Author: Mike Hast

THE Environment Protection Authority has started testing water quality at Port Phillip beaches a month earlier than planned after a warmer than usual spring. The authority checks if the water is suitable for swimming ever week at 36 beaches including four in Kingston – Mentone, Mordialloc, Aspendale and Carrum. It puts water quality updates on its Beach Report website and via Twitter twice a day. Reports started on 31 October and will be done until April, a month later than usual. The warning system has green, orange or red “lights” to tell swimmers if the water is suitable or if…

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PROFESSORS, politicians, presenters, Olympians, comedians, footballers and one of the nation’s top “spies” were among 38 people inducted into the inaugural Hall of Fame of the Peninsula School on Saturday last week. The hall of fame has been created by the alumni association of the school in Mt Eliza, The Old Peninsula School Association, TOPSA. More than 120 people packed the H A Macdonald Pavilion at the school in Wooralla Drive to celebrate. They included three of the four principals who have led the school since it opened in 1961 – Harry Macdonald, Ray Hille and Stuart Johnston. Founding principal…

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CONSTRUCTION of long-awaited traffic lights in Mt Eliza where Tower Rd and Volitans Ave join the Nepean Hwy is set to start next week. The $500,000 project is a win for safety campaigners who have been lobbying for lights or turning restrictions since 2008 at the acknowledged black spot. The federal government will contribute $400,000 and Mornington Peninsula Shire $100,000. Construction will be managed by state government authority VicRoads. The project, due to be completed in December, will include a pedestrian-operated crossing north of the intersection, cycling lanes, moving of the southbound bus stop, and a concrete footpath. Vehicle-activated, under-road…

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MELBOURNE needs two new ports – one at Hastings and one on the western side of Port Phillip – Captain Richard Cox told the Port of Melbourne Select Committee hearing in Hastings last week. The committee is gathering information about the Labor government’s proposed long-term lease of the Port of Melbourne to commercial interests, and came to the peninsula for the first time to hear submissions from individuals, councils including Mornington Peninsula Shire and Frankston, and conservation groups. Captain Cox, a Tyabb resident and former Port of Hastings harbourmaster, told the committee that bulk trade required waterfront space for silos…

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FORGET the Chinese Year of the Sheep or Goat, in terms of snakes in the Mornington Peninsula, Frankston and southeast region, it’s the year of the copperhead snake. Peninsula licensed wildlife controller Barry Goldsmith says the copperhead is the dominant type of snake appearing as the weather warms, displacing last year’s ‘year of the tiger snake’. “I’ve been removing on average two a day since the warm weather kicked in,” he said. Mr Goldsmith scotched the myth that there are more snakes around this year as animal hospitals and vets report a sharp increase in pets being bitten by snakes…

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