Author: MP News Group

WINTER is almost here and Hastings SES volunteers are getting ready to respond to calls for help from storms and floods. The preparations to enable a quick response coincide with the national FloodSafe week (25-31 May) and an SES warning that “however many people are unaware of just how dirty, disgusting and dangerous floodwater can be”. The SES says that floodwaters can pick up “all kinds of awful materials, including toxic chemicals, animal faeces, decaying animals, garbage, broken glass and rusted metal”. Kate Nangle from Hastings SES said this year’s focus was on “shining a light into the murky contents…

CHILDREN enrolling in Rosebud West primary schools in the next few years will benefit from a program making language development the priority. Melbourne University professor Joseph Sparling launched his program at Seawinds Community Hub, Allambi Av, Rosebud West last week. “The program responds to strong evidence that children who start kindergarten and school with developmental delays are at significant risk of underachievement in school,” Seawinds Community Hub CEO Heather Barton said. “It offers a comprehensive, preventive approach to help children become not just school ready, but raring to go.” The pilot phase is being jointly run by Eastbourne Primary School,…

POLICE have released images of two men who forced their way into the Tobacco Station store in Ninth Av, Rosebud, 2.37am, Tuesday 12 May. The men jemmied open the roller shutters and smashed glass panels on the door. One man stayed outside and passed a wheelie bin in to the other who filled it with cigarettes valued at $20,000. The men drove off in a light green 1998-2001 Toyota sedan. The store owner suspects two men who appeared to be casing the store the previous day. One of the men is of Asian appearance with a distinctive hairstyle. Anyone with…

MAIN St, Mornington, will be abuzz this Queen’s Birthday long weekend with the sights and sounds of the third Mornington Winter Jazz Festival. The four-day celebration of music, art and heritage – and lots of entertainment festival – runs from 5-8 June. It will feature live laneway painting with The Snakehole Gallery artists, live music on stages, roving jazz bands and pop-up KidsZones from 10am Saturday and Sunday. The cornerstone of the festival is the jazz program with performances by Emma Pask and Adrian Cunningham, and George Golla and Jacki Cooper performing Tea For Two. There will also be Jude…

A 42-year-old Langwarrin man will face court after Frankston detectives executed a warrant in Landhill Close yesterday. Police entered the residential property and arrested the man around 3.30pm. They also uncovered a cache of weapons including swords, slingshots, laser pointers and knives. He was interviewed by detectives and has been charged with possess handgun, possess prohibited weapons, possess cannabis and advertise and sell prohibited weapons. The man will face the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on 8 September.

HASTINGS FNC – By Phil Stone, club president SENIORS REPORT THE weekend saw the Blues face up against Somerville. It was a strange game that was low scoring and no team really dominated the other. The boys played well in patches but for the most part we got beaten on the outside of the contest and this hurt us with them getting some easy football. Our skills were not as good as they have been, and at times we went back to old habits and bombed the football which did not help our forwards. Again we had more scoring opportunities but…

CRIB POINT FC – By Jared Newton CRIB Point slipped to its fourth loss in five matches after going down by 51 points to a slick Rye outfit. Despite being in touch for much of the afternoon, Crib were unable to get ahead and after getting within 15 points midway through the 3rd quarter, Rye pulled away for a comfortable win. The Magpies are really underdone at the moment and Saturday’s side missed eight players that were not in their grand final side who are either injured or suspended. Despite this is was a few familiar faces leading the charge for…

MOOROODUC Primary School appears to be the sole beneficiary of any direct grant from this month’s state budget. The school’s allocated $1 million will be spent on offices and classrooms. Nepean MP Martin Dixon says the needs of other schools on the Mornington Peninsula have been ignored. “Much needed school upgrades have also been shelved across the peninsula with asbestos related issues being a major concern,” Mr Dixon, Education Minister in the former Coalition government, said. “The last Labor government sat on known asbestos in schools for 11 years and while talking big, are delivering small. “Red Hill Consolidated School…

HEALTHCARE services need to plan for a rise in pancreatic cancer, Peninsula Health’s Endoscopy boss Dr Leon Fisher has warned. His warning coincides with this week’s launch of the 2015 cancer appeal to buy the $500,000 cancer detecting machine. “An endoscopic ultrasound and endoscopic bronchial ultrasound machine is a critical piece of equipment for diagnosing and treating a range of cancers,” Dr Fisher said. “Currently, local residents must travel outside our catchment zone to access diagnostic services for pancreatic cancer and are often put on long waiting lists. “We have CT scanners, MRI scanners, surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy … everything…

THE shire council has released a draft management plan for Safety Beach foreshore that will guide its use over the next 15 years. But Safety Beach Foreshore Landscape Committee is concerned replanting work it had done since 1999 could be removed to enable car parking areas to be sealed and marked. Committee president Tom McCullough said that according to the draft plan, which was approved for public exhibition mid-April, at least two parking areas would encroach on plantations. “It’s a hostile environment to grow plants. Volunteers from our group have laboured long and hard for many years and it would…

IN ROSEBUD, “a dark and stormy night” was threatening. This, the much-derided first sentence of the 1830 novel  Paul Clifford was apt, even though this night was merely dark, pre-meeting. The popular English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton followed up his opening purple prose with this: the violent wind was “fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness”. Phew! We had Neons. That’s winter on the Mornington Peninsula, too, the cold darkness exacerbated by a distinct lack of biscuits for those warming their frozen fingers on a cuppa before the meeting. But CW digresses, and will digress…

THE award-winning screen musical The Sound of Music, which first charmed audiences in 1965, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Worldwide celebrations to mark the milestone including gala concerts, marionette exhibitions, tours of the movie settings and cast reunions. Not to be left out, Mornington audiences will be treated to a new junior version performed by students. About 50 have jumped at the chance to be in two special performances, 11am and 4pm, Sunday 28 June, at the Peninsula Community Theatre, Wilson’s Rd. “This unique film is still as popular half a century on as it was when it…

CRIB POINT FC  – By Jared Newton CRIB POINT went down in a nailbiter to Frankston Bombers by four points to remain winless on their home deck a quarter of the way through the season. The game ended in farcical circumstances with the siren blowing during a clear lull in the play with the umpires blaming timekeepers and the timekeepers blaming umpires for not blowing time on. While it was a dampener to an otherwise good game of footy it probably didn’t affect the result as Frankston had possession of the ball at the time and played the better footy on…

HASTINGS FNC – By Phil Stone, club president SENIORS REPORT IT was a tough day at the office. The wind out on the ground was horrendous and made it really tough to use the football. The game was strange with the first quarter littered with wasted opportunities and we didn’t really take advantage of the breeze. At half-time we said we were not playing the way we wanted to and the boys come out and responded. It was great to see us put in a big third quarter and basically win the game in that quarter. It is always good to…

SOMERVILLE Secondary College in Graf Rd has again been attack by vandals. Constable Jack Henderson, of Hastings police, said a call was received at 9.15pm to report three youths “causing trouble” at the school. The caller also reported hearing the sound of glass being smashed. Police arrived at the scene at 9.30pm and patrolled the school, but the youths had run off. “Police saw damage to the top light of a bobcat, and where the offenders had removed a small fire extinguisher from the bobcat and deployed its contents,” he said. “The offenders had also used a bottle of oil…

HMAS Cerberus Dogs footy team hosted its second annual Pink Sports Day against a St Kilda City third division team on Saturday to raise funds for breast cancer research. Raffles, tin shakes and sales helped the club raise $400. A ceremony to name the oval the McAuliffe Oval, after recently retired Lieutenant Commander Murray McAuliffe, was held before the game. The McAuliffe family have been key supporters of the Cerberus Football Club for 39 years. Despite threatening skies, chilly winds and injuries forcing two players off-field, both teams showed spirit with the Dogs easily winning 125 points to St Kilda’s…

JOBS and careers of all sorts were the focus of last week’s Frankston Mornington Peninsula Careers and Jobs Expo at Mornington Racecourse. The event was designed to help the students and school leavers make informed decisions on their futures. It showed them what jobs were on offer, what skills and abilities were required, and how they should go about getting into them. Expert information and advice is regarded as the most important thing when planning young peoples’ careers – or a career changes. The event’s focus on interactivity saw many hands-on activities offered, including a tyre change pit-stop challenge, fitness…

AN exhibition by Simon Normand at the Merricks general store explores the Mornington Peninsula as it was before World War I. The artist presents a series of panoramic photographs of places that “show no sign of the dramatic effects of colonisation,” he says. Beside each photograph are original painted maps and collages of the landscape. There are references to original Boonwurrung place names, bullets found in shell middens, stones, insects and glass all preserved in resin-filled boxes. “It’s a vision of the country before the clearing,” he said. The exhibition runs until 31 May. The gallery at 3460 Frankston-Flinders Rd…

VOLUNTEERS at Peninsula Health’s Assistance and Care in Emergency program (ACE) are celebrating a decade of providing support to patients and families during what is always a difficult time – a trip to the emergency department. A volunteers’ appreciation lunch was held last week as a part of National Volunteers Week. About 750 volunteers assist at Peninsula Health – with 100 in the ACE program. “Volunteers come from different walks of life but they all share the common goal of wanting to help others,” Peninsula Health volunteer program manager Helen Wilson said. “It can be really amazing because you get…

Police are appealing for public assistance to help locate missing Mornington teen Jarryd Ludlow. Jarryd was attending a class in Mitchell Street, Mornington about 3.30pm on Friday when he called his father to say he was going to catch a bus home. Jarryd did not catch the bus home, nor has his father heard from him since. Police are concerned for the 15-year-old’s welfare due to his age and the fact that this is out of character for Jarryd. Witnesses have reported seeing Jarryd on a bus from Dromana to Frankston Railway Station, then a train from Frankston to the…

CRIB POINT FC – by Jared Newton CRIB POINT opened their winning account for the season with victory over Tyabb on Saturday in a solid 91 point win. The game won’t exactly go down as one of the greats and wasn’t spectacular viewing, but because of Crib’s slow start to 2015 it was a crucial clash. The Magpies had a lot of the football throughout the day but didn’t bring the kicking shoes as they posted a wayward 9.17 in the first three terms before clicking into gear for an 8-goal final quarter to finish with 17.21. Coach Annable missed…

HASTINGS FNC, by Phil Stone, club president SENIORS REPORT WE got another win and it has been great to see us start the season off the way we have. Our first quarter was almost flawless we didn’t miss many targets and played some really good footy. It’s always good to get off to some really quick starts. Unfortunately we played our worst quarter for the year in the second and let them back into it and went in at half-time just ahead. We responded well to the pressure and played a good second half and the only thing that was…

A VARIETY of groups have been working to restore fire-damaged Warringine Park, Hastings. Some areas of the park are being kept closed for safety reasons and to allow regrowth of bushland lost in the January fire. At work within the park are a Green Army team, Franklin Scholar students and the Mornington Peninsula Shire’s natural systems team members. The shire’s Simon Thorning said groups have been working on making the area safer, collecting rubbish and debris and clearing vegetation. “We’ll soon start restoring the bushland and continue to manage the fire risk in the park as the vegetation grows back,” he…

Waterside at Martha Cove has done all the hard work in finding some of the best builders and matching their floorplans to the lots available at Waterside, just 50m from the water! Find out more at hidden-harbour.com.au or call Jules Alexander on 1300 885 682

WITNESSES are being sought by police after holiday houses were burgled around the Seaview Av, Safety Beach area last month. Offenders gained entry to the houses 6-23 April by either forcing windows or doors at the rear. They stole TVs, DVD players and stereos. Crime Prevention Officer Julie Simpson, of Rosebud police, urges residents to be vigilant and report any information about suspicious activity and descriptions of people and vehicles – including registration numbers. “Any information and assistance would be greatly appreciated,” she said. “We only need information to solve a crime, not anyone’s name.” Call Rosebud police on 5986…

Monday 27 April. Venue: Main Ridge Community Hall. A good crowd. The usual healthy pre-meeting buffet was provided. Council Watch fell to the temptation of raspberry cakes served with, or as an alternative to, fruit salad dessert. No whipped cream, fortunately. AS befits a stoush in the week we marked the centenary of Gallipoli, councillors came out of their trenches with metaphorical bayonets fixed. The action was brisk on a number of fronts. There were casualties, mainly flesh wounds, in a couple of skirmishes. It started even before question time, with a punchy petition from 253 residents living near the…

POLICE are asking Mornington Peninsula traders and shoppers to watch out for counterfeit $50 and $100 notes. They say a woman tried to pass a fake $50 note at the Australia Post shop in Rosebud Plaza on Thursday at 3.35pm to buy a pen costing $1.50. The attendant told the woman she thought the note was counterfeit. The woman said she would take it to the bank. Five minutes later, the woman used the fake note to buy goods from the Discount Chemist outlet in Point Nepean Rd, Rosebud, and received $38 change. The woman police want to question about…

THE beat of African drums may soon be a regular sound at Tootgarook. Amadou Kalissa, who followed in his musician father’s footsteps when growing up in Guinea, West Africa, gave a demonstration of his drumming at the beach last week with wife Renee. Now living in Seaford, the couple have close ties to the Mornington Peninsula and regard it as a natural place for African drumming. Kalissa, who was taught the traditional rhythms of his culture, the Malinke people, by his father, is now passing on that knowledge to their 23-month-old daughter Aicha. He says his father was for more…

MOVIE buffs can enjoy a premiere screening of the English National Opera’s La Traviata on 16-17 May at Mornington Cinemas. The film was first shown in London in March. After Mornington it will be shown in capital and regional cities. It is performed in English by the stars of the opera at the London Coliseum theatre in multi-camera HD. Filming was directed by double MTV award-winning director and Grammy award nominee Andy Morahan. Organisers say Peter Konwitschny’s production cuts to the heart of the opera’s themes of passionate love and tragic death with a modern and uncluttered staging. La Traviata…

A GROUP of peninsula artists is promoting art as the ‘third leg’ of peninsula tourism to join the region’s well-established food and wine industries. They have set up Red Artists Gallery, a showcase for the work of artists, sculptors, printmakers and jewellery makers at Red Hill South in part of the former post office building. (The PO moved next door to the Cellar & Pantry store last July.) One of the group, sculptor Jean Sheridan, said Red Hill was the hub of one of Victoria’s most creative communities. “We have more artists, sculptors, printmakers and jewellery makers per head of…