THE 450 members of Devilbend Golf Club seem set to retain control of the future of their golf course. Mornington Peninsula Shire Council has agreed to a new 21-year lease for the Loders Rd, Moorooduc, golf course. However, the operations of the golf club are to be subject to a review by private consultants hired by council. The lease effectively rules out advertising that the golf course was available for lease or appointing a commercial manager, as recommended by the shire’s property operations team leader, Greg Collins. The report to a council meeting in April with Mr Collins’ recommendations…
Author: Keith Platt
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is reconsidering its decision to increase the rent for The Hastings Club after being told the calculations on which it was based contravened the Gambling Regulation Act 2003 (the Act). The original plan, which saw the club’s rent rise from about $4000 to $42,000 in the first year and climbing to $54,000 in three years, was met with dismay by the members and supporters of the Hastings Cricket and Football Social Club who immediately sought legal advice. Councillors were last month (June) told by property and strategy manager Yasmin Woods that the calculation method she used in…
THE boat hire business at Scout Beach, Mornington, has been granted a new nine-year lease along with a 300 per cent rent hike. The lease to Mornington Boat Hire and Bait and Tackle run by Paul Pingiaro operates from a boat shed and includes about 120 square metres of foreshore, which can be used for boat hire and a kiosk. Boats have been hired from a business on the beach for 90 years. A report to Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s Tuesday 27 June meeting said Mornington Boat Hire had nine employees “and is Melbourne’s largest boat hire with other operations…
THE state government has resumed management of the Port of Hastings through the Victorian Regional Channels Authority. The port was run under contract until 30 June by Patrick Ports Hastings, also known as Linx Stevedoring. As from 1 July the harbourmaster Captain Shane Vedamuttu and assistants Capt Chris Noon and Capt Martin Leavold are responsible for shipping in and out of Western Port with the Port of Hastings Development Authority (PoHDA) managing the port’s on-land requirements (jetties, land side infrastructure and port maintenance). “We’re delighted to take over direct management of all shipping operations at Hastings and we are committed…
JENNY Angliss-Goodall is the new president of the Disabled Surfers Association Mornington Peninsula branch. Ms Angliss-Goodall has been involved in the DSAMP since its inception in late 2011, often putting up her hand to try out any new equipment, whether for use in the surf or a wheelchair for the beach. Earlier this year she was one of the first wheelchairs to use specialised plastic matting laid across the beach to the water’s edge near Mt Martha Lifesaving Club. Ms Angliss-Goodall, of Mornington, was born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenital (AMC), a condition that sees two or more joints become permanently…
PEOPLE living on the Mornington Peninsula are statistically more likely to suffer a stroke than those living anywhere else in Victoria. The federal electorate of Flinders, held for the Liberal Party by Health Minister Greg Hunt, is the worst of the state’s four stroke “hotspots” identified in the latest Stroke Foundation report. The latest predictions show nearly 500 residents of the Flinders electorate are expected to have a stroke this year, resulting in 116 deaths. The number of strokes in Flinders is predicted to grow to 1294 by 2050. According to the foundation’s No Postcode Untouched: Stroke in Australia 2017…
THE main road leading from Western Port to Melbourne was closed to all traffic on Thursday night following a fatal crash between a car and a loaded liquid gas tanker at Tyabb. A major explosion was averted by emergency crews and gas was still being removed from the tanker early Friday afternoon. Authorities also feared the blaze – attributed to the tanker’s fuel tanks – had damaged the surface of Hastings-Dandenong Rd. The crash comes at a time when both state and federal governments are considering plans that could greatly increase the number of trucks carrying volatile cargoes through towns…
THE proposed $280,000 car park to ease Mt Eliza Primary School drop-offs has upset nearby residents. They say their main concerns over the Canadian Bay Rd-Nepean Highway site are safety, increases in traffic when a nursing home is built opposite, and the “destruction of a beautiful park area which is characteristic of Mt Eliza”. Traffic is often chaotic in the area during morning and afternoon peaks, with parents parking on roadsides while dropping off and picking up pupils. The residents say they met with the mayor, councillors and shire staff at the proposed site recently to discuss potential issues and…
DOG walkers at McCrae proved the social aspects of their regular beach outings by getting together on 10 June to pressure Mornington Peninsula into loosening the laws on keeping their pets on a leash. Bill Chalkley said unique winter restrictions at McCrae were the “bones of the issue”. “Since it was established in November 2008 the McCrae beach off-leash dog exercise area has had winter time restrictions – no off-leash exercise is permitted outside the daylight saving period after 9am or before 5pm daily,” he said. “An identical off-leash dog exercise area east of the Rosebud jetty has no such…
THE Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP) is about to begin designing a rock seawall to provide “long term protection” to the foreshore and beach at Portsea. The department says other works will improve access to the beach east of the seawall. The decision to replace the existing sandbag seawall with a rock seawall follows the completion of an independent options assessment by consulting firm Advisian. Cost of the project is put at $3 million, well below the $20.42m estimate for the “permanent solution” option contained in the Advisian report. “The erosion at Portsea front beach is a…
SPECIALIST sports consultants have been hired to source state government money to rebuild the Somerville Recreation Centre which burnt down in May last year. Mornington Peninsula Shire has set aside $750,000 in its 2017/18 budget to get the project up and running “while discussions with the insurers continue”. The likely completion of the tender documentation process for the Edward St centre is the end of September. The shire has Otium Planning Group to oversee the funding application to Sport and Recreation Victoria’s 2018-19 Better Indoor Stadiums Fund towards the $3.5 million four-court stadium. Otium’s website says it provides services in…
IN the face of widespread criticism, Mornington Peninsula Shire is now calling for comment on the process it uses to bill residents when apportioning footpath construction costs. Without specifically mentioning footpaths, the shire has issued a news release “inviting residents to provide feedback on the recently reviewed Special Charge Schemes Policy for Infrastructure Works”. The review followed a costly defeat late last year for the shire at the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal when Somers residents successfully objected to a plan for them to pay for more than five kilometres of concrete paths through their town. The shire’s forward planning committee…
WATCHING as a pair of lightweight, sharp-eyed swallows built a mud nest under the eaves of a house in Seaford has, decades later, led to Geoffrey Maslen writing two books warning of the dangers facing “angels of the air” in Australia and overseas. Editor and author Maslen was inspired by the swallows. “They were the trigger for my interest in birds,” he said on Thursday. After years of writing books and articles for newspapers and magazines, three years ago the former lecturer in education decided it was time to “write the bird book – something more important than articles for…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have rejected a proposed media policy that limited their ability to make public statements and have “off the record” conversations with journalists. The draft stated that information about the shire could only be released to the media by the mayor Cr Bev Colomb, CEO Carl Cowie, and communications, media and events manager Mark Kestigian. The policy was drawn up by Mr Kestigian who withdrew it from the Tuesday 13 June council meeting agenda after a majority of councillors expressed concern that it restricted their roles as elected representatives of the public. Cr Colomb told The News…
AUCTIONEER Andy Reid will be wielding his hammer and hoping his voice will draw a crowd of football fans when he steps up at Mornington’s Wednesday market on 28 June. For 20 minutes from midday Mr Reid, of freelance auctioneers SoldBy Auctions will be calling for bids for framed packs of action cards featuring Richmond’s Dustin Martin, Geelong’s Patrick Dangerfield and former Collingwood champion Dane Swan. Money raised from the sale will go to Clean as Casper mobile showers, a charity which provides a mobile shower service for homeless people. Clean as Casper was started in 2015 by Steve and…
THE imbalance in spending of ratepayers’ money across the Mornington Peninsula is starkly shown in amounts allocated for Australia Day, a national celebration aimed at bringing communities closer together. The latest figures presented to councillors show the disparity between money allocated to communities facing Port Phillip to those on the Western Port side of the peninsula. While representing just a small part of the shire’s $212 million overall budget, the Australia Day proposal further illustrates the widening gap in spending between the communities. Although not yet adopted, councillors were last week asked to give tacit approval – with a view to…
A NEW database will provide the public with details about sewage being poured into the ocean, estuaries and rivers. The database developed by the Clean Ocean Foundation, which successfully campaigned to clean up sewage being pumped into the ocean at Gunnamatta, has been compiled with a $400,000 federal government grant announced by Flinders MP Greg Hunt in October 2015. Now based at Wonthaggi, the foundation’s head John Gemmill joined Mr Hunt at Gunnamatta on Friday to announce the establishment of the national outfall database, or NOD. Citizen scientists were recruited to monitor and take water samples from many of Australia’s…
USUALLY the bad news story of the breeding season, hooded plovers on the Mornington Peninsula this year have set a new record with 13 chicks taking to the air. The successful breeding season coincides with regulations which banned dogs at all times from beaches within Mornington Peninsula National Park, the plovers’ main nesting area. Elsewhere, storms battered beaches, wiping out hundreds of nests in Victoria and South Australia leading to the lowest breeding success for many species over the past 10 years. At this time last year just two hooded plover chicks had managed to survive. One nest at Gunnamatta…
THE state government has adopted new planning rules that open the way for three-storey houses in towns across the Mornington Peninsula. Previously protected by restrictive planning overlays, the shire’s planning policy is now likely to be overruled by state laws. Council officers – without reference to council – will be able to issue permits for developments worth up to $250,000 in green wedge zones, $500,000 in commercial areas and $1 million in industrial areas. The mayor Cr Bev Colomb last week issued a statement which said the council “has expressed concern” at the changes and wants to meet with Planning…
KILLER whales, or orcas, have returned to Port Phillip. A group photographed off Point Nepean included a male known as Ripple, who has been tracked and catalogued by whale watchers since 2005. Marine wildlife consultant with the Dolphin Research Institute David Donnelly said Ripple was last sighted in Port Phillip in 2015, but has also been recorded in waters off southern NSW, western Victoria and south eastern Tasmania. “Australian killer whales are highly mobile and on the east coast rarely spend longer than a few hours to a day in any one location,” Mr Donnelly said. While killer whales were…
THE state government has been told that it should rule out Hastings for the state’s next container port on economic and environment grounds. Infrastructure Victoria last week recommended that a container port be built at Bay West, in Port Phillip north of Geelong. The Advice on Securing Victoria’s Ports Capacity report also states that it is unlikely there will be a need for a new container port until 2055, with detailed planning needed to begin in 2040. The recommendation is not binding and state government’s are becoming notorious for overturning decisions made by their predecessors. While a previous state Labor…
MARATHON swimmer Chloe McCardel was crouched in the near-empty car park near Safety Beach Yacht Club slapping on sun protection and a concoction of Vaseline and lanolin. Thursday’s cloudy skies and 15-20kph winds made the water unappealing, but McCardel was on a training mission. She holds the world record for an unassisted ocean swim (124.4 kilometres in the Bahamas in October 2014) and has swum the English Channel 21 times (eight crossings between June and October last year). Without wanting to give the game away, she admits to be training for another record swim, but says the details have to…
HUNDREDS of signatures are being added to a petition calling for an aquatic centre at Rosebud. Pressure for a pool follows Mornington Peninsula Shire’s abandonment in 2014 of its long-held plans for an aquatic centre on the foreshore at Rosebud. After commissioning architect drawings for the foreshore complex the shire spent $5.1 million buying shops and commercial land in Wannaeue Place as an alternative site. The commercial land is next to Rosebud library. Councillors have been told this week that there are now 1736 signatures on a petition calling for an aquatic centre at Rosebud, 442 more than when it…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors are likely to drop the Peninsula Pet Expo which has been running for the past decade. A report to councillors says the free expo at Rosebud – originally known as the Pet and Pony Expo – has become unviable because of the declining number of visitors and a doubling of the cost to $80,000. “Furthermore, there are limited animal-related entertainers and stallholders available to take part,” communication, media and events manager Mark Kestigian stated in a report to council’s Tuesday (23 May) meeting. Mr Kestigian said many of the stallholders who had been provided with “free…
HASTINGS MP Neale Burgess says he is outraged “at the incredibly harsh decision of the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council to increase rent tenfold for the local Hastings Club”. Mr Burgess has joined other critics upset with the shire demanding the club pay “a ridiculous $42,000 per year, rising to more than $52,000 in year three, up from just $4000 currently”. He says the council has refused to meet with him “to discuss this outrageous rent increase”. Mr Burgess wants the shire to grant the club a 21-year lease with “a peppercorn rent”. “Any rent charged above this amount is simply…
DIVERS are continuing to uncover acts of cruelty to fish caught from piers in Port Phillip and Western Port. The killing of a “resident” smooth ray on Rye pier on 2 April resulted in a 25,000-signature online petition calling for a ban on the killing of rays in Port Phillip, including stingrays and banjo sharks. The CEO of peak Victorian recreational fishing body VRFish, Michael Burgess, says his organisation “encourages all fishers to return unwanted rays to the water unharmed and comply with fishing regulations”. “We all need to work together to stamp out this unacceptable and illegal behaviour. Rays…
MID-year is the latest sailing date set for the Western Port Oberon Association’s MV Wyuna to leave Tasmania for Melbourne. The 64 metre cutter was given to the association in 2013 and plans were made to have it join the submarine Otama as part of a maritime museum in Western Port. However, both vessels remain tied up in red tape and anchored offshore – the submarine at Crib Point and the Wyuna at Launceston. Otama association president Max Bryant last week was confident the project would receive a “kick start” once the Wyuna arrives in Melbourne. He said it would take…
EFFORTS being made to cut the road toll on the Mornington Peninsula will be outlined to an international audience in Canada in August. Road safety specialist Bruce Corben will outline the shire’s Towards Zero strategies and objectives to the ninth international conference on urban traffic safety Committee in Banff, Alberta, Canada in August. It is now one year since Mornington Peninsula Shire agreed to instigate road safety programs designed to make it Towards Zero municipality and at the start of this month there had been no deaths recorded on the peninsula’s roads this year. The last recorded death was in…
The Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has determined that the planning permit for the former Pioneer quarry in Boundary Rd, Dromana has expired. Community groups are hailing the decision as a victory over Hillview Quarries although one leading campaigner cautions “we’ve won a battle, but not the war”. “We’re over the moon and I’d love to think that was the end, but I think it will go on,” Dr Mark Fancett, of the Sheepwash Creek Catchment Landcare group said. The decision handed down on 27 April is the second win for the protesters who also four years ago successfully campaigned…
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…