SOMERVILLE residents and business owners have been left disappointed yet again after its bid for federal government funding to help improve mobile phone coverage in the area was rejected.Despite their persistent fight for better connectivity, particularly in the east Somerville area for the past ten years, the federal government did not include the suburb in its second round of funding through the peri-urban mobile program.Funding of $40.9 million was allocated to the program which aims to improve mobile connectivity in bushfire and other natural disaster-prone areas.Communications Minister Michelle Rowland announced on October 3 that the program had approved 47 mobile…
Browsing: Somerville
MOVES are being made to protect one of Somerville’s few remaining historic treasures, Seaton Carew House, from development.Hastings MP Paul Mercurio has been urged to join the community push to retain the privately-owned house for community use.Seaton Carew House was built in 1905. Someville resident Phillip Ross said the 0.58 (1.42 acres) of land “could be developed into a wonderful park and the house could have endless uses for the community”. The property, at 10 Graf Road, is for sale for $1,795,000, and is described as being “ripe for renovation” to bring back its original glory, or for subdivision. The…
A MEMORIAL garden space at the former Bembridge Golf Course, Somerville is having a “sunflower spectacle” to promote its green credentials and honour a friend.The concept of paying for a plant or tree to be planted in honour of a loved one, with ashes treated and made environmentally safe, is relatively new to Australia. But the owners of Mornington Green, Luke Roberts and Rob Amro, say the uptake has been great since opening in 2022.The green wedge zoned land was a market garden before becoming a golf course in 1995. Roberts said the idea for memorial gardens came to him…
THE Premier Daniel Andrews was at Somerville Primary School last Friday (16 June) to meet the students and teachers and discuss plans to improve the school’s basketball courts. The school will receive $1million from the recent state budget to add a roof and lighting to its basketball courts. Andrews toured the school with Hastings MP Paul Mercurio, who said he had pushed for the improvements and was pleased to have had “a seat at the table” to make it happen. “This will be a great community asset, with the school able to make better use of a covered court and…
THE federal government has approved plans to expand Yaringa Boat Harbour at Somerville. The $50 million project was subject to approval by the federal Department of Environment as it triggered a process under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The so-called “controlled action” under the Act was because the project could potentially affect wetlands of international importance, listed threatened species, and listed migratory species. Permission was granted on 26 June after Yaringa owner Stefan Borzecki submitted his plans to the government in July 2011. Mr Borzecki now needs approval from the state government for rezoning of land,…
THE shire’s mayor Cr Lynn Bowden and her husband Ron Bowden have put their five-lot subdivision in Somerville on the market. The proposal required two appeals to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, including last year when a neighbour objected to the position of the lots. Mornington Peninsula Shire had previously refused a permit and Ron Bowden appealed the decision in the tribunal. The subdivided land of about 5.3 hectares (13 acres) is in the triangle formed by Frankston-Flinders and Grant roads. The shire granted a permit to subdivide on 29 December 2011. Four vacant lots are on the market…
THE start of work on the Aldi store in Somerville brings to an end a long-running saga that revealed the loss of historical memory in the town, says historian Leila Shaw. Ms Shaw’s father Thomas Brunning, a First World War veteran, in 1946 donated land for an infant welfare centre at 1097 Frankston-Flinders Rd as a practical memorial for those who served in the Second World War. Residents worked hard during postwar austere times to raise money to build the centre, which was opened in July 1954 along with wrought iron memorial gates at the entrance bearing the word “Lest…