A MT ELIZA beachgoer has had enough of nudists on family beaches away from designated “clothes-optional” areas. Craig Ferris wants Mornington Peninsula Shire Council to draw a line in the sand and fine those breaking the rules. Mr Ferris, a policeman who regularly takes his wife and two young daughters to the southern end of Moondah beach, said he had “absolutely no issue with those who want to get back to nature and do their thing”. But, he says, he takes exception to the “seemingly blase attitude being taken by … those of the naturalist persuasion (sic) who are now…
Author: Stephen Taylor
HUNDREDS of thousands of giant spider crabs are about to begin their annual migration into the sandy shallows at Rye and Blairgowrie. The armada of orange crabs arrives as the bay’s waters begin to cool in May and stays until July. Marine biologist Sheree Marris said that, as the name suggests, these crabs are massive, with long spindly legs and bodies up to 17cm wide. “They move in organised chaos on eight long legs,” she said. “Their weapons are swollen claws and their mission is to seek shelter in the safety of the shallows, moult and, in some cases, mate.”…
THE police traffic Operation Nexus held over the Easter holiday period tested 11,474 drivers for drink-and-drug driving across Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula. The state-wide operation, which ran from late on the Thursday before Easter to midnight on Easter Monday, tested 7760 drivers on the peninsula and 3714 in the wider Frankston area in Southern Metro Division 4. Of these, 36 were detected exceeding the 0.05 per cent limit – or, in the case of P-platers, breaching the mandatory four-year zero-alcohol limit. Acting senior sergeant Peter Martin, of Somerville Highway Patrol, said the figures meant the division had the second-highest…
PROPOSED changes to the boundaries of Victorian federal electorates almost halve the seat of Flinders held by Liberal Greg Hunt, while the neighbouring seat of Dunkley held by Liberal MP Chris Crewther moves slightly north into parts of Isaacs. The changes – which create a new seat of Monash from the eastern and northern parts of Flinders – are designed to reflect population growth so that each electorate has a similar number of voters and have been made to accomodate a new electorate to be called Fraser in Melbourne’s western suburbs. Mr Hunt’s Flinders electorate could be scaled back to…
HOMELESSNESS is surging with a 17 per cent increase in Frankston and a 10 per cent increase on the Mornington Peninsula in the five years from the 2011-16 census nights. Figures released by the Council to Homeless Persons show 546 people experienced homelessness in Frankston last year compared to 465 in 2011. On the Mornington Peninsula 298 people were homeless last year compared to 272 in 2011. State-wide, the census data shows that 24,817 Victorians were homeless in 2016 – up from 22,306 in 2011. SalvoCare Eastern Rosebud manager Loretta Buckley said the stigma of homelessness meant many people could…