Mornington Peninsula mayor Anthony Marsh was joined by the Member for Hastings Paul Mercurio yesterday to celebrate construction starting on the Somerville to Baxter Trail. This much-anticipated new shared path is a vital missing link in the grand vision for the Peninsula Trails project, a 170km network of connected trails traversing the Mornington Peninsula. Once the Somerville-Baxter section is complete, walkers and cyclists will be able to travel off road from central Melbourne all the way to Balnarring. “The Somerville-Baxter Trail was council’s first priority in terms of filling in the missing links of the Peninsula Trails project, and we…
Browsing: western port
BUILDINGS in towns on the Western Port coast and inland will in future need to undergo a coastal hazard and vulnerability risk assessment (CHVRA) before they can be approved.In what is believed to be a first for Victoria, permit applicants will be required to plan for predicted climate change effects such as sea level rises and erosion. Under the new rules allowance must be made for a sea level rise of not less than 0.8 metres by 2100 and for the combined effects of tides, storm surges, coastal processes. Permit applications in low lying and vulnerable areas will be referred…
PELICANS always seem to attract attention. They waddle along beaches, gracefully paddle in the water and fly overhead following the thermals. But while they appear to be common, especially when looking for scraps around piers and jetties, pelican numbers are declining.The Westernport Pelican Study Group reports that just two of a previously known 10 Victorian breeding sites remain.A breeding site on French Island “went extinct” in 2001, according to the group, and pelican numbers in Western Port have been declining ever since.Study group members look for and photograph banded pelicans and have also appealed for members of the public to…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council is again calling on the state government to “develop a strategic framework” for Western Port. According to the shire the framework should include the restoration and protection of Western Port’s marine environment and catchment area. It would also establish an “ecologically sustainable and thriving economy”.The shire’s meeting was held later on the same day that the business lobby group Committee for Frankston and Mornington Peninsula held a Future Forum which will also see state and MPs come under pressure over developments in Western Port.The shire’s policy update for the Port of Hastings comes in the wake…
SEEING satirist, comedian and actor John Clarke standing in the mangroves of Western Port at Hastings, you naturally enough expect a sardonic comment. Perhaps something about the odour of the mud at low tide. Eau de saltmarsh, anyone? A crack about the seagrass? This would look good in the fish pond. But, no, Clarke is on a mission; something completely different, as the Pythons once said. He is a founding board member of Western Port Seagrass Partnership, an independent trust formed in 2001 to lobby for the protection and restoration of Western Port and its catchment. Why does a 65-year-old…
THE Otama submarine will be brought ashore within 18 months, says Western Port Oberon Association. At the launch of the Victorian Maritime Centre Project in Hastings on Friday, project development team chairman Jim Schaefer said the submarine would be the centrepiece of the centre. It will be next to the southern end of the Western Port Marina seawall in Hastings on reclaimed land. Next to the sub on the seaward side will be the maritime centre building and memorial walls. There will be a parking area for 120 cars nearby. The association was given in-principle approval to use the site…
RESEARCHERS are excited and confused by early sightings of whales in Port Phillip and Western Port. Dolphin Research Institute executive director Jeff Weir said whales usually showed up in June “so this is quite extraordinary – but then again so is 25 degrees in Mornington harbour”. Mr Weir said the first report of whale off Seaford “sounded more like a false killer whale”. Since then reports of a humpback whale have come from sailors at Somers and Balnarring. “One of the people from Somers Yacht Club seems very knowledgeable about humpbacks. We also had a reliable sighting of a humpback…
THE Lions Club of Western Port has disbanded after 44 years. The club was down to seven members, well short of the 40 on the books almost 16 years ago when current president Bert Harrison joined. Ages of the seven members range from 51 to 82. Mr Harrison and three other Western Port members will be joining neighbouring branches to continue their work in the community. “At the height of the club, membership reached into to 50s, but due to retirement, transfers and the unfortunate deaths of some members, it hasn’t been so easy over the past few years,” Mr…