NEWS DESK
Have a say on Coolart speed PUBLIC comment is being sought on a proposed speed reduction in Coolart Rd, between Baxter and Balnarring. VicRoads is assessing a cut in speeds from 90kph to 80kph as “speed is a big contributing factor to the safety along this road”. It says the possible reduction is supported by Victoria Police and Mornington Peninsula Shire. The 17.4 kilometre stretch of rural road between Frankston-Flinders Rd, Baxter and Frankston-Flinders Rd, Balnarring has “a significant crash history”, VicRoads says. In the five years from January 2010 to December 2014 it was the scene of 32 crashes in which people sustained injuries - including three fatalities. Present road safety improvements along Coolart Rd include a number of roundabouts, the most recent at Bittern-Dromana Rd. A roundabout is being built at Hodgins Rd, Hastings. VicRoads says a speed reduction would significantly improve safety along the road while only adding about 90 seconds travel time. It says a speed reduction is the most effective short-term measure to improve safety, but that it will gauge the need for further infrastructure improvements in future. VicRoads is seeking community feedback through a survey, which it says should take about five minutes to complete. The survey will close 5pm, 7 June. See mornpen.vic.gov.au and search for ‘Coolart Road Speed Limit Reduction Survey’. Hard copies of the survey will also be available from the Mornington Peninsula Shire Customer Service counter.
Tributes to a man Stephen Taylor steve@baysidenews.com.au A DIFFERENT time; a different ethos; still Australia and still “The Lucky Country” – but only for some. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so for 93-year-old Seaford man George Waters who, when aged only four, was taken from his mother along with his brother and “institutionalised” in a Parkville orphanage from 1927-1939, making him what we term now a “Forgotten Australian”. Mr Waters was one of up to 500,000 children and child migrants taken into institutions or outof-home settings in the first half of last century. This came about mainly through poverty or family breakdown – perhaps a parent was in prison, suffering severe illness or even war trauma – at a time when there was little support for families in crisis. The, residential institutions run by government and non-government bodies were the usual form of out-of-home care at the time. Children from these institutions were then sometimes placed in foster homes for short periods, weekends or over the holidays. This changed to smaller group care in the 1950s and moved away from institutional care to kinship and foster care in the 1970s. Sadly, many of the children suffered neglect, physical, emotional and sexual abuse while in care. The trauma never leaves them and impacts them – and their children - throughout their adult lives. The Senate used the term “Forgotten Australians” when reporting on its 2003–04 Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care. But Mr Waters is a survivor par excellence. His capacity for life and strength of will was celebrated on Friday when family, friends, carers and fellow gym members got together to say
Safety concerns: Speed limits are under review in Coolart Rd from Baxter to Balnarring.
happy 93rd birthday to a man who inspires and motivates them. Guests included the mayor of Frankston, Cr Sandra Mayer, Forgotten Australians’ representative Caroline Carroll, and Brotherhood of St Laurence aged care manager Carolyn MacAlister. Daughter Beverley Allen said her dad was “detained” at the Depot orphanage at Parkville - behind the zoo - with his brother, Bill, who is now deceased. “It was a ‘feeding’ institution that referred children to other orphanages,” she said. “Dad was taken there in the Depression times when his father died and his mother had two of his sisters to care for; money was scarce. “They were denied schooling for the entire time they were there and told it was due to a skin condition they had developed: psoriasis. Instead, they were made to work and look after the other children by bathing, dressing and making beds.” In his teens, Mr Waters was regarded as a trusted orphan and charged with taking the Depot’s paperwork to the city office above Flinders St station. He chained a leather kit bag to his wrist and rode in the tram to deliver his cargo, returning with other documents. On leaving the Depot, he got a job as a “runaround” in the circus, then at Victoria market and later on the Yarra river paddle steamers, where he met his wife – Beverley’s mum - Edith, who died aged 93 in December. Beverley’s admiration is evident as she describes his early working life. “As a young husband and father, and being self-taught by this stage, dad started a trucking business with a five-tonne truck. “Back in those days of no work regulations, and being self-employed, he had to load everything by hand,” she said.
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