A SCULPTURE memorialising Frankston student Natalie Russell has found a home on the track she was taken from. Natalie Russell was murdered in 1993 after being taken while walking home from school. The track she was taken on has since received safety upgrades, and is now named Nat’s Track. Last week, Ms Russell’s parents Brian and Carmel helped unveil a sculpture which has been installed on the track in their daughter’s memory. The sculpture is of a school bag with 17 daisies poking out of it, one for each year of Ms Russell’s life. Brain Russell said that the artwork…
Author: Brodie Cowburn
THE owner of a puppy killed by another dog on Chelsea Beach is calling on people to be more cautious with their pets. Ms Curry says she was walking her young puppy along Chelsea Beach when it was attacked by another dog. The puppy was sadly killed. The community has rallied to support Ms Curry, but she wants more to be done to prevent it happening again. “I’ve had so many locals reach out to me after the attack of our puppy on the Chelsea Beach, and had no idea the number of dog related issues that others had experienced.…
CRICKET MPCA WOMENS SPECTATORS were treated to two of the best individual performances of the MPCA Women’s season at Eric Bell Reserve last weekend. Pines and Rye did battle in a high scoring battle. Pines were sent in to bat first, and were formidable. Opener Tania Misa was incredible, scoring 103 not out. She hit nineteen boundaries, ten of them sixes. Samantha Ryan had another excellent game for Pines. She contributed 80 runs to the scoreboard. Pines scored a seemingly insurmountable total of 236 runs. Despite the big task ahead of them, Rye worked hard to stay in the contest.…
THE Pines Forest Aquatic Centre has had its busiest January in recent history. The popular Pines pool was visited by 10,699 people last month, up 57 per cent from the same time last year. It is the centre’s largest January attendance since Peninsula Leisure started managing it. Frankston Council, which owns Peninsula Leisure, has earmarked a major expansion of the Pines pool as one of its key advocacy priorities heading into the state and federal elections this year. It is hoping to get funding for a $31 million redevelopment of the centre. Frankston mayor Nathan Conroy said that the rising…
A PROJECT to help improve the internal culture at local governments statewide is underway. Local Government Victoria is currently seeking feedback to shape the Local Government Culture Project. A discussion paper on the issue was released late last year, highlighting that between 2016 and 2020 the Victorian government became involved with four anti-corruption investigations and five councils being dismissed. The previous Frankston Council’s behaviour saw a monitor appointed by the state government in late 2017. She left in September 2019, leaving behind a damning report which read that councillors had been acting in a “disrespectful, hostile, and aggressive” manner (Council…