THE Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has refused permission for a bottle shop to be added to the sales and restaurant activities at Tully’s Shed, in Moorooduc Highway, Mornington. The decision follows a site inspection by VCAT senior member Russell Byard who described the “shed” as a supermarket offering goods from around the world. The decision to not allow the bottle shop can only be overturned by the Supreme Court or VCAT. The 17.3 hectare property at the Wooralla Drive intersection is within a Green Wedge zone which bans shops but allows plant nurseries, sales of primary produce and restaurants.…
Author: Keith Platt
RESIDENTS who successfully stopped a quarry at Dromana from being used as a tip are now gearing up to oppose approval being given to extend the life of the quarry. If approved as requested, there would be no expiry date on the permit, allowing quarrying “for the life of the resource at the quarry”. A previous planning permit expired on 23 March 2004 although Hillview says the quarry is allowed to operate under Work Authority 380. Objectors will be arguing that the quarry is uneconomic and that by having an “open” permit its owners will not be required to spend…
THE Victorian Ombudsman has interviewed Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Cr Graham Pittock, CEO Carl Cowie and governance manager Joe Spiteri as part of an investigation into secrecy in local government. Complaints about the shire have been made to the Ombudsman’s office by several individuals and community-based organisations. The Ombudsman Deborah Glass announced in March that she was making an “own motion” investigation into Victorian municipalities after receiving complaints. “Secrecy in local government can create conditions in which improper conduct and poor administration can flourish,” Ms Glass said. “It also fuels suspicions of wrongdoing and erodes community trust. “Members of the…
THE focus of the master plan eventually adopted by the state government for Point Nepean National Park is likely to take a broad approach, rather than focussing just on developing the Quarantine Station precinct. The plan will take account of Point Nepean’s connections to Point Lonsdale, the marine national park, its occupation and use by Aborigines as well as “appropriate” commercial and educational developments. A report being released this week on the results of public consultations earlier this year is seen as the first step towards the adoption of a master plan largely based on one favoured by the state…
FOLLOWING months of accusations and claims of accounting inaccuracies and overspending, Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors are struggling to agree on the definition of expenses. The expenses are separate to councillors’ $28,000 yearly remuneration; $85,000 for the mayor. Shire officers last Monday asked for an extra month to prepare a draft of the councillor expenses policy by 31 August. Legal advice in March cast doubt on the validity of a previous policy which limited each councillor to spending up to $4000 a year on such things as conferences, seminars and courses, giving a total $16,000 over a four-year term. Included in…
FLINDERS MP Greg Hunt has been appointed Industry, Innovation and Science Minister in the ministerial reshuffle announced today by the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Mr Hunt replaces Christopher Pyne who has been given the new role of Minister for Defence Industry. Josh Frydenberg replaces Mr Hunt, taking an expanded environment and energy portfolio. All three remain members of the Cabinet. As Environment Minister Mr Hunt was the target of many protests throughout Australia and particularly outside his Hastings office. “I am delighted to have been appointed to the position of Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science,” Mr Hunt said in…
THE final financial steps are in place for a viewing platform and beach access ramp to be built overlooking the beach at Point Leo. A project of the Disabled Surfers Association Mornington Peninsula branch, the platform will be at the end of a boardwalk running from the lifesaving club to the beach. The six metre square viewing deck will be open to the public and also provide lifesavers with uninterrupted views along the beach. Steps and a wheelchair access ramp will run from the deck to the sand, making Point Leo the first surf beach on the peninsula to have…
ROB Lippiat is reviving the days when paddle steamers regularly circumnavigated Port Phillip. But he’s not about to embark on a voyage of the bay, it’s more about looking at the past in scale, about 100 to one. Lippiat is building model replicas of the boats and admits to doing things by halves. His wooden boats and split down the middle and mounted on mirrors. “I used to make them complete, but this way they can fit in with any decor,” Lippiat says while sitting at his workbench in Mt Martha. “That was more than 14 years ago when I…
PROPERTY owners on French Island are worried that koalas are eating themselves out of house and home. Although not native to the island, the introduced koalas are so successful that their numbers have increased past the point of being able to sustainably coexist with the vegetation on which they feed. Islanders fear the koalas will die of starvation or need to be culled as hundreds were in 2013 and 2014 near Cape Otway, south-west of Melbourne. “The extent of damage and loss of koala habitat has increased over the last three years to the point where koalas themselves are becoming…
THE Mt Martha House management committee has joined Mt Martha Tennis Club in opposing a skatepark being built on the parade ground near the tennis courts at the corner of The Esplanade and Dominion Rd. Mornington Peninsula councillors included $800,000 for the skatepark in their latest budget and successfully negotiated approval from Heritage Victoria before being told the site is leased to the tennis club. The club is opposed to the skatepark being built next to its tennis courts and now the committee that manages nearby Mt Martha House has also announced its continuing opposition to the site. Committee chairman…
GREG Hunt has been re-elected to the federal seat of Flinders, although his majority has been pared back to single figures. On the latest available figures Mr Hunt holds his seat with a majority of just over seven per cent. He won the previous election with an 11.8 per cent margin. When counting ended on Saturday night Mr Hunt was in the lead with a comfortable 56.9 per cent of the 78.6 per cent of votes counted. On preferences there was a 4.9 per cent swing to Labor’s Carolyn Gleixner, but Mr Hunt’s lead remains one of which many of…
Musician Steve Romig didn’t quite get the audience he was hoping for when singing a protest song outside the Hastings office of Flinders MP Greg Hunt. A troubadour with a message about his concern for the environment, Romig, of Tootgarook, says the Environment Minister’s staff quickly left and locked the office before he even played a note. Despite the empty office he decided to continue his performance, even though it seemed his only public audience were the occupants of a mysterious black four-wheel drive, parked just across the car park. His manager, Michael Snelson, of Balnarring-based Soul Management, said Mr…
THERE are six candidates lining up for the seat of Flinders in Saturday’s federal election, but it would be wrong to say they all have a chance of winning. The seat has been held by Liberal Greg Hunt since 2001. He was re-elected in 2012 with an 11.8 per cent majority. Trying to unseat him are Carolyn Gleixner (Labor), Willisa Hogarth (Greens), Ben Wild (Animal Justice Party), Yvonne Gentle (Rise Up Australia Party) and independent Shane Lewis. The campaigns of the six contenders vary significantly – from Mr Hunt’s professionally produced road signs and coloured brochures to a hand painted…
WHALE sightings are being reported in Western Port and Port Phillip bays in what researchers say has become an annual event coinciding with the Queen’s Birthday long weekend. The Dolphin Research Institute and the Two Bays Whale Project have been receiving reports of humpback and southern right whales in both bays. “Humpback whales regularly visit Port Phillip and Western Port from June through to mid-August and again from late September to November,” DRI research officer Sue Mason said. “The first reported sighting of a humpback whale usually comes into the institute around the Queen’s Birthday weekend, prompting DRI’s research staff…
THE sister-in-law of former Victorian Liberal Premier Ted Baillieu is standing for Dunkley in Saturday’s federal election. Sally Baillieu admits to not previously having political aspirations but decided to stand after seeing “what is happening in the arts sector … a direct attack upon the human rights of all of us”. “The prospect of entering politics is terrifying, but sometimes you need to put your hand up about something you think is important, and I felt that this was one of those times.” Ms Baillieu is one of The Arts Party’s 20 candidates seeking election and the only Victorian aiming…
BUILDING the planned $800,000 skatepark at Mt Martha should take about three months, but work is on hold because Mt Martha Tennis Club has leased the preferred site until 2023. Mornington Peninsula Shire can seek to change the lease but it can only be revoked if the tennis club agrees. The club is opposed to the site chosen for the skatepark by the shire in 2012, but it is the only one acceptable to Heritage Victoria on the historic parade ground near Mt Martha Community Centre at the corner of The Esplanade and Dominion Rd. The club says the skatepark is…
CANDIDATES for the Flinders electorate have been invited to speak at a forum in Dromana on Wednesday 29 June. The candidates will be asked to explain their views on “conscience issues” such as marriage, euthanasia and abortion. The forum will come a week after Pastor Rob Ward, former Victorian director of Australian Christian Lobby, explained what the major parties “plan to endorse as normal in marriage and education and how your vote can change the very fabric of our society for generations”. “Economic policies, education, climate change and health spending, all of these are important but how about what is…
A BUY a plank offer will see donors names carved into the surface of a beach access boardwalk to be built at Pt Leo. Plans for the boardwalk have already been drawn and the Disabled Surfers Association Mornington Peninsula branch is close to raising money needed for its construction. The boardwalk will provide wheelchair access to the beach and a viewing platform for lifesavers and the public. While still $20,000 short, the DSAMP has received grants from Mornington Peninsula Shire and the Department of Infrastructure. Carving names into planks forming the surface of the boardwalk is one of several options…
THE submarine Otama is again firmly held in place by its moorings of Crib Point, avoiding urgent action which could have included being sold for scrap. A decision by Ports Minister Luke Donnellan to fix the moorings follows desperate appeals from the Western Port Oberon Association for $50,000 to carry out repairs ordered by Park Victoria. However, the 14-year-old plan to make the Otama the centrepiece of maritime museum at Hastings remains in limbo because of financial difficulties. The association’s president Max Bryant puts the cost at $15 million and says that if either the state or federal governments provide…
IT should be billed as one of the great short walks of the Mornington Peninsula, but it has been officially closed for years. The footpath known as the Beleura cliff path at Mornington winds its way along a cliff before descending steeply to Mills Beach. The track democratises views only available from the multi-million dollar properties built above it on the cliff face. Not everyone can own such a property because (a) there’s not enough space on the cliff and (b) few people have the money to live there. But the path was made for the public and the views…
FLINDERS electorate candidate Ben Wild wants a new federal animal welfare office established to give more power to organisations such as the RSPCA. The Animal Justice Party candidate says such organisations want more power to intervene in animal cruelty cases, but fear losing government funding if they speak out too forcefully. “No one is standing up for people who care about animals,” Mr Wild said on Monday. He is one of six candidates standing for Flinders at the 2 July federal election. The seat is currently held by Liberal Greg Hunt with a more than 11 per cent majority. Mr…
ROSEBUD artist Fiona Bilbrough doesn’t always find, or need, to have a strong bond with her subjects. But Rosie Batty was an exception. After their first contact where Bilbrough sought the anti-domestic violence campaigner’s cooperation of sitting for a portrait to be entered into this year’s Archibald prize, there was no doubting emotions had been stirred. “I feel I’m actually Rosie, except my son is still alive,” Bilbrough said last week. “There’s a similarity in our stories.” There’s now an ongoing relationship between artist and subject that stretches beyond paint on canvas. Bilbrough has become an active campaigner for a…
MT MARTHA Tennis Club is under increasing pressure to withdraw its objections to a skatepark, with a second Mornington Peninsula Shire councillor reminding it of how it has benefitted from “ratepayer funds”. Cr Andrew Dixon last week accused the tennis club of “effectively holding the rest of the community to ransom” by objecting to the skatepark being built alongside its courts. The club is able to hold-up the shire’s plans because the site for the skatepark is within land leased to the club by the shire. For the third week in a row shire officers have failed to acknowledge problems…
THE seven protesters who were arrested and charged with trespassing after refusing to leave the Hastings office of Flinders MP Greg Hunt all say they were frustrated by the refusal of governments to be more compassionate in their treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. The sequel to their protest played out in Frankston Magistrates Court last week, more than a year later. Despite prosecutors offering six of them the chance to avoid a court appearance, they elected to appear as charged and read out statements to explain their decision to deliberately flout the law. Here are some edited extracts: Cameron…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is considering revoking its lease with Mt Martha Tennis Club because of the club’s objection to a skatepark being built near its courts. In an embarrassing gaffe, the shire has earmarked the site for the $800,000 skatepark within the boundaries of land it leases to the tennis club. After first being held up by Heritage Victoria because of the site’s historic use as a military parade ground, the shire now appears to have been aced by the tennis club. Cr Andrew Dixon says the club is “effectively holding the rest of the community to ransom”. “The club,…
Seven protesters arrested during an eight-hour sit-in at the office of Flinders MP Greg Hunt have been let off without penalty. Appearing at Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday after singing hymns and saying prayers in a small park behind Frankston police station, the group chose to have their say in court rather than accepting a “diversion” – something below the scale of a good behaviour bond. One of the seven, Baptist minister Simon Reeves, was not offered a diversion because of three previous court appearances for the same charge of trespass. He had no convictions or criminal record but had…
FRANTIC efforts to raise money to save the Otama submarine from the wrecker’s yard may be paying off. Although falling far short of the estimated $50,000 needed to make its moorings safe, a new design and lower prices could see the submarine’s future more secure, at least in the short term. Max Bryant, president of the Western Port Oberon Association, was on Monday confident that a deal could be worked out by week’s end. As previously reported, Parks Victoria has ordered the moorings fixed or that the Otama be moved from where it now lies off Crib Point. Parks manager…
THE first major publication by Infrastructure Victoria all but confirms that a new container port at Hastings is most likely decades away. An options paper released last week sees the state’s need for a new port as “a concept requiring further development”. “Currently the location and timing of a new port has not been assessed in detail and it will take time to do this evaluation,” the All things considered paper states. “The 30-year infrastructure strategy, which must be developed by the end of 2016, is being developed taking into account the uncertainty regarding the timing of when we will…
ANY prospect of a container port being developed at Hastings is likely to be decades away, according to Mornington MP David Morris. This prediction by Mr Morris follows revelations that the state government has not asked Infrastructure Victoria to investigate the best site for Victoria’s next major port. Soon after its election in November 2014 the incoming Labor government announced Infrastructure Victoria would assess site for the next port, including one at Bay West, north of Geelong in Port Phillip. The government withdrew funding for the Port of Hastings Development Authority, causing the loss of many jobs and a cessation…
Two small garage-sized tin sheds in Langwarrin South may hold the key to cutting the cost of domestic power needs while providing a reliable source for off-the-grid sites. A relatively small bank of lithium batteries developed in the sheds can be used to store enough power from solar panels to run a household for up to three days. In trials already under way they are powering electric fences, golf buggies, caravans, small waste treatment works and now houses. These long lasting batteries can effectively store power from solar panels to be used at night or in cloudy conditions rather than…