CONSTRUCTION is under way on the Harrap Road footpath at Mount Martha. The 1.5 kilometre path will run along the north side of the road starting at the Dunns Road roundabout and linking to an existing path down Harrap Road. About 1380 square metres of PolyRok – a recycled plastic alternative to mineral aggregate in concrete – is being used for its “minimal impacts on the environment”. The shire was given $600,000 towards the project under the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Grant Program. The shire’s pedestrian access strategy identifies Harrap Road as a key link in the pedestrian network.…
Author: MP News Group
A PIZZA delivery rider was held up and his scooter stolen at Hastings, Thursday 29 July. Detective Senior Sergeant Eddie Lagonder, of Somerville CIU, said the offender with a 20cm knife ordered the rider to hand over the keys to the Domino’s scooter when he delivered the pizza to an Arthur Street house, 9.04pm. The offender is described as a male, 180cm, wearing a black hoodie and face mask. Anyone with information is urged to call Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000. First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 10 August 2021
HASTINGS nightshift van clocked a speeding driver on Stony point Road, Bittern, last week doing 84kph in a 60kph zone. When breath-tested the 28-year-old man of Tuerong, blew 0.208 per cent – four times the legal limit. After his arrest, 4am, Friday 6 August, the man’s licence was suspended, and his vehicle impounded with a release fee of $1075. He will be charged on summons for a range of speed and drink-driving offences. First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 10 August 2021
ROSEBUD police called to a collision on Melbourne Road, Sorrento, last Thursday (5 August) were surprised when the offending driver blew 0.236 per cent, almost five times the legal limit, at 9 o’clock in the morning. The male, in his 20s, is expected to be charged on summons with several driving offences, including use of a mobile phone while driving, driving an unregistered vehicle and drink-driving. His licence was immediately suspended. Senior Constable Shaun Williams said it was “by the grace of God that no-one was killed” in the lead-up to the intercept. “Luck was the only difference today between…
TO celebrate their 100 days of learning, foundation students at Eastbourne Primary School, Rosebud dressed up as if they were 100 years old. The milestone day was one for the memory books as students brought in collections of “100’things”, including buttons, Lego pieces, marbles and stickers. The played games which were popular a century ago along with making necklaces with 100 Cheerios. “The celebration was an important day for children to reflect on their achievements and growth over the past 100 days,” foundation teacher Shae Haney said. “Together, the students reflected back on their first day, making comparisons to their…
A SPECIALIST surgeon has performed the Mornington Peninsula’s first liver resection using a surgical robot. Associate Professor Charles Pilgrim performed the surgical-first earlier this month at Peninsula Private Hospital. The patient was a 49-year-old woman whose bowel cancer had spread to her liver. Dr Pilgrim, the first surgeon in Victoria to use the da Vinci Xi robot for liver resections, said the cutting edge technology was great news for the hospital. “Using the da Vinci Xi robot means we can perform surgery with the minimally invasive approach more often, expanding what is possible using the keyhole approach,” Dr Pilgrim said.…
A MAN who allegedly exposed himself to three young girls behind beach boxes at South Beach, Mount Martha, last week is being sought by police. A face fit, below, with what’s said to be a good likeness of the man was put together and police are hoping someone in the community can identify him. Anyone recognising the man is urged is urged to male contact Detective Sergeant McKay or Detective Senior Constable Nichols on 8770 100 or Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report at bddy.me/3l1UZZ9 quoting reference LEVIN-2021. First published in the Southern Peninsula News -…
Southern Metro Division 4 Response Unit have charged two men and seized a large amount of cocaine and more than $65,000 in cash in Melbourne’s south yesterday. Officers were on foot patrol on Railway Grove and Ross Street in Mornington when they spoke to two men about 11.40am. A search of their vehicle located a large amount of cocaine and cash. Investigators then executed three search warrants at properties in Mornington, Seaford and Langwarrin. A large amount of cash, cocaine, cannabis and magic mushrooms and a homemade drug press were also allegedly seized. A 23-year-old Seaford man and a 23-year-old…
MOUNT Eliza Fire Brigade has appointed its first female officer, Lieutenant Petyka “Tyk” Slattery. Members of the brigade, headquartered in Canadian Bay Road, elected her to the position of Third Lieutenant earlier this month. Lieutenant Slattery is pictured with Captain Andrew Whitehead after her appointment. While many female members have performed office-bearer roles in the brigade’s management team over the years, “Tyk” is the first woman to take up an operational leadership role. She is set to bring her “enthusiasm and dedication to serving the community in her new role”. First published in the Mornington News – 27 July 2021
THREE teenagers spotted getting out of a stolen Audi at Hastings last week sparked a high-speed police pursuit all the way to Geelong. Southern Metro Region Crime Team detectives charged the trio following the alleged theft of three cars, Tuesday 20 July. A 14-year-old Dandenong boy was charged with 24 offences, including aggravated burglary, four counts of theft of motor vehicles, dangerous driving while being pursued by police, possessing a firearm and reckless conduct endangering life. Two 17-year-olds, a male and female from Cranbourne, were charged with 16 offences, including aggravated burglary, four counts of theft of motor vehicles and…
A CAR ended up on its roof after a dramatic crash at Mount Eliza last week. The car driven by a Mount Eliza woman and carrying her six-year-old daughter, reportedly veered across Canadian Bay Road, near Thomas Close, and slammed head-on into two parked cars “at speed”, 3pm, Monday 19 July. The force of the impact tore off the car’s front wheel. Ambulance Victoria said the pair was taken to Frankston Hospital in a “stable condition with upper body injuries”. Their Mazda was written off. Several parked cars were also damaged. Sergeant Patrick Hayes, of Mornington police, said police were…
OVER the past year, 390 young people on the Mornington Peninsula sought help because they had nowhere to stay. Mornington Peninsula Shire is encouraging residents to try sleeping in their cars for one night to help draw attention to the homeless. “It takes a village” is the theme of this year’s Sleep In Your Car event organised by Fusion Mornington Peninsula as part of Homelessness Week 1-7 August. The event will go virtual from 5.30pm, Saturday 7 August as residents give up their beds for a night to sleep in their cars at home or in a tent in the…
FINANCIAL backing, and votes of approval, are being sought to for a plan to gradually change the community-led guard at Point Nepean and its historic role in the defence of Australia. Members of the Friends of Point Nepean National Park group are “not getting any younger” and want to make sure their conservation work continues. The group has asked Parks Victoria for $13,769 for its project to encourage more people to become involved at Point Nepean. Group member Mechelle Cheers says the national park with its quarantine station, walking tracks, forts and gun emplacements is a “glorious, special place”. Backing…
DETECTIVES have arrested a man over alleged aggravated burglaries and thefts at two Mount Eliza properties, Monday 12 July. A Warragul man, 38, was picked up at Dandenong a week after he allegedly entered two Old Mornington Road properties and stole items, including $150 cash, speakers, Sony PlayStation, laptop, iPad and radio valued at $4000. He was charged with aggravated burglary, burglary, and two counts of theft and remanded to appear at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court, 29 July. Detective Sergeant Jason Hocking, of Somerville CIU, said he believed the man was involved in the two burglaries in Old Mornington Road. In…
TUNNELS along EastLink are the first in Victoria to be lit by LED lights. Over four nights, 1066 high pressure sodium (HPS) lights were replaced with 1174 LED lights. Up to 60 technicians and 22 scissor lifts worked through the night to remove the old HPS lights and install the new LEDs. The toll road operator says the replacement LEDs are brighter and whiter than the orange HPS lights. “The upgraded lighting will improve safety for motorists, by making the driving task easier,” EastLink corporate affairs manager Doug Spencer-Roy said. Operators in the EastLink control room were benefiting from an…
OPT-IN green waste bins across the Mornington Peninsula can now be filled with garden cuttings and food scraps from the kitchen. Acceptable items include fruit and vegetable scraps, meat scraps and uncooked bones, leftovers, dairy, seafood (no oyster shells), bread, desserts and rice, egg shells, loose tea leaves and coffee grounds, garden prunings, weeds and grass clippings, small plants, shrubs, leaves and branches. The waste will be turned into commercial grade compost. The shire says 43,000 households are already using the bins for garden waste. By adding food scraps residents will be helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food waste…
POINT Nepean Men’s Shed members are using their woodworking skills to make 100 shelter and nesting boxes for wildlife impacted by bushfires in Gippsland. In the picture, above, men’s shed president John Stevenson and members Laurie Oliver and Leigh Norrie add final details to the boxes which were the last of a batch going to Kalimna West, inland from Lakes Entrance. The bushfire recovery program aims to help the animals in their long-term recovery. Birdlife Australia provided a design template, Studio57F1 provided the boxes in kit form, Bunnings Rosebud provided the paint and the Men’s Shed provided the hardware as…
A SPORTS pavilion at Crib Point Recreation Reserve is receiving $2 million in upgrades as part of Mornington Peninsula Shire’s sport capacity plan and pavilion strategy. The Crib Point Football Netball Club and Crib Point Cricket Club now have new, shared change facilities, medical room, storage space, umpires’ change areas, and office space. There’s also a new public toilet. The two clubs can now stay in one place whereas previous change rooms were beneath the grandstand, at the nearby public pool and in a portable building. “The project responds to the significant increase in sport participation in recent years, particularly…
By Associate Professor Janet Stanley and Professor John Stanley* THE natural areas of Melbourne are under threat at the same time as there’s growing evidence of their importance for humans. In the late 1960s, the Victorian government designated 12 areas, covering 17 municipalities around Melbourne, as land set aside for recreation, conservation, farming and resource utilisation purposes. These areas are known as green wedges. Over the past 60 years the world has changed. The rapid population growth and expansion of Melbourne’s footprint, along with the subsequent losses in biodiversity as increasingly scarce natural environments disappear, are particularly important to the…
RYE and Sorrento CFA crews have a long history of helping the community, but they now need help from the community. The two brigades, which have been run by a group of dedicated volunteers for decades, say they urgently need more members. To service areas from Cape Schanck to Portsea and “every corner of the state” when asked, the brigades are looking for volunteers in the Tootgarook, Rye, St Andrews, Blairgowrie, Sorrento and Portsea areas to join them. “Essentially we need members that can turn-out on the trucks but any help is help and we don’t knock it back,” Rye…
THE McCrae lighthouse restoration project has received a $1 million grant from Heritage Victoria. The grant will return the 33.5 metre high lighthouse – Port Phillip’s tallest – to its former glory inside and out. It will be painted from its current colour of greyish silver to its original bright white. The lighthouse, built in England in 1874, was shipped out and assembled on the McCrae foreshore in 1883 and shone bright for the next 111 years before being retired in 1994. The restoration is due to start next month and be finished in December. It will include a full…
By Barry Irving THE highlight of a lunch at the Rye Football Netball Clubrooms last week was the presentation of Mornington Peninsula Netball Football League life membership to Michael O’Rourke. Regional manager AFL South East Will Dakis presented the award before 95 sponsors and guests at the event, Saturday 3 July. Mr O’Rourke has had a 57-year association with the MPNFL and the Rye Football and Netball Club. He started as a player in the Rye under-17s in 1964 and has been a constant at the club ever since. This includes 16 years as vice-president (1980-1995) and the past 20…
DURING this dynamic two hour production show Scot Robin who played the lead role in the smash hit musical “Buddy”, (Original cast) together with his Crickets will perform over thirty of Buddy Holly’s hit songs such as – That’ll Be The Day, Heartbeat, Think It Over, Peggy Sue, Raining In My Heart, Rave On, Maybe Baby, True Love Ways and of course Oh Boy! & much much more. This Internationally Acclaimed production show has and will continue to mesmerise and excite audiences both visually and musically with it’s high energy performance, brilliant costumes and fantastic musicianship. Scot Robin has been receiving rave reviews…
TWO of Queensland’s best-loved actors, Barbara Lowing & Roxanne McDonald, are set to bring their original Australian contemporary theatre production of Rovers to Frankston Arts Centre in July. Rovers is a delightful and modern comedy-drama that has had audiences around Australia laughing, crying and celebrating the imagination and heart of Australia’s trailblazing women. Woven from true stories and wild machinations, this is a fast-paced & poetic night at the theatre. If you have ever faced a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, had to keep a family secret or said yes to a crazy dare in a bar, then this funny, heart-warming and…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Regional Gallery exhibition ‘Surreal Landscapes’ explores the natural world through historic and political narrative. Curated by Danny Lacy and Rosie Weiss, the show includes newly commissioned work alongside select loans from Hayley Millar Baker, Nadine Christensen, Peta Clancy, Emily Ferretti, Tara Gilbee, Philip Hunter, Raafat Ishak, James Newitt, Emma Phillips, Christian Thompson AO. The works explore personal or historical narratives and embeds political and social commentary, for example, Indigenous photographer Peta Clancy’s powerful photographic-based works taken on a submerged indigenous massacre site in north west Victoria. The poignant and powerful works are showing now at MPRG until 22…
THE Big Y art installation at the entrance to YMCA Camp Manyung was unveiled last week. The artwork, shown for the first time on Tuesday 29 June, was painted by Eamon Rogers and Brianna Webster from the Willum Warrain Aboriginal Association, Hastings. “The Big Y is one of many ways that Camp Manyung has demonstrated its commitment to working alongside our Aboriginal community here on the peninsula and always uplifting Aboriginal history, culture, and connection,” the camp’s manager Jim Boyle said. “This mural is a story depicting the beautiful lands in which Camp Manyung is located and the tremendous work…
NOMINATIONS are being sought for the Mornington Peninsula Shire and National Trust 2021 Heritage Awards. The shire and the trust’s Mornington Peninsula branch are behind the awards which recognise projects and people who have demonstrated excellence in preservation, restoration and reuse of heritage places on the peninsula. While the word heritage conjures images of built forms, the scope of the awards goes further to cover landscape, cemeteries, wetlands, interpretive signage, and people who have contributed to the longevity of heritage. Heritage includes public and private places, buildings, gardens and objects, which organisers say are an important part of our culture…
A DAMAGED car found in Lyall Street, Hastings, last week led to the arrest of a man allegedly involved in the death of a motorcyclist at Cranbourne. It is alleged the man was driving the car when he collided with the motorcycle on Thompsons Road near the intersection of Lansell Drive about 1.40am, Thursday 1 July. The motorcyclist, a 26-year-old Cranbourne West man, died at the scene. Detectives from the Major Collision Investigation Unit, following a tip off from a member of the public, made the arrest at Frankston station. A 30-year-old Toora man has been charged with dangerous driving…
THE state coroner is investigating the death of a Padua College student whose body was found at The Pillars cliff jumping site at Mount Martha. Sergeant Daniel Patton, of Mornington police, said the circumstances surrounding the 16-year-old’s death were unknown. He said it was unclear whether the Mornington boy was in or out of the water when he died overnight on Saturday 26 June. The Pillars is on the Esplanade between Deakin Drive and Marguerita Avenue. Sources said the road was closed to traffic and a police helicopter was hovering overhead about 10.30am on the Saturday. Padua principal Anthony Banks…
THE NAPIER Street Plaza facelift at Rye is complete. The revamped space in the township is designed to be a vibrant public area and main pedestrian promenade to be suitable for events and markets. The works were completed in two stages to avoid disruption during summer. The first stage, which included the Napier Street Plaza and foreshore redevelopment, was completed in December. Further works, which included extending the redevelopment to the roundabout at Nelson Street, as well as lighting, drainage, car parking, paving and landscaping works, took place from February to June. The shire received $3.25 million through the state…