NEWS DESK Busy centre
Portsea pub sale
IT’S a busy time at Sorrento Community Centre during the holiday season. Events include the Rotary Club of Sorrento Art Show, running until Saturday 16 January, in the sports arena. Major prizes are on offer and the show displays a wide array of art in its many forms. Sorrento Community Centre skate park, adjacent to the main car park, is a popular area for the children – as shown by last year’s well-attended competition. Sorrento Connected Garden project supported by Mornington Peninsula Shire is well under way. Join in the development of this area beside the wetlands and skate park. Meetings are held on the last Wednesday of each month. Local environmental specialists often attend and enthusiasts are welcome to offer their ideas. Sorrento Community Centre activities brochure for February to April is available. Check the website or drop into the centre for the latest listings. There is golf for beginners, embroidery circle, soccer for blokes, tai chi, computer courses for at all levels, resume writing, cafe catch up and gone gardening.
PRESS reports, Friday, have confirmed that the Portsea hotel freehold has sold for $17.1 million. The proposed sale was tipped in The News (“Overseas investor eyes on us”, 25/8/15) with owner Colonia Leisure Group national operations manager Grady Patching saying the hotel building and land was for sale – but not the business. Computershare founder and multimillionaire Chris Morris reportedly paid $9.3 million for the 140-year-old hotel in 1999 and his Colonial Leisure Group took full control in 2012. It will continue to run the hotel with Mr Patching stating the venue “has just had its most profitable year since Chris has owned [it]”. A Herald Sun report says hotel baron Mazen Tabet paid $17.1 million for the peninsula icon.
Garden work DROMANA Community Garden project team is holding working bees each Wednesday, 10amnoon, at the Dromana Community Garden, Marna St, Dromana (opposite the tennis club). Monthly working bees are held 10am-noon on the second Sunday of the month, beginning in February. Bring your hat and gloves. Call 0408 345 561.
Thanks, volunteers: Kath Neilsen Memorial Award winner Amanda Graham, second from left, with Maurice Blackburn lawyer Travis Fewster, CEO Jackie Galloway and Volunteers & Education general manager Andrea Staunton.
Free legal advice goes a long way PENINSULA Community Legal Centre is celebrating the contributions of its volunteers who enable it to offer free legal advice four nights a week. The not-for-profit organisation has been providing ongoing assistance to clients on low incomes since 1977. Its volunteers were celebrated around the world on 5 December: International Volunteer Day, by the United Nations General Assembly in 1985. “Last year our volunteer lawyers provided more than 2000 free legal advices,” Volunteers and Education general manager Andrea Staunton said. “Seventy-six per cent of clients assisted by volunteers had no or low incomes (less than $500 gross per week).” Lawyer volunteers run evening
advice clinics at the head office in Frankston and branches at Rosebud, Bentleigh and Cranbourne, with support from a team of paralegal volunteers. The centre also benefits from the governance of a volunteer-based management committee, and from the contributions of trainee lawyers and special project volunteers. Lawyer volunteer, Amanda Graham, from White Cleland Lawyers and Consultants, which has a branch at Frankston, has received the centre’s highest honour, the 2015 Kath Neilson Memorial Award. It created in 2002 in honour of the late Kath Neilsen, a founder and strong supporter of the centre. Ms Graham began as a lawyer-volunteer in 2005, providing free legal advice to clients on a variety of issues. She has since used her expertise
as an accredited family law specialist to present family law professional development sessions to volunteers and staff. “Peninsula Community Legal Centre has been a hub of legal support in the community for many years,” Ms Graham said. “It provides a means for volunteers to get involved in the community. Opportunities for volunteers are varied and volunteer contributions are appreciated and recognised. “I would like to thank the centre for the opportunities it provides for all members of the community.” Ms Staunton says: “Our volunteers have great impact on the centre’s ability to respond to local legal needs and advance justice for our community.” Call 9783 3600 or visit pclc.org.au for details.
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Park opens MORE than 200 people have been invited to the opening of the new community park at Red Hill on Sunday 24 January. Red Hill Community Association has been working on creating the park with Mornington Peninsula Shire since 2009. The invitation list includes councillors and politicians and traders have been asked to donate supplies for the free barbecue which will follow the 12.30pm official opening. Landscaping is being delayed until after summer although the park has barbecues, children's playground, a shelter with picnic tables and benches and parking. An information shelter will be finished in the next few months.
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