association, for a service at the beach on this year’s anniversary of his disappearance. A recommendation that Mornington Peninsula Shire…

PROPONENTS of a new memorial for former Prime Minister Harold Holt are hoping for a major commitment from the federal government on 17 December, the 50th anniversary of his disappearance. Mr Holt’s body was never found after he went swimming with friends on that day in 1967 at the restricted Cheviot Beach. The beach was within the then-Portsea Officer Cadet School, and now forms part of the state-run Point Nepean National Park. A small stone memorial with a commemorative plaque sits above the beach while another plaque has been fixed on the underwater reef where Mr Holt was last seen.…

COAST Guard volunteers based at Hastings had an unusual passenger on Sunday – a koala rescued from a mooring off Warneet. The koala was picked up after being found shivering on the mooring about 100 metres from the jetty. The rescue boat was on its way back to Hastings at about 9.30am after towing two men in a tinny to Warneet whose engine had broken down off Crawfish Rock. “I saw the koala on the mooring and at first thought it was a stuffed toy,” rescue boat crew member Sean Hannam said. “We turned the engine off and I threw…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is continuing to look far and wide for innovation and inspiration with two councillors and its top executive preparing to pack their bags for overseas and interstate travel. In November, CEO Carl Cowie and Cr Simon Brooks propose being in Germany for an international climate change conference and Cr Julie Edge wants to be in Brisbane for a forum on disasters. If approved by councillors at last night’s meeting (Tuesday 10 November), before arriving in Bonn for the United Nations’ COP23 conference, Mr Cowie will have already been to Sweden and plans to later head south for…

A RATEPAYER lobby group says plans to widen the sealed section of the main runway at Tyabb airfield are “highly premature” as a precinct plan is yet to be adopted by Mornington Peninsula Shire. “The Tyabb airfield precinct plan has not yet been finalised and certainly not approved,” Tyabb and District Ratepayers Business and Environmental Group president Stefan Berson stated in a letter to the shire CEO Carl Cowie. Mr Berson asked Mr Cowie if widening the runway would be subject to “a full public planning process” in line with a decision by councillors in 2005. Mr Berson’s letter followed…

THE state government is being asked to explain the future use of hundreds of hectares of land set aside to cater for the demands of the now abandoned container port at Hastings. The land around Western Port is now mostly used for agriculture at Hastings, Tyabb, Somerville and Crib Point. Facing a shortage of large industrial sites within 10 years, Mornington Peninsula Shire is about to ask the government to explain what type of development it wants on the swathes of “port-related” land. The coming shortage of industrial land is outlined in one of two draft strategies presented to councillors…

VISITS to waste treatment plants in China by a councillor and two Mornington Peninsula Shire executives “brings new insights into alternative waste technology on the peninsula”, according to a shire statement.     The 14 September statement follows criticism of the trip by Cr Hugh Fraser, acting chief operating officer Niall McDonagh and waste services team leader Daniel Hinson and pre-empts an official report to council. The three were in China earlier this month and their report on the value of the tour and “how knowledge gained may influence the future direction of alternate waste technologies in the region and…

THE failure of a plan to fence off the Pillars cliff jumping spot at Mt Martha is likely to see increasing numbers of visitors to the natural attraction. Although dedicated through various policies to increasing tourism, Mornington Peninsula Shire has been trying to lessen the numbers of people visiting the Pillars. Nevertheless, it is a major attraction without signposts, steps or safety barriers. Alcohol bans, parking bans, warning signs and restricting access have all failed to lessen the steady beat of feet to the cliff top. The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) has now pulled the plug…

THERE are widening cracks in the cliff face and access stairs have been blocked or cut off before they reach the beach. Cracks are also appearing in the bitumen on the Esplanade above the unstable cliffs that last week saw the beach closed at Mt Martha north. Mornington Peninsula Shire issued a news release saying the beach was being closed to the public “for safety reasons”. The building surveyor officially closed the beach, Tuesday 19 September, until further notice. This will block access to 50 boatsheds, many of which are “substantially damaged”, including those from the south side of boatshed…

OBITUARY Anthony (Tony) Muir, 1943-2017 Master mariner, diver SOMETIME over the next few weeks a flotilla of small boats will sail towards Port Phillip Heads. It will be spring, a time of renewal, regeneration and hope. Those on board the boats will look toward the Polperro, because it will be from the deck of his beloved timber vessel that the ashes of Tony Muir will be consigned to the waters that he loved. Tony Muir died on 4 July, less than one month after celebrating his 74th birthday. He had been diagnosed with cancer a decade earlier. Hundreds attended a…

THE lengthy process of formulating a business case for a car ferry from Stony Point to Cowes, Phillip Island goes a step forward next month with a series of public and industry meetings. On Friday 6 October industry representatives and members of the public can attend “information gathering” meetings at Crib Point. Compilation of the business case for the ferry service is being co-ordinated by Brisbane-based consultants Earthcheck, described as being an international tourism advisory group. The state government has given $200,000 to help Mornington Peninsula and Bass Coast shires “understand and define the community, environmental and economic contribution and…

THE outlook was certainly different for a group of girl netballers who arrived in Sorrento last week. Although well into spring, the continuing wintery weather that greeted them was a far cry from that of their home in the remote Northern Territory community of Ngukurr. The 10 girls – aged nine to 13 – experienced their first plane trip, rode in a gondola to the top of Arthurs Seat and then crossed Port Phillip on the ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff. The group’s trip was arranged by Georgia Croad, of Sorrento, who has been teaching at Ngukurr for the past…

STANDING in the sand dunes at Rye, Josie Jones is pleased to note the absence of rubbish. She is there to promote a community walk at Hastings to raise money and awareness of the Dolphin Research Institute, for which she has designed and added a poster to her  “I’m really a mermaid” series. No stranger to the foreshore at Rye, Ms Jones has for the past 12 years walked its length and breadth collecting rubbish either dropped by careless beachgoers or dropped in the bay. A graphic designer, Ms Jones estimates she’s collected four tonnes of rubbish in a personal…

SOME of Mornington Peninsula Shire’s planning staff and senior executives may soon be operating out of an office in central Melbourne. The shire’s CEO Carl Cowie told The News on 31 August that “there is nothing to report regarding a Shire office in central Melbourne”. But one day later (1 September), in his regular Friday email to shire staff, Mr Cowie described sitting in an Uber “waiting to get on the Monash [Freeway]” on his way to a meeting in the Melbourne CBD with “the exec team”. (He also praised the benefits of having a tablet, or hand held computer,…

A NEW ferry terminal at Sorrento has come a step closer to fruition following Mornington Peninsula Shire’s request for an independent panel to consider a planning scheme amendment for the project to go ahead. The panel to be appointed by Planning Minister Richard Wynne is likely to start hearings at the end of October. The hearings will coincide with investigations into the planned terminal’s effect on traffic. The panel’s findings – after reviewing submissions, including those already considered by council as well as the shire’s own positive response – will come back to council for a final decision. Council received…

A PLANNING application for a multi-million dollar hot springs and restaurant complex near Rye has been refused by Mornington Peninsula Shire because the proposal was “contrary to the purpose of the green wedge zone”. A failure by the applicant to “adequately address unknown environmental issues regarding groundwater contamination”, was one of eight reasons the shire gave for not permitting the complex planned on a 15-hectare site in Browns Rd, Fingal. In a report to the shire’s planning services committee on Monday 4 September planning services team leader Rosa Zouzoulas said the proposal “satisfactorily responds” to relevant planning policies “in particular,…

THE office of Flinders MP Greg Hunt was in lockdown last Tuesday morning as a group of grandmothers protested about the federal government’s treatment of refugees. The protest by the South Peninsula Grandmothers against the Detention of Refugee Children came one week after police forcibly evicted members of a church group from the office who were calling for better treatment of asylum seekers being detained on Manus Island and Nauru (“Police praised by ‘evicted’ church group” The News 29.8.17). “Other members of the public who came were not able to enter to talk with office staff. A woman visiting before…

A TRIP to inspect the latest technology being used in China to generate electricity from rubbish and lessen the amount going to landfill is part of Mornington Peninsula Shire’s bid to attain carbon neutrality by 2020. Cr Hugh Fraser said moving to a waste-to-energy system could lead to the shire being able to close its Rye tip and avoid a $2 million a year state tax to keep it open. “The Rye landfill is the shire’s largest contributor to its greenhouse gas and carbon footprint,” Cr Fraser said. He said the only question remaining was when the tip could be…

THE Mornington Peninsula’s plovers seem destined to be both victims and indicators of the pressures of population. The hooded plover has for years been fighting for its very existence, mainly on the peninsula’s ocean beaches. Its plight is so precarious that dogs have now been permanently banned on the sand within the Mornington Peninsula National Park. Rope barriers were erected along parts of Balnarring beach in Western Port yesterday to protect red-capped plovers, cousins of the hooded plover. Not regarded nationally as being endangered, the red-capped plovers are rapidly losing ground on the peninsula, again to off-leash dogs and foxes,…

PLANS to build a maritime centre at Hastings centred on the Otama submarine are not included in draft plans for the foreshore because they require state and federal government approvals. The draft Hastings Foreshore Precinct Plan – designed to “establish a consistent identity” for the Hastings foreshore from Hodgins Rd in the north to Reid Pde in the south – is now on public exhibition and open for public comment. Investigations conducted into forming the draft plan included consultations with 21 groups, organisations and government departments, but not the proponents of the maritime centre, the Western Port Oberon Association. The…