Author: Keith Platt

Eleven projects from Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula are among 237 Pick My Project ideas sharing $30 million of taxpayers’ money. Ranging from charity works to recreational pursuits, the successful projects were chosen on the number of online votes they attracted. The amount of money available to particular communities was based on an equal split between “regional partnership areas” in metro and regional Victoria and then on population numbers within those areas. The peninsula had the second highest number of successful projects (eight) in the Southern Metro area but attracted the most money. Improved lighting at Alexandra Park, Mornington attracted…

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Little did she know as she grew up, but it was probably inevitable that Alexandra Dellaportas’s artistic eye would see creative possibilities when learning about her wider family’s history. Talking with her grandfather while visiting Greece and learning about Greek mythology have led directly to her third dance production, Ariadne. Unlike the easy familial linking of the Mornington Peninsula-based director and choreographer to Greece, the story of the mythical Ariadne involves corrosive family relationships and her eventual escape from these bonds through a labyrinth built to hold the half man half bull Minotaur for her father King Minos. Dellaportas’s version…

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PORTS Minister Luke Donnellan has given the strongest indication yet that the state government is likely to approve AGL’s plan for a floating gas terminal at Crib Point. “I support the proposal to bring gas in through the port of Hastings,” Mr Donnellan told state parliament on Wednesday 8 August. Mr Donnellan said AGL’s proposal to import gas would “shake out the marketplace in Victoria”. “As people know, there have been incredible increases in prices for gas across the board in this state, so we are very supportive of the AGL proposal. We are also very supportive of the employment…

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TICKETS and invitations for council officers and councillors to attend sporting events are a “perfect example” of the type of “gift” that can benefit Mornington Peninsula Shire, according to the mayor Cr Bryan Payne. “It’s amazing who you meet in these super boxes,” Cr Payne said. He said sporting events “in particular … break down all barriers” and help forge beneficial networks. Cr Payne said he had no problems with the shire’s CEO Carl Cowie accepting two $300 tickets from recruitment firm McArthur to a corporate box at an AFL game in May. The shire’s gifts, benefits and hospitality register…

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WHALE researchers are hoping a humpback whale calf born off Cape Woolamai, Phillip Island will be able to reach warmer waters. It is the youngest ever humpback spotted in Victorian waters and only the third calf recorded. David Donnelly of the Hastings-based Dolphin Research Institute said the calf, less than four metres long, was about two days old when first spotted this week swimming alongside its 16 metre long mother. “It’s possible that our cold waters could be dangerous for the calf,” Mr Donnelly said. “Humpback whales are usually born and spend their first months in warmer waters off northern…

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