NUDE bathers in undesignated areas at Moondah beach, Mt Eliza, risk being fined under the Summary Offence Act. The issue came to a head when a Mt Eliza resident contacted the council to complain about the “blatant” behaviour of some clothes-optional swimmers at Sunnyside North beach (“Cover up or clear out, parent’s call to nudists” The News 24/4/2018). He complained they were venturing onto the southern end of Moondah beach which is outside the designated area. The shire’s environment protection manager John Rankine said Sunnyside North was declared clothing optional under the Nudity (Prescribed Areas) Act 1983, allowing bathers to…
Author: Stephen Taylor
MORNINGTON MP David Morris says Ryman Healthcare’s plans for a multi-million dollar retirement village and nursing home at Moondah Estate, Mt Eliza, would be a “gross overdevelopment of the site, even if it was reduced by 50 per cent”. The $5 billion New Zealand-based public company has earmarked 60-70 Kunyung Road for the fourth of five villages it plans to build in Melbourne by 2020. Others are at Mt Martha, Wheelers Hill, Burwood East, Coburg and Geelong. Development manager Andrew Mitchell said it was a “great site” which fitted well with Ryman’s expansion plans in Victoria. Earlier this month the…
AN exhibition giving an insight into the powers of harnessing wartime public perception through advertising, graphics and information – whether true or false – is at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery until early July. Propaganda: A selection of posters from the Australian War Memorial, displays many of the key posters designed to inflame public opinion and fashion public thinking during the war and, in some cases, generate a wave of recruits. The artworks have come from the Australian War Memorial which has one of the world’s largest collections of historic propaganda posters. The exhibition also includes commissions from three contemporary…
CROWDS flocked to Anzac Day commemorations at Mornington Peninsula towns last week. Organisers were thrilled with the huge turn-out of young people which they hope will ensure the future of the national event. “The day went very well,” Mornington RSL sub-branch president Allan Paynter said. “The dawn service was extra large with not a spot left on the lawn at Memorial Park, and we had 300 back for the Gunfire breakfast. “Up to 4000 attended the march along Main Street from Queen Street. It was a packed house.” Rosebud RSL sub-branch had about 2500 people at the dawn service, while…
SCIENTISTS and health experts have joined forces in the battle to stop the spread of the debilitating Buruli ulcer. The federal government last week announced a $1.5 million two-year research study into ways of eradicating the fast spreading disease – which is especially prevalent on the Mornington Peninsula. Of the 275 infections recorded across Victoria last year, and the 35 reported so far this year, more than 80 per cent have occurred on the peninsula, according to study leader Professor Tim Stinear, from the University of Melbourne. Mosquitoes are suspected as being the key factor in the spread of the…
LAWS to tame behaviour at rowdy party houses on the Mornington Peninsula may be a Victorian first. The clampdown comes after the shire last week adopted a Short Stay Rental Accommodation Local Law. The new law includes a registration system that identifies the owner of a property who must nominate an agent to respond within two hours of complaints by neighbours. A code of conduct aims to counter issues which have ruined neighbours’ nights, including rowdy drinking sessions, abusive guests, thumping music late into the night, car parking congestion and inadequate rubbish disposal. Penalties will apply for breaches of the…
CFA crews fought for an hour to save the house of Somerville horse trainer Kane Harris when it was engulfed by fire, Tuesday 17 April. A faulty clothes dryer is being blamed for starting the blaze at the Whitneys Road house at 11.10pm. Up to 10 appliances from Pearcedale, Somerville, Hastings and Tyabb, fought the blaze, however, the house could not be saved. CFA spokesman Dillon Foote said crews donned breathing apparatus to protect themselves against asbestos-laden smoke. None of the horses stabled at the property were harmed and Mr Harris was reportedly back on the training track only hours…
A MT ELIZA beachgoer has had enough of nudists on family beaches away from designated “clothes-optional” areas. Craig Ferris wants Mornington Peninsula Shire Council to draw a line in the sand and fine those breaking the rules. Mr Ferris, a policeman who regularly takes his wife and two young daughters to the southern end of Moondah beach, said he had “absolutely no issue with those who want to get back to nature and do their thing”. But, he says, he takes exception to the “seemingly blase attitude being taken by … those of the naturalist persuasion (sic) who are now…
THE storm which battered the Mornington Peninsula, Saturday 14 April, has renewed calls for a marina at Mornington. Plans for an $18 million, 170-berth floating marina to provide a safe haven for moored boats were abandoned in early 2010, but not before Mornington Yacht Club, Parks Victoria and other government departments had spent about $1 million on consultants’ reports to justify a marina. The latest storm left three boats on the beach and broke handrails and decking on the pier. The renewed push for a marina has already been raised with Mornington Peninsula councillors and its proponents are again likely…
LONG-TIME Mornington resident Su-Rose McIntyre lost her only child when he was 26 almost a decade ago, after he suffered a long period of mental illness. Now the bereaved mother and qualified grief counsellor is a newly published author of a grief self-help book: The Grief Kaleidoscope: Metaphors for Grief. “Deep grief was a new experience for me as I tried to ride the grief waves as they came rolling in,” she said last week. “I became interested in learning more about what I was going through and the grief process itself.” After gaining a Masters in Counselling university degree…
CONCERNS about the spread of the debilitating skin infection Buruli ulcer on the Mornington Peninsula are rising with reports of infections reportedly up about 400 per cent in four years with 275 patients infected last year. Disease expert Barwon Health Associate Professor Daniel O’Brien, who treats patients at a monthly clinic at Sorrento, says the community is facing a “worsening epidemic without knowing how to prevent it”. He is calling for “much more money to fund research into the causes to help stem the spread of the disease”. Professor O’Brien has used the pages of this month’s Medical Journal of…
SUPERMARKET shoppers are beginning a speedy transition towards a plastic-bag-free shopping environment. Major players Coles and Woolworths in Mornington will phase out single use plastic bags from 20 June. Customers who don’t bring their own bags will be able to buy alternatives, including thicker reusable plastic bags for 15 cents, canvas bags for 99 cents or chiller bags for $2.49. The move affects customers at Coles and Woollies’ supermarkets, liquor stores, petrol stations and mini-marts. The companies announced the move 12 months ago. It will especially please environmentalists, such as the various beach cleaning groups, who say the bags are…
A FINGAL woman preparing to move house after 15 years is offering $1500 for the return of family heirlooms she mistakenly gave to opportunity shops in Rosebud. “The reward is a lot more than the items are worth but, to me, they’re everything,” Ann Robb said. Ms Robb said about eight weeks ago she filled the family utility with black garbage bags full of clothes and other unwanted items and took them to the Rotary and Lions op shops, opposite the Plaza. Four days later she realised that at least two of the bags contained her precious items. “We are…
HUNDREDS of thousands of giant spider crabs are about to begin their annual migration into the sandy shallows at Rye and Blairgowrie. The armada of orange crabs arrives as the bay’s waters begin to cool in May and stays until July. Marine biologist Sheree Marris said that, as the name suggests, these crabs are massive, with long spindly legs and bodies up to 17cm wide. “They move in organised chaos on eight long legs,” she said. “Their weapons are swollen claws and their mission is to seek shelter in the safety of the shallows, moult and, in some cases, mate.”…
MELBOURNE Water is tight-lipped about any future sales of land alongside the pipeline from its Eastern Treatment Plant at Bangholme to the ocean outfall at Gunnamatta. Speculation surrounds the possible sale of many blocks of various sizes – probably for residential purposes – as the authority seeks to make money from land reserved for the pipeline. Concerns have been raised about the “piecemeal” sale of blocks which will reduce the land now being used as public reserves for playgrounds, walking and riding trails, and open space. Other concerns are that Melbourne Water is using “speculative land sales” as a revenue…
AN enthusiastic environmentalist who has devoted countless hours to weeding, planting and caring for indigenous species on the Somers foreshore has received a well-deserved pat on the back. South Sea Foreshore Reserve Committee president Rosemary Birney, OAM, received the Individual Achievement Award at the Australian Coastal Awards. Ms Birney, who was nominated by Mornington Peninsula Shire, has made it her life’s work to re-establish the natural foreshore coastal banksia woodland, as well as educating and inspiring others to join in conservation programs along the foreshore. Mornington Peninsula Shire is celebrating double success at the awards, which were held late last…
PROPOSED changes to the boundaries of Victorian federal electorates almost halve the seat of Flinders held by Liberal Greg Hunt, while the neighbouring seat of Dunkley held by Liberal MP Chris Crewther moves slightly north into parts of Isaacs. The changes – which create a new seat of Monash from the eastern and northern parts of Flinders – are designed to reflect population growth so that each electorate has a similar number of voters and have been made to accomodate a new electorate to be called Fraser in Melbourne’s western suburbs. Mr Hunt’s Flinders electorate could be scaled back to…
THE police traffic Operation Nexus held over the Easter holiday period tested 11,474 drivers for drink-and-drug driving across Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula. The state-wide operation, which ran from late on the Thursday before Easter to midnight on Easter Monday, tested 7760 drivers on the peninsula and 3714 in the wider Frankston area in Southern Metro Division 4. Of these, 36 were detected exceeding the 0.05 per cent limit – or, in the case of P-platers, breaching the mandatory four-year zero-alcohol limit. Acting senior sergeant Peter Martin, of Somerville Highway Patrol, said the figures meant the division had the second-highest…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire will develop a “comprehensive events policy” which should go some way towards preventing a possible clash of dates between competing events as occurred last month. The policy will draw on the shire’s experiences in the 3-4 March “double booking” which allowed the Sufferfest Triathlon to be held on the same day in Mt Martha as the 19th successive Clean-up Australia Day event. Briars ward’s Cr Sam Hearn – whose ward hosted both events – last week moved that shire officers conduct a briefing and councillor workshop on the policy by 30 June. This will provide for a…
HOMELESSNESS is surging with a 17 per cent increase in Frankston and a 10 per cent increase on the Mornington Peninsula in the five years from the 2011-16 census nights. Figures released by the Council to Homeless Persons show 546 people experienced homelessness in Frankston last year compared to 465 in 2011. On the Mornington Peninsula 298 people were homeless last year compared to 272 in 2011. State-wide, the census data shows that 24,817 Victorians were homeless in 2016 – up from 22,306 in 2011. SalvoCare Eastern Rosebud manager Loretta Buckley said the stigma of homelessness meant many people could…
WHITE bike rider Chris Savage rode into Canberra on Sunday night to complete his 1700 kilometre journey highlighting the need for improved road safety. His ride honoured former student Joel Hawkins, 17, of Mt Martha, who died in hospital after being struck by a car in Dromana in June 2015. A white bike marks the accident scene near the corner of Marine Parade and Nepean Highway. On Monday (yesterday) the cycling coach rode a 17-kilometre loop of the capital before meeting up with Flinders MP Greg Hunt and delivering his road safety message at Parliament House. Mr Hunt was among…
THIEVES ransacked 14 cars outside houses in Mt Martha, overnight Sunday 18 March. Detective Sergeant Alan Paxton, of Somerville CIU, said items including tools, coins and phones were stolen from “mainly unlocked cars” parked in Stanley and Paramount crescents, and on Bruce, Ponyara, and Bradford roads. Thieves hit cars in Sorrento the next night, taking similar items from cars parked in Labuan Street, as well as Coppin, Bowan and Melbourne roads. Many of the cars were said to be unlocked. A car in Point Nepean Road had its number plates stolen. “People are still leaving valuables, such as phones, wallets,…
A QUARREL with their telephone provider reached crisis-point for long-established Mornington fishermen Neville and Dalton Hutchins late last year when their phone was cut off. The brothers – who can trace their commercial fishing roots off Mornington and Mt Martha beaches back to 1855 – admittedly “let things get away a bit” when approached by NBN technicians and their service provider to buy modems and adaptors to reconnect to the new service in September. “The whole thing sort of scared me,” Neville admitted. “I’m not a tech-head, I’m a fisherman, and I suppose I let things drift a bit. To…
EASTER and the school holidays are fast approaching, making this a timely reminder to take care on the roads. “Obey the road rules and don’t endanger yourself, your passengers or other road users,” Acting Sergeant Julia Starkey, of Rosebud police, said. On 20 December last year, an 18-year-old Caulfield East man who had held a red-Ps probationary licence for only four months was involved in a single vehicle collision on Browns Road, Rye. His damaged car ended up in trees on the centre median strip. Police estimate the man was travelling at 130kph in a 60kph zone. He has been…
A WESTERN Port fisherman whose kayak started taking water before sinking last week told rescuers he feared not making it home to see his newborn baby and two other children. The 35-year-old, of Noble Park, had been shark fishing. He said he cut his lines when he noticed water rising inside his kayak and paddled as fast as he could towards shore until it sank – taking his wallet, keys and phone with it. He was left floundering for an hour in deep water about three kilometres off Balnarring, 2.30pm, Thursday 22 March. The man told his rescuers he was…
RED balloons floated on 11-metre-long strings above Capel Sound last week to show how high the state government allows houses to go on the Mornington Peninsula without a permit. Mornington Peninsula Shire says the contentious rules imposed last year “without consultation” already apply to 24,000 housing sites on the peninsula. The figure represents a quarter of the peninsula’s housing stock. The shire says the rules will lead to the proliferation of “three storey McMansions”. The mayor Cr Bryan Payne said Thursday’s balloon demonstration aimed to “alert the Victorian community to the threats to coastal villages posed by future inappropriate development”.…
A GROUP of Dromana men are working to save Dromana pier from rotting away into the sea while ensuring the community retains “a valuable asset”. The group – part of Association for Building Community in Dromana – believes the 185 metre concrete structure, built in 1959 to replace a timber jetty built in the 1860s, is estimated to have about 10 years’ useful life left. Following an “extensive community survey” of residents’ views the group says a new pier needs to be longer so as to reach deep water to allow ferries to berth, and wider to allow space for…
A BID to revamp the Woolworth’s supermarket at Rye, as well as put up new shade sails, cut trees and reshuffle car parking areas, has been given the go ahead, while a proposal to “swap” land at its sister store at Mornington has been refused. Other works approved at Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s Monday 19 March planning committee meeting for the Rye supermarket, on the corner of Point Nepean Road and Hygeia Street, include an eight-metre-high street sign; reducing car parking spaces; adding more rubbish and recycling bins; and installing charging outlets for electric vehicles. The shire’s statutory planning team…
ONE result of the Sufferfest triathlon in Mt Martha earlier this month is that councillors may take over deciding which events can be held. Permit applications are now determined by council officers. Cr Sam Hearn is expected to move at the next meeting that councillors develop an evaluation policy “as a matter of urgency”. The most obvious date-clash over the 3-4 March weekend was with the annual Clean-up Australia Day which has been running 19 years. The clash – which saw a six-hour closure of the Esplanade from Mornington to beyond Mt Martha – was described as “highly disappointing” by…
A STRONG show of public support helped swing the vote in favour of building a 50-metre swimming pool at a packed Mornington Peninsula Shire Council meeting on Tuesday night, 13 March. About 150 “enthusiastic but well behaved” supporters crammed into Rosebud Memorial Hall to back the larger option for the Rosebud Aquatic Centre at Besgrove Street. Some carried signs urging approval of the 50-metre pool; others wore water polo caps. The mayor Cr Bryan Payne later described the unanimous council vote as “fantastic”. He said the councillors’ backing of the larger pool over a 25-metre lower-cost alternative recommended by shire…