A MORNINGTON Peninsula diver has made a remarkable underwater discovery that is sending ripples of excitement through the marine world.Emily May, of Tootgarook, had a recent encounter with a rare frilled pygmy octopus (Octopus superciliossuss) on Portsea West Reef, and was able to capture some video and photos of her amazing find. Her footage has been confirmed as the first taken of this species in the wild and only the second viewing in the wild. All other footage was taken at the aquarium at Queenscliff Discovery Centre in the late 1990s. May said this was confirmed by Dr Julian Finn…
Author: Liz Bell
MEMBERS of the Capel Sound community say they are fed up with being ignored by Mornington Peninsula Shire Council. Community lobbyists are calling for more financial input into the Capel Sound “village” shopping area, amid claims that years of “neglect” have left the main shopping area in desperate need of a revival.The shopping area on Point Nepean Road has one of the most enviable locations on the peninsula, opposite the unspoilt foreshore and mid-way between Mornington and Portsea. But traders and residents say it doesn’t get the recognition or financial backing it deserves.Proud resident and community activist Terry Wright, who…
GROWING up in Rosebud was a confusing time for 28-year-old artist Shan Primrose, who – like many young people – was questioning her identity, her place in the world, and her future. But one constant in her journey of self-discovery was a love for creating colourful, vibrant images that spoke of her individuality, curiosity and energy for life. Now, after a decade of honing her creative skills and working with artists all over the world, Primrose, who has Burmese and Australian heritage, is celebrating landing her “dream” collaboration with clothing brand Dangerfield. Her bold, bright designs are expected to appear…
IN an environment where family violence, parental separation and child safety are in the spotlight, navigating the Family Court is more important than ever. The Peninsula Community Legal Centre says separated parents need to understand the family law changes around parenting orders that come in on 6 May.Family law is the number one problem the centre – which services Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula – deals with, as more than half of its clients request help with family law matters. Many involve family violence. While most separating parents make their own parenting arrangements, parents can apply to the Federal Circuit…
SOUTHERN Peninsula Community Support centre director Jeremy Maxwell was last week visited by Rosebud police officers Sergeant Daniel Patton and Senior Constable Melissa Daly who wanted to hear about the centre’s work in supporting low income families and individuals.The support centre is one of three on the Mornington Peninsula dedicated to supporting people in need in a warm and non judgmental environment. The trained and experienced staff at the Rosebud based centre can help people in financial hardship with food vouchers, financial aid, pantry staples, fresh food bags, transport, medical needs and advice.To donate or support the centre call 5986…
PEOPLE are being urged to take number plates and track details of people dumping rubbish on the Mornington Peninsula as dumping rates soar. Rubbish dumping continues to be a major issue on the peninsula, with Snap Send Solve data showing there are up to three times the number of complaints from peninsula residents compared to some other parts of Victoria.Dumping, along with fallen trees and car parking issues, are among the top five recurring complaints on the peninsula.In the south metro region, which includes Mornington Peninsula, there were 320 per cent more complaints about rubbish in 2022 than in eastern…
POLICE have warned against vigilante-style retribution despite reports of increasing crime on the southern Mornington Peninsula.Residents fed up with the crime rate around the foreshore areas of Rosebud, Capel Sound and Tootgarook are calling for neighbourhood patrols. Reports from the community are coming in daily to The News and social media about thefts from cars, backyards and homes in the Rosebud, Tootgarook areas, with some posts showing video-evidence of the perpetrators. Several Facebook post are calling for community policing support.Security footage of a burglary in early April at Rosebud Bazaar captures an allegedly known offender in the store after hours,…
MORNINGTON Peninsula communities are being urged not to leave donations at charity bins that are already overflowing, with a recent case in Hastings highlighting the public nuisance element of dumping.In recent months dozens of bags of charity donations have been left around the Deafness Victoria charity bins outside Coles in Hastings, with uncovered items exposed to the weather. Pictures of the mess show the two bins and the surrounding area overflowing with donations which have to be taken to the tip. All phone numbers listed online for Deafness Victoria, the charity raising money for the deaf community, have been disconnected.Coles…
Up to 40 young people who partied in Mount Martha on Friday night and into Saturday morning had to be dispersed by police when fights spilled into the streets. It is believed a party had been held at a short term accommodation property overnight on Friday.On Saturday morning social media was flooded with reports of groups of youths fighting in and around Park Road and Atlantic Terrace, while others were seen lying on nature strips and in front yards. One person was allegedly seen threatening people with a machete, while one driver said a young man jumped on her car…
MOUNT Martha resident Peter Scott has always kept himself in reasonably good shape with regular physical exertion, so when he suffered a stroke at 62 it forced him to reevaluate what “healthy’ really is.“I was in a pretty high pressure corporate job and led a busy life, but I was a good weight and was fit. In fact, I had just a week or so earlier completed a half marathon, but that’s what tricked me,” he said. What Scott didn’t know was that he had high blood pressure, which is one of the risk factors of stroke regardless of how…
AN incorrect report about waste water being discharged into stormwater drains from a yacht at Mornington has sparked a warning from the EPA to all Port Phillip yacht clubs.It is believed the EPA was told that illegal waste water was being discharged at Mornington, but club commodore Andrew Young disputed the claim. After EPA investigations, Young said the club was cleared. “We have always discharged waste into our sewerage system, not in stormwater [drains], and the case is closed.”As a result of concerns raised with the EPA, bayside yacht clubs have been issued with a directive to dispose of waste…
WHEN Mount Eliza mother Rachel Miller received the diagnosis six years ago that her then four-year-old son had Tourette Syndrome, she set about finding out as much as she could. Now, with her son, a 10-year-old at primary school, she is on a mission to ensure that all young people and adults with TS, and their families, are also aware of the support and help there is within the community.“It made such a difference to our family when we found out there was help and other families to talk to,” she said.Miller is currently raising money to help families attend…
A NEW housing and support charity will set up on the Mornington Peninsula to cater for the increasing number of women needing support. Women’s Community Shelters, a Sydney-based organisation, will hold forum in May to discuss establishing a steering committee on the peninsula.Hastings housing advocate Karen Taylor said the peninsula was “in a big mess” when it came to housing, particularly for women. “With respect to the housing shortage, and with single women over the age of 55 being the fastest growing cohort for homelessness, initiatives like the WCS become increasingly important,” she said. Taylor said women were often the…
A LEADING council watchdog is demanding that all fines under the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s parking pilot scheme be refunded over “human rights” concerns. Council Watch Victoria is calling on anyone who has been fined at any of the three trial locations since it started in December 2023 to contact them.Figures released last week show the shire collected $347,721 from the parking trial, including $96,360 in fines (Motorists paying to park, Page 7). Council Watch president Dean Hurlston said the group was particularly interested in hearing from older people who have had trouble using the technology. He said such problems…
DELIVERING a baby by caesarean section isn’t usually a hands-on experience for mothers, but that’s exactly what happened to one young mum in Mornington.Obstetrician Dr Natalie Elphinstone, who recently moved her private practice to The Bays in Mornington, completed the hospital’s first official maternal-assisted caesarean birth on Tuesday 12 March.In a maternal-assisted caesarean, the obstetrician partially lifts up the baby, allowing the mother to then lift the baby out of her own womb and onto her chest. “Many mothers feel somewhat removed from their birth experience with traditional caesarean sections. This new procedure enables mothers who want or need a…
THE sad sight of “possum Armageddon” around the Mornington Peninsula as wildlife literally fell from trees or died trying to drink water at the beach has prompted a reminder to place water out for animals.The four-day heatwave that affected most of south-eastern Australia saw daytime temperatures hover around 38 degrees Celsius – as much as 20 degrees above average – with little relief overnight.It is believed hundreds of the peninsula’s ringtail possum and smaller marsupials such as sugar gliders and native bush rats died from heat exhaustion and dehydration over the four days or exposed themselves to predation or the…
THE Afghan Women’s Organisation Victoria held a retreat with a water safety message for a group of newly arrived Afghan women and girls at Saltbush, Balnarring Beach.The resilient women, having fled their homeland under challenging circumstances, found solace, connection and peace in the bushland and coastal environment at the retreat. For many, Saltbush marked their first encounter with a beach, offering an opportunity to explore the beauty of the coast and discover the tidal movement in Western Port that exposes rock pools on low tide.Group organiser and co-founder of the Afghan Women’s Organisation Victoria, Gulghotai Bezhan, said the retreat was…
FLINDERS MP Zoe McKenzie, a Liberal, found herself embroiled in controversy last week over a photograph and comments she posted on social media congratulating the new Dunkley MP, Labor’s Jodie Beylea. Along with the photo were the words, “You have been a good friend to women across the Mornington Peninsula. Look forward to working with you in looking after paradise”.While some of McKenzie’s Liberal colleagues were quick to slam her decision to be snapped with an opposition MP as “unforgiveable” and “naive”, McKenzie was equally quick to defend her actions, and so were plenty of her high-profile supporters. McKenzie returned…
CLUBS and hobby groups on the Mornington Peninsula are on notice to understand their obligations to members and volunteers after a recreational club was ordered to apologise and undergo training.At a hearing before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in February the Southern Peninsula Woodworkers Committee and five respondents were ordered to apologise to club volunteer Syd Johnson. They were also ordered to undertake training in diversity and inclusion by no later than end of June. As part of the outcome, Johnson agreed to not take any other legal action pertaining to the matter and all action against the club…
THE state’s planning tribunal has knocked back a proposal to build a house on green wedge land in Shoreham. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal set aside Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s approval for the house on 4.323-hectares in Tucks Road and ruled that no permit is granted. The tribunal case relates to a planning permit notice originally issued in 2022 by the shire to use and develop the land at 340 Tucks Road for a house, remove native vegetation and associated works, including to an existing driveway at 336 Tucks Road. The matter was referred to the tribunal over questions…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council will investigate partnering with Frankston to help tackle homelessness on the peninsula, amid increasing concerns about its social impacts. At last Tuesday’s council meeting Cr Sarah Race said she knew of cases where children were attending schools on the while living in tents. “Schools are feeding these children, putting their arms around them and feeding them,” she said. Race said she was also aware of service widows being forced to live in cars, and cancers sufferers sleeping rough on the foreshore. She said “outcomes” were good in Frankston, which uses the “by-name list” model through its…
A SERIES of talks on health issues has been created for Monington Peninsula woman by midwife Penelope Watson. Watson is a senior midwife in Mount Eliza, as well as being a staff member at the maternity unit of non-profit The Bays Hospital, Mornington. She is also a breast cancer patient of The Bays and understands personally and professionally the difficulty and stress of navigating the health landscape. Watson says it was her drive to rekindle women’s “villages” for those on the journey from womanhood to motherhood that inspired her to create WithYou Talks, which bring together a range of pregnancy…
THE Mornington Community Safelink Group is calling on Dunkley by-election candidates to commit to financing a safe connection between Frankston and Mornington. Convenor Graeme Rocke said that with more people walking and riding, the “critical missing link” of the Peninsula Trail which fell partly in the Dunkley electorate, would provide a connection to the peninsula for all residents of Dunkley and Melbourne’s southeast. Eight candidates are the contesting the Saturday 2 March by-election being held to fill the vacancy created by the death last December of Labor’s Peta Murphy (Eight line up for Dunkley, The News 13/2/24). Mornington Peninsula Shire…
IT appears to be business as usual for the teams behind the Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience event in April, with organisers pivoting quickly to focus on the new site at The Briars community forest dog park. Signs on the gate block people from using the dog park so that infrastructure upgrades and decorative installations can be completed by the event’s start on 6 April. The advertising spin of the event remains unchanged, tempting audiences with the line that it will be a “nighttime woodland trail experience filled with magical creatures and wizarding wonders from the Harry Potter and…
The timber stairway at Moorooduc Quarry has had a new-age facelift. Mornington Peninsula Shire Council last year upgraded the stairs refurbishment project to include the landing of the stair to long-lasting fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP). The fire access to the quarry was also repaired and the two timber foot bridges at the top of the reserve were upgraded with FRP material, including new handrails. The cost, including the fire access track, stairs, and bridges, was $90,000. The mayor Cr Simon Brooks said the project involved labour-intensive work due to accessing the site, transporting materials and removing waste. He said the stairs…
A SPATE of break-ins around a Mount Martha “hot spot” has residents calling for more intensive policing. In recent weeks the number of houses around the Hearn Road area that have been targeted has put home owners on alert. Mount Martha resident Sonia said residents were sick of the crime and the inability to stop the offenders, who had been caught on CCTV and appeared to be teenagers or young men. “In December, January and this month there have been a lot of properties affected. I know of people in Capri Drive, Shearwater Drive, The Point, Churchill, Stanley, Ponyara Road…
SOMETHING almost magical is happening every month at Bentons Square Community Centre, and it’s transforming the lives of people who are grieving. A support group called Projex J and its three-word transformative and inspirational motto Get busy living, is giving people trapped in a cycle of sadness and despair a way to move forward. The trailblazing support group that welcomes people of all ages and backgrounds to come together to share their stories or simply listen, is the brainchild of Chantelle Ross, whose 23-year-old son Jamerson was killed in a road incident in Hastings in 2022. It’s that lived experience…
IMPROVISATION has transformed the way composer and performer Anne Norman thinks and feels about music. The internationally renowned shakuhachi player (a type of Japanese flute) is co-running musical improvisation workshops this month and next. Participants will step into the unknown in the acoustic series for strings, wind, percussion, keyboard and voice. A classically trained musician, Norman says she played and wrote music for decades before discovering the freedom of improvisation following a change in life circumstances. “I started working with actors and dancers and, in creating music for them, I found I could use their bodies as my score, and…
A CONTROVERIAL Harry Potter-themed sound and light show will be relocated to a fenced dog park within the Briars community forest, in a move described as “democracy at work”. At an unscheduled meeting on Tuesday 13 February councillors voted unanimously – Cr Steve Holland was absent and Cr Lisa Dixon was overseas – for the Warner Bros show to be relocated out of the Briars wildlife sanctuary. Cr Despi O’Connor, who moved the officer’s recommendation that the event be relocated, said it was “democracy at work”. Community group Save Briars Sanctuary spokesperson Louise Page said the committee was “ecstatic” with…
JET ski rider behaviour is again being spotlighted after a frightening incident at McCrae beach where a swimmer alleges he was almost hit by a vessel close to shore. Police are investigating the incident in which a Rye man, 69, was swimming with his wife and brother-in-law when the incident happened just after 4.30pm on Saturday, 3 February. “I was only 10 metres from shore and I could suddenly hear a loud engine and feel the swish of the water pass my head, only to look up out of the water and see a fast jet ski pass two metres…