A WELFARE agency that provides support services to disadvantaged people on the Mornington Peninsula is grappling with a range of issues exacerbated by the pandemic. While the number people seeking help has “always been high”, Southern Peninsula Community Support CEO Jeremy Maxwell says COVID-19 has increased the price of housing “profoundly affecting the cost of living for vulnerable people”. “Overall, we have seen a large increase in people impacted by homelessness,” Mr Maxwell said, adding that every year the service provides emergency relief to more than 1600 people and their families. “The bulk of housing options are in the private…
Author: Stephen Taylor
TWO Mount Eliza men are taking adventure racing to a new level as competitors in XPD events. XPD is expedition-style adventure racing in which international teams of four hike, mountain bike, and kayak for three to six days over all types of terrain, usually far from medical assistance. Racing day and night over a 500 kilometre course they push themselves to the limits of their endurance – just for the thrill of competing. Under race rules all team members must complete all sections of the course and they must never be more than 100 metres apart. Courses are inspired by…
Centrelink and Medicare offices in Main Street, Mornington are set to stay open despite moves to close them last year. Strong community opposition and the onset of the coronavirus pandemic prompted the federal government to delay its decision to shut the offices on 27 March 2020 and replace them with a private, part-time agency to run over 15 hours three days a week. (“Mornington Centrelink wins extra time” The News 25/3/20). Now, Government Services Minister Senator Linda Reynolds says the federal government has “committed to maintaining a service centre in Mornington”. “Mornington residents will continue to have local access to…
BELEURA Junior Football Club is celebrating its first AFLW signing. Under-18 Ash Richards was snapped up by St Kilda with pick 12 in the recent AFLW draft. The Saints had noted her versatility in the midfield and up forward, as well as her athleticism and ability to find the goals. Growing up as an avid Geelong supporter, Richards began at Beleura as a 13-year-old. Her football skills developed further each season, resulting in her being selected in inter-league, V/Line Cup, Dandenong Stingrays and Vic Country squads. This season she co-captained Dandenong Stingrays and, at the end of the girls’ NAB…
POLICE closed a 100-guest house party in Mount Eliza on Saturday and spent much of the day patrolling surrounding streets turning potential guests away. Sergeant Daniel Patton, of Mornington police, said sound and stage equipment for the illegal gathering had been set up at the private house in Clendon Close, off Tower Road, on Saturday 14 August. The house backs onto the Mt Eliza Ashram, in Tower Road, and it is believed guests had been instructed to park in that property’s car park. After hearing about the proposed party on Friday night, police began their patrols early on Saturday as…
THE state opposition has told the government to “stop pretending” the Mornington Peninsula is part of metropolitan Melbourne. Mornington MP David Morris criticised the Premier Daniel Andrews in parliament for avoiding repeated demands to reclassify the peninsula as regional. “The fact that the premier was not prepared to address the issue directly makes it clear that there is no justification for the current situation,” Mr Morris said. “The response confirms that this is nothing more than a bureaucratic convenience. “The peninsula is not an extension of the metropolitan area. The standard of government services on the Mornington Peninsula is not…
A GARDEN at Balnarring where residents could pick their own vegetables, chat with neighbours and learn about plants is no more thanks to council red tape. The garden, along the fence line in a public walkway between properties on Wattle Street, was the handiwork of 82-year-old Greg Merlo who looked after it like his own but was always happy to share its bountiful produce. He and his wife Anna twice a week cooked up pasta for their eight to 10 mainly elderly neighbours from the garden’s tomatoes, eggplants and zucchinis. “It was something that drew the community together,” said Mr…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council has asked the Premier Daniel Andrews to exclude the peninsula from the Melbourne metropolitan lockdown. The mayor Cr Despi O’Connor said the region had no active COVID-19 cases and had experienced only one case in the past 10 months. “We asked the government to consider releasing us,” she said. “It was not a demand; we are just asking for consideration.” One day after the premier was asked by Cr O’Connor to consider the peninsula as being special when it came to lockdowns, police blocked off Tower Road, Mount Eliza to stop people attending a “party”…
THE vulnerability of those sleeping rough without a safe place to call home on the Mornington Peninsula has been made worse by COVID-19. This was revealed during Homelessness Week: 1-7 August, when 13 eastern and south eastern municipalities, including Mornington Peninsula Shire, launched a best practice guide: Housing First for People Sleeping Rough, a Practice Guide for Local Government. The guide is seen as crucial to the welfare of the more than 116,000 Australians and almost 25,000 Victorians who were homeless any given night pre-COVID-19. The figure includes 7490 across the 13 municipalities, which include Mornington Peninsula and Frankston. About…
MORNINGTON MP David Morris is pressuring the state government uses planning laws to stop the former Mount Eliza Business School site being developed as an aged care home and retirement “village”. Mr Morris called on Planning Minister Richard Wynne in state parliament last week to rezone the Ryman Healthcare site in Kunyung Road as green wedge. The move would prevent the company using the 8.9 hectare site for a retirement village and head off its latest attempt to win approval for a smaller development. “This government brags a lot about protecting the green wedge,” Mr Morris said. “We have had…
MORNINGTON police have renewed calls for residents to provide details of their security cameras so they can be used to investigate crimes. Residents with cameras covering driveways, front yards, streets, rear laneways – and even doorbells that activate when pressed – are being asked to allow police to add their details to a secure database. Senior Sergeant Paul Edwards said a strong victim-centric focus on policing meant they could “leverage off the cameras to improve our response, add to our crime prevention options and assist in solving crime on the Mornington Peninsula”. (“Police focusing on crime” The News 29/3/21.) “By…
MORNINGTON Peninsula lifesavers have been recognised in Life Saving Victoria’s 2021 excellence awards. LSV chief executive officer Catherine Greaves applauded their commitment to lifesaving. Life Saver of the Year Chris Perrott, of Portsea Surf Life Saving Club, made an “outstanding contribution to lifesaving as a patrolling lifesaver”. This award remembers John Wishart, of Sorrento-Portsea SLSC, who was taken by a shark off Portsea in 1956. Youth Lifesaver of the Year Andrew May, also of Portsea SLSC, made an “outstanding contribution to the delivery of lifesaving frontline services”. May is the club’s director of general and operation committees, chief instructor of…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has appointed a “small business champion”. As well as his new title, Cr Anthony Marsh was successful at the 27 July meeting in having the council reaffirm its commitment to the Small Business Friendly Council Charter and acknowledging that businesses are a “vital part” of the peninsula’s community. Cr Kerri McCafferty nominated Cr Marsh as the small business champion, saying he had undertaken a “high level of consultation” to “develop” a notice of motion calling for small business support and a champion. “He has consistently pushed for improved outcomes for small business since being elected and given…
A MCCRAE veterinary nurse says rampant tree felling is displacing native wildlife and destroying “the very thing that attracts people to the Mornington Peninsula in the first place”. Samantha Verkuylen said she watched trees being felled on a neighbouring property with “no regard or concern for any native species” living there. “Possums are a protected species and it is illegal to cut down their homes while they are living in them,” she said. “Land owners should have properties assessed for wildlife then use appropriate measures, such as authority control wildlife permits to safely relocate the animals no more than 50…
RYMAN Healthcare will submit a new planning permit application to Mornington Peninsula Shire Council for a retirement village and aged care facility at Mount Eliza. The new application will come just weeks after a knock-back from the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal for a much larger development. The New Zealand-based company contends VCAT “supported the use of the Kunyung Road site for that purpose” in its refusal and has resubmitted a smaller proposal with 13 fewer assisted living units and 77 fewer apartments. The number of care beds remains at 82. The development is expected to cost $85 million. In…
ALTHOUGH usually pitted against one another, Mornington Peninsula Shire Council is now supporting Peninsula Aero Club’s bid to “seek clarity” on its permits and existing use rights. The aero club will ask the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in September and then in March 2022 for a “declaration that our permits authorise our operations”, club president Jack Vevers said last week. “Additionally, or in the alternative, we are seeking acknowledgement of our existing use rights to continue our operations, just as we successfully did with the Church Hour application in VCAT.” The shire says “reaching an agreement on the Tyabb…
ONE of the highlights of Melbourne Whisky Week is a self-drive tour of Mornington Peninsula that includes distilleries, a winery and brewery. Venues include Saint Felix, at Mordialloc, Chief’s Son, Somerville, JimmyRum, Dromana, Red Hill Estate and St Andrew’s Beach Brewery. First stop on the Lexus of Brighton Whisky, Spirits and Barrels Driving Tour of the Mornington Peninsula is Saint Felix Distillery. It offers tastings, masterclasses as well as food and spirit pairings all made on site. Bartender Orlando Marzocan will give cocktail-making lessons. The second stop is the family Chief’s Son Distillery that specialises in small-batch, single malt whiskies.…
SEXUAL harassment training will be mandatory for all Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors and staff. While the training will take place online, existing face-to-face training will be reviewed to make sure it is tailored to workplace risk factors. Staff will be able to make complaints anonymously and quarterly case studies of sexual harassment complaints will be made to ensure records and actions are appropriate and to identify any trends. There will be an increase in the availability and specialised training for managers. The plan adopted unanimously at council’s Tuesday 27 July meeting aims to prevent, and respond to, sexual harassment within…
A MOVE by Cr David Gill to push the state government to overturn its refusal to contribute towards the cost of the Yawa aquatic centre at Rosebud was knocked back at last week’s council meeting. Cr Gill had wanted the council to write to Nepean MP Chris Brayne and government ministers asking that they provide money from its municipal pool fund “as it was the first time that this source of funding wasn’t used to help finance a municipal pool”. Cr Gill also wanted a government loan for the pool to be converted to a grant to “help offset the…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council wants the federal government to reinstate the JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments to “support our Victorian communities during this unprecedented pandemic”. “Our communities are suffering and they need greater income support which we, as a local government, can’t deliver them; we’ve pulled all the levers we have available,” Cr Sarah Race told council’s Tuesday 27 July meeting. “I have spent the last week and a half hearing from and reading about the anguish of business owners and community members and their very real struggle with lockdown five. “Most of us know public health measures are necessary in…
THE onset of the latest COVID-19 restrictions proved heartbreaking for two “outsider artists” who were looking forward to staging a joint exhibition at & Gallery, Sorrento. The outsider artists – or artists with disabilities – Robert Croft and Jonathan Thompson had been working hard to prepare works for the exhibition which closed just one day after being open to the public. Neither got to see their works on display. “The gallery is looking at its calendar of future exhibitions with a view to shifting dates so this exhibition can be extended and the opening event can be held when safe…
A PILOT Climate Change Community Action Grants program is being set up by Mornington Peninsula Shire to help it achieve net zero emissions by 2040. “Reaching that target is a huge challenge and we cannot achieve it alone,” the shire said last week. “We need our community to work with us to foster behaviour change, share knowledge and reduce carbon emissions across the peninsula.” The pilot Climate Change Community Action Grants program will fund not-for-profit community groups, charities, schools, business associations, social enterprises and small businesses working on innovative projects that help the shire reach its climate emergency goals. It offers…
DESPITE being one of the Mornington Peninsula’s premier sporting clubs the Hastings Football Netball Club is doing it tough. The club, formed in 1897 as Hastings Football Club and playing in the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League, says it cannot afford to maintain its grounds which are in a “poor state” in wet weather and provide suitable change rooms for all its teams – especially in a COVID-19-affected environment. The club believes it is not being given help by Mornington Peninsula Shire Council because the social club – the Hastings Club – supposedly provides it with income from poker machines.…
A MORNINGTON schoolgirl has been selected to dance in the Australian Ballet’s 2021 production of Harlequinade. Ava del Rosario, 11, and in grade 5 at St Macartens Catholic Primary School, is a junior cast member in the production described as a “lively romp based on commedia dell’arte” written in 1900. “Harlequin and Columbine are in love, but her father, who wants her to marry a rich older man, has her locked up by Pierrot, his loyal servant. Pierrot’s wife, sympathetic to the young couple, helps her escape, and a Good Fairy gives Harlequin a magical slap stick that helps him…
A MORNINGTON Peninsula artist is unique in that no one else in the world has presented with the same genetic sequence. Brodie Alserda, 27, was born with a chromosome deletion disorder which was not diagnosed until she was 19. A genetic screening identified the abnormalities. These screens are maintained in a global database and no one else in the world has presented with the same genetic sequence she has. Now Alserda is holding an exhibition of her work at the invitation of Mount Eliza chiropractor Dr Kim Furness, of Lotus Chiropractic. Dr Furness has been seeing Alserda for 10 years…
A LEAD trainer in community services is creating a pilot program to help fill what she describes as a “huge need for aged care workers on the Mornington Peninsula”. Jane-Ellen Mountford, who has worked in aged care “most of her life”, is hoping to generate interest in the profession at all levels. “We want to raise awareness and generally create a better aged care workforce to support our elderly as they age with dignity and respect,” she said. “This is a big drive for people who can be of all ages and from all walks of life.” Ms Mountford, who…
A SYSTEM to be trialled in up to four residential aged care centres on the Mornington Peninsula and in Frankston will aim to synchronise the care of their residents with other parts of the health system. The goal is to overcome a lack of coordination regarded as a “perennial problem for the aged care sector [as] highlighted during last year’s COVID-19 pandemic when 685 people in [mostly federally-funded] aged care homes died”. Monash University said a $1.9 million grant announced by Health and Aged Care Minister and Flinders MP Greg Hunt would be used to find a digital health solution…
A MULTI-MILLION dollar battery plant at Tyabb will aim to improve electricity grid reliability and network stability across the Mornington Peninsula. Australian renewable energy company Maoneng is behind the battery energy storage system – or BESS – to be built on privately-owned land next to the Tyabb sub-station in Thornells Road. The plant will make money by drawing energy from the grid during off-peak periods when it is cheaper and storing it in batteries, and then dispatching it back to the grid during peak periods when it can charge a premium. Renewables development director Allison Hawke said this approach to…
A MORNINGTON woman is keen to thank a “complete stranger” for his generosity while she was shopping, Saturday 10 July. Catherine Warters said she was about to pay for a few small items she had bought at Aldi, in Main Street, Mornington, when her payment option – her phone – refused to function. “I have my card loaded on my phone but, for some reason, it did not register,” she said. “I asked the checkout guy to hold my shopping while I went to my car to get my purse and card. “When I was asking for this to happen and…
DOUBTS have been raised that works will not be finished at Hastings boat ramp in time for the September-November snapper season. It appears there are no timelines or work schedules for dredging and pontoon works at ramp which is the busiest on Western Port. The ramp was unavailable last year after rescue works on the collapsed “coffer dam” delayed its opening until late November (“Wall collapse leaves fishers high and dry” The News 22/9/20). The tender for dredging closed 31 March and the tender for the pontoon work closed 19 May. Mornington Peninsula Shire’s infrastructure projects manager Derek Rotter said…