NEWS DESK
Missing lizard’s tale leads to family reunion WHEN the Sayle family’s long-loved pet went missing 18 months ago Amy Sayle believed blue tongue lizard ‘Aussie’ would never be seen again, but a chance conversation with a neighbour has led to a family reunion. Mrs Sayle said 45 centimetre long Aussie had been part of the family for 14 years before he went missing from his Balnarring home. “We obviously thought he’d been eaten by something or died somehow,” she said. On Sunday evening the mother-offour was talking to a neighbour who mentioned they had found a lizard last year that “was really sick and had been
attacked by something”. The neighbour said the lizard was handed in to Balnarring Primary School about a kilometre away but was believed to have died shortly afterwards. “I thought it must have been Aussie but since he’d died I didn’t want to tell the kids. But then she ran over half an hour later and said ‘he’s alive and he’s living in the Balnarring Primary art room’.” Mrs Sayle collected Aussie from the school on Monday. She said Aussie is quite the traveller. He once went missing for six months from a previous family home in Bittern but was eventu-
ally found under the washing machine in the laundry room. “He’d been eating the cat food and he was as fat as anything,” she said. Aussie also went missing for a few weeks in Shepparton but found his way back home himself on that occasion. “He’s got nine lives – it’s amazing.” Aussie the lizard was a 4th birthday present for her eldest son Jesse, now aged 18, and he and all the Sayle children Ebony, 14, Bodhi, 5 and Kai, 2, are all happy about his return from the presumed dead. “He’s very special and my kids are over the moon that he’s back,” Mrs Sayle said.
Aussie may have a few more lizard years left in him yet. The average lifespan of a blue tongue lizard is 20 years but they can live up to 30 years in age. Mrs Sayle reckons Aussie could have a new lease of life thanks to 18 months of tender loving care by Balnarring Primary School pupils and teachers after they nursed the injured lizard back to health. “We have a massive gratitude to them for looking after him.” Balnarring Primary art and science teacher Pea Saunders said Aussie “had scratches all over him as if he’d been mauled by a cat” when he arrived at the school 18 months ago.
“He was struggling to eat and drink any water so he just needed lots of cuddles and lots of TLC and he pulled through even though we didn’t think he would,” she said. As well as having a new habitat for 18 months, Aussie also had a new name during his stay at the school: Browny. Balnarring Primary houses a menagerie of animals, Ms Saunders said. Several classrooms are home to blue tongue lizards, bearded dragons, longnecked turtles and frogs. Goats, rabbits, guinea pigs chooks and ducks live in a sustainability area on the school’s grounds. Neil Walker
Clothesline a symbol against family violence THE Frankston and Mornington Peninsula Family Violence Network recognised National Week without Violence in late October with a visual art display The Clothesline to raise awareness of family violence. The project uses T-shirts hanging on a clothesline as doing the laundry was once considered “women’s work” and women often chatted over backyard fences while hanging the washing out to dry, and confidences were exchanged. Members of the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula Family Violence Network were joined by Australian of the Year Rosie Batty, family violence campaigner and author Sally Halligan, and Dean Clinton, of Victoria Police, at Cube 37 in Frankston, to launch the project last month. Cr David Garnock said Mornington Peninsula Shire was committed to the prevention of family violence. “On average, every week, one Australian woman is killed by a current or former partner. One in three women – about 3.9 million – will have experienced some sort of violence by the age of 15. For indigenous women, the rates of violence are 35 times greater,” Cr Garnock said. “Family violence is a key social and health issue which requires advocacy, collaboration and resourcing.” Cr Garnock said the shire was committed to making the peninsula a safe place, acting to eliminate violence in all forms, ensuring relationships between all members of the community are respectful and promoting the rights of men, women and children to live free from violence. “It is important for us as a council – and as a community – that men, wom-
en and children have the opportunity to participate equally in all spheres of public and private life without fear or discrimination. “We will continue to work towards increasing community awareness of family violence as a key social and health issue.” The Clothesline installation will be displayed throughout the peninsula next year.
Breakfast with cause MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire will host a White Ribbon fundraising breakfast, 7-9am, Wednesday 25 November, at the Mornington Golf Club, Tallis Drive, Mornington. This is part of the campaign to stop violence against women. Tickets are $35 can be reserved at bit.ly/1W1nPH3. Payments can also be made at shire customer service centres.
Clean Ocean leads national program
Community march A WESTERN Port Takes a Stand community march will be held Wednesday 25 November. All are welcome to show support. The march will leave the Victoria St, Hastings Post Office car park, 11.30am. The march will be followed by speakers and a free barbecue at Hastings hall. Details: Hastings Respectful Relationships secretary, 0429 978 916.
Nursing mums PENINSULA Group of the Australian Breastfeeding Association will meet 10am today, Tuesday, in Mt Eliza. New members are welcome. Details: 0418 441 429.
Testing time: Greg Hunt and Clean Ocean Foundation’s John Gemmill show how water samples can be tested. Picture: Supplied
TO the casual observer at Dromana it may have looked like a group of people was having an enjoyable day at the beach. There were some tricky balancing acts on stand-up paddleboards and quickly arranged photos. There was enjoyment and the need for balance, but it was also the arranged announcement of the involvement of “citizen scientists” in monitoring water quality. Flinders MP and Environment Minister Greg Hunt jumped aboard a SUP to show how water samples could be collected offshore and then, with John Gemmill of the Clean Ocean Foundation measured the water’s PH level. Mr Hunt, a long-time supporter of the foundation (he sported a Clean Ocean sticker on his car and his supporters wore the foundation’s t-shirts when handing our how-to-vote cards
on an election day), said $400,000 from the National Environmental Science Program would be used for citizens to collect and test water samples. The program would be led by Clean Ocean and the results of this monitoring of sewage outfall flows and pollution levels would be added to a national database. “The program will monitor the impact of sewage on our marine biodiversity,” Mr Hunt said. The program will see “fishers and surfers … become citizen scientists in a major new science project to monitor the impact of sewage on Australia’s marine biodiversity and ecosystems”. “Together with researchers, recreational water users will contribute to a National Outfall Database (NOD),
to be developed in consultation with the states and Northern Territory,” Mr Hunt said. “The research will form the basis of a national collaboration between communities, scientists, water authorities and government agencies with the aim of working together to reduce the pollution load on our marine environment.” Mr Gemmill said Clean Ocean Foundation was “honoured to be asked to deliver the NOD. It is a very important step in the cleaning up of Australia’s coastline”. “Since achieving our crucial goal of the upgrade of the Eastern Treatment Plant that discharged at Gunnamatta, Clean Ocean Foundation has been focusing on addressing outfalls from a national approach, because our oceans know no borders,” Mr Gemmill said.
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BLAIRGOWRIE • DROMANA • MORNINGTON • ROSEBUD • SEAFORD • TOORAK PAGE 6
Western Port News 10 November 2015