Author: Keith Platt

ASPIRING councillors have ten days from Monday (9 September) in which to nominate as a candidate for Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.The elections for councillors in each of the peninsula’s 11 wards will be held on Saturday 26 October.Candidates must pay a $250 nomination fee, undergo training and submit paperwork in person when attending an appointment at the Victorian Electoral Commission’s (VEC) local election office.Under new boundaries announced by the VEC the single councillor wards replace the existing six wards, which have three councillors in Briars and Seawinds, two in Nepean and one each in Cerberus, Red Hill and Watson.The new…

PETER Mitchell spends a lot of time chasing cartoon characters, especially Big Bird from the popular TV series, Sesame Street. He may also be found tracking Bart Simpson, Kermit the Frog, and Snoopy as well as bicycles, running shoes and even circumnavigating New Zealand.Mitchell’s journeys may sound a bit esoteric, but they are all carefully traced, digitally, on a map. The Safety Beach runner follows what he calls a “creative pastime – GPS Art”. Before setting out on a run Mitchell draws his course on a map of the area which is then able to be called up on his…

BUILDINGS in towns on the Western Port coast and inland will in future need to undergo a coastal hazard and vulnerability risk assessment (CHVRA) before they can be approved.In what is believed to be a first for Victoria, permit applicants will be required to plan for predicted climate change effects such as sea level rises and erosion. Under the new rules allowance must be made for a sea level rise of not less than 0.8 metres by 2100 and for the combined effects of tides, storm surges, coastal processes. Permit applications in low lying and vulnerable areas will be referred…

MONEY problems are seeing an increasing number of people asking the RSPCA to find new homes for their pets.The Mornington Peninsula and Frankston have been identified as areas where people are struggling with the high cost of living, according to Stuart Marchesani, the RSPCA’s inspectorate team leader in Victoria’s south-east.“Heartbreakingly, every month RSPCA Victoria receives between 400 and 600 calls from people wanting to surrender their pets for a variety of reasons, including financial difficulties,” he said.“Many of the cruelty cases we see aren’t necessarily malicious cruelty but rather neglect due to people’s circumstances changing beyond their control, such as…

TRAINS and dancers were on time at the station when Mornington Tourist Railway held its annual rock and roll day at Moorooduc. Above the tracks dancers from Team Richards Dance Studio made their moves to the sounds of the Rockin Daddys Band while the car park featured antique cars, including those from the Ford V8 Club.“Rock and Roll Day has become an annual event at the railway,” tourist railway committee member Owen Paden said. “We work in conjunction with Grant and Maryanne Richards from Team Richards Dance Studio and they bring dozens of dancers to our platform to perform. Some…

PLANS to store up to 200 boats in four five metre high stacker sheds and build a 38 metre boat ramp at Western Port Marina, Hastings, have been rejected by Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.Councillors said the sheds could be built out of sight from houses in Skinner Street and away from mangroves that formed part of the UNESCO recognised Western Port Biosphere Reserve. Councillors voted against the proposed development on the Hastings foreshore despite senior planner Charlotte McGillivray recommending they approve it subject to some changes, including providing plans drawn to scale with dimensions.In a report to council’s Wednesday 14…

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,…

STANDING on the beach looking towards the horizon the lines of swell look like corduroy. A couple of hundred metres south, the same swell lines radiate like spokes from a wheel from a rocky point. A pleasing enough sight to some, but pure patterns of nature to Anthony Wood.Wood’s thoughts of patterns invariably lead him to seeing patterns in just about anything.The Mount Martha artist goes for a walk, sees trees, leaves and seeds and thinks of patterns.A keen surfer, he looks at and photographs cliffs and surf breaks around the Mornington Peninsula and imagines how they would look if…

CAMERAS were rolling at Mornington last week for a new thriller movie, although it appears viewers will think they are watching a drama unfold in the United States.The Mornington Yacht Club and The Rocks building was rebranded the Oceanic Research Center, South Carolina, while a television live broadcast truck bore the name ALB6 News, Atlantic Local Broadcasting. Spectators and film crew gathered round a four-wheel drive vehicle partly crushed by a fallen power pole.While the name of the film is being kept secret, the state government has not been slow in congratulating itself for enhancing “Victoria’s reputation as a global…

A NEW community group has been formed to back an independent candidate for the federal seat of Flinders, now held for the Liberal Party by Zoe McKenzie. The Independent 4 Flinders (I4F) group says it is aiming “to not only find a stellar community independent candidate but also grow a strong and unified grassroots movement to support this candidate being elected”.Twenty-two people at the group’s inaugural meeting on 26 May at Mount Martha House heard an “outline” of its chances of “flipping Flinders”. The meeting was convened by Sarah Russell (who stood as an independent candidate for Flinders at the…

AN interactive online map shows that cyclists view a section of Frankston-Flinders Road as one of the most dangerous on the Mornington Peninsula. The map released last month by Bicycle Network sees the road described as a high speed rural road where motorists can drive at 100kph despite “many recent near misses … from Balnarring to Flinders”.BikeSpot 2023 was launched in October last year with the public being invited to add spots to a map indicating whether the location felt safe or unsafe to ride. Other roads marked on the map as being dangerous to cyclists include Balnarring Beach Road,…

INCREASING numbers of homeless people and spiralling demand for emergency help are fuelling the housing crisis on the Mornington Peninsula.Rising costs and a shortage of affordable housing has led to six peninsula towns being categorised as “suffering housing stress higher than the Australian average”. With 35 per cent of residents facing rental stress and 16 per cent of homeless residents sleeping rough every night, Mornington Peninsula Shire is ranked as the fourth worst local government area in the state. Statistically, things have worsened since the shire declared a “housing crisis” in 2021.The mayor Cr Simon Brooks said it was “alarming…

VOTERS have until Wednesday next week (7 August) to make sure they are enrolled to vote in elections for Mornington Peninsula Shire Council in October. Eligible voters include those already enrolled with the state (Australian citizens aged over 18) and ratepayers who are property owners, occupiers or corporations.The Saturday 26 October council elections will be the first since the shire was split into 11 single-councillor wards: Beek Beek, Benbenjie, Briars, Brokil, Coolart, Kackeraboite, Moorooduc, Nepean, Tanti, Tootgarook and Warringine.The new wards replace Briars Ward, which now has three councillors, Cerberus (one councillors), Nepean (two councillors), Red Hill (one councillor), Seawinds…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire last week agreed to televise online briefing meetings that are held behind closed doors. The decision was made at the same time that council adopted a review of its public transparency policy.It is understood by The News that councillors and the CEO Baker met the following day and discussed rescinding the motion they had adopted just hours before. Legal advice will be sought.Debate at the council’s Tuesday 23 July public meeting followed a report from governance officer Diana Harris and acting governance manager Pam Vercoe that stated briefing and workshop documents were not intended for public release…

THE Rev Father Geoffrey McIlroy will be swapping his priestly vestments for motorbike leathers when he joins an estimated 2000 fellow riders converging on Canberra in September. McIlroy plans to join the annual Wall-to-Wall Ride for Remembrance to honour fallen colleagues, raise money for police legacies and promote safe and lawful motorcycling.A priest at St Macartan’s Catholic Church, Mornington, McIlroy is also chaplain to police stations from Mornington to Sorrento. “I feel privileged in both roles – to serve the parishioners as their shepherd and to serve the police who serve us, as their multi-denominational padre,” McIlroy said.A motorbike rider…

REDEVELOPMENT costs of Flinders Civic Hall have blown out by nearly $400,000. Work to upgrade the “no longer fit for purpose” hall in Cook Street was completed in March.Construction started in March 2022 and the first cost blowout ($222,166) was paid in March 2023, followed by a second extra payment of $74,834 in January this year. The latest payment of $97,347 needed the approval of Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors as it lifted the total over expenditure to more than $300,000.The first two payments were approved by the shire CEO John Baker; councillors approved the third on Monday 15 July. The…

THE short film Dreamweavers – Gidja Walker OAM, by award winning filmmakers Heather Forbes-McKeon and Yanni Dellaportas, will be screened as part of the 2024 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.The 21-minute short by the Mornington Peninsula-based filmmaking duo was one of 50 chosen from 160 entries.Forbes-McKeon, co-director, creator and producer of the Dreamweavers series, says that she and Dellaportas were privileged to make film about Walker who is “known as an icon for her work and knowledge as an ecologist, ethnobotanist and Mornington Peninsula Indigenous advocate”.“Gidja combines her immense environmental knowledge alongside traditional owner’s relationships with her local environment,” she said.…

FLINDERS MP Zoe McKenzie wants voters to “please consider” Australia’s use of nuclear power.In support of the Liberal Party’s federal opposition leader Peter Dutton, McKenzie says cheaper, cleaner and consistent electricity “involves the exploration of nuclear energy in Australia … the most uranium rich country on the planet”.McKenzie aired her views on nuclear energy on her Facebook page and Sky News, but did not respond when asked by The News to respond to comments by Labor MP for South East Victoria, Tom McIntosh. He said Dutton and McKenzie “must come clean” and provide the cost of nuclear reactors, the cost…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council officers are looking for ways to limit how long boats and caravans are left parked in streets. Councillors have told the officers to investigate ways to make sure boats and caravans are not “parked on roads for long periods or indefinitely”. However, councillors have already been warned that under existing laws registered boats, trailers and caravans can be parked in streets for up to eight weeks. After eight weeks council can consider a vehicle to be have been abandoned, although this could be contested if they are “within the vicinity of the registered owner’s known address”.…

THE Mornington Peninsula Regional Tourism Board is preparing an action plan to “help prioritise the opportunities to address the challenges” facing tourism in the region. The board, which describes itself as the region’s “peak independent tourism board and lead voice” resolved to draw up an action plan during a forum last Friday (28 June).Nepean MP Sam Groth, the opposition’s tourism spokesperson, said he had attended the “urgent meeting” as stakeholders and businesses faced “an ongoing “state of crisis”. “Attendees discussed restrictive trade and planning conditions, which are seeing already struggling small businesses face uncertainty as the cost of running a…

THE Committee for Frankston and Mornington Peninsula and Mornington Peninsula Shire Council joined forces last week to lobby federal politicians about homelessness, housing and the use of land near the Port of Hastings.The committee’s CEO Josh Sinclair, the mayor Cr Simon Brooks and advocacy, communications and engagement manager Randal Mathieson went to Canberra to express their shared concerns. The shire is a “community member” of the committee and Brooks and Mathieson extended their Canberra visit by two days to join a delegation from the Greater South East Melbourne (GSEM) for more meetings with ministers and their staff.“This face-to-face advocacy is…

REACTION has been mixed to news that studies will resume into the environmental effects on Western Port of a terminal to assemble offshore wind turbines near Hastings. Business lobby group the Committee for Frankston and Mornington Peninsula “welcomes the news” while the Save Westernport group has said the Port of Hastings Corporation will need to prove “that all environmental impacts can be managed”.Plans for the terminal to assemble and ship wind terminals offshore to Gippsland were put on hold in January when federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s rejected the project for having “unacceptable and unmitigable risks to the Ramsar Wetlands…

By Keith Platt and Liz BellTHE movement of suspected carcinogenic chemicals known as forever chemicals continues to be tracked at HMAS Cerberus, Crib Point. The Health Department says there is no “consistent evidence” that exposure to per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) causes adverse human health effects but warns that their release into the environment “is an emerging concern” as they can accumulate in animals and people.The Australian Defence Force says that while monitoring at HMAS Cerberus had found “no significant changes to how PFAS is moving in the management area”, remedial works were expected to reduce PFAS from leaving…

CONCERN is growing over the increasing numbers of native animals being killed or injured on roads across the Mornington Peninsula.While exact figures are not available, 28 koalas and an unknown number of kangaroos and wallabies have been hit and killed by vehicles. The carnage on the peninsula’s roads is reflected throughout the state and nationally, with one insurer warning that animal collisions jumped 22 per cent last year.“Alarming” research from Australian Associated Motor Insurers (AAMI) “found more than 40 per cent of Aussie drivers don’t pay attention to wildlife warning signs, and most drivers (60 per cent) would dangerously swerve…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have been told that Victoria Police and not the shire should pay for CCTV cameras in the fight against crime.Information recorded by the shire’s 44 surveillance cameras is not accessed by the shire and is “solely for the use by Victoria Police”.A report to council’s public meeting on Tuesday 11 June said the shire’s CCTV policy was “out of date and rarely consistently adhered to”. The report recommends the shire continues to maintain its CCTV cameras but does not install any more unless they are paid for by the police or the state or federal governments.…

THE latest review of Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s planning scheme has found it to be “strategically robust and operationally sound”.The mayor Cr Simon Brooks said last year’s four-yearly review of the planning scheme covering “our amazing and diverse shire” also supported continued lobbying of the state government to release “surplus land” around the Port of Hastings. He has also called on peninsula residents to back the shire by lobbying their local MPs.Other issues involving approaches to the state government included action on sea level rise hazards; reforming bushfire controls to minimise unnecessary vegetation loss; stronger controls to protect the green…

POLITICIANS can expect to face increasing pressure to provide housing for the homeless, especially women, on the Mornington Peninsula.A report on the “homelessness crisis” by community group Peninsula Voice showed that more than 1000 people couch surf, sleep in their car or sleep rough every night on the peninsula. Increasingly, these people are women and children fleeing family violence. Emergency accommodation is virtually non-existent and women on the foreshore have experienced family violence and sexual assault before and while on the foreshore.These statistics and first hand experiences of the crisis were given to Housing, Water and Equality Minister Harriet Shingh…

BOATERS are being asked to watch out for southern right whales which have made their seasonal return to Victorian coastal waters. The Conservation Regulator says southern right whales visit Victoria’s coast from May to October to give birth and raise their young.Restrictions on boats include lowering engine noises which can interrupt whispering between mothers and calves to avoid predators. It is believed there are about 300 southern rights left in the south-east population. The endangered whales are vulnerable to vessel strikes, and boaters are being encouraged to watch out for the whales as they have no dorsal fin and can…

MORNINGTON Peninsula residents are being urged to join Reconciliation Week activities to learn about the shared history with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples “and explore how you can take meaningful actions to help achieve reconciliation in Australia”.Reconciliation Week started on Monday 27 May. “Whatever your background or upbringing, we all have a responsibility to learn about Australia’s history and to acknowledge and value the past, present, and continuing contributions of our First Nations peoples – the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth,” the mayor Cr Simon Brooks said.“Mornington Peninsula Shire Council has an important role to play in promoting…

THE Port Melbourne-based Happsa Group has won the cleaning contract for more than 100 Mornington Peninsula Shire-run community services. The $2.3 billion worth of shire assets include halls and maternal and child health centres, public toilets, foreshore amenity blocks and public barbecues.Happsa will also be responsible for litter collection in “high profile precincts”. The group’s contract starts in July and could last for seven years. The contract is separate to beach cleaning which, also from July, will be done by hand instead of mechanical beach cleaners. The 12-month trial on Port Phillip beaches will cost about $733,000 (Hands up for…