NEWS DESK
Chopper busy with rescues TWO snorkelers were rescued by the Police Air Wing Sunday afternoon after being stuck in an inlet near Tasman Drive, Rye. The Frankston couple were with a Richmond man – all aged 23 – when the woman was dumped by a large wave about 5pm. This inflamed an asthmatic condition causing her distress and she and the man managed to swim to an isolated inlet to shelter in a cave. The receding tide left them high and dry – but unable to get to safety. Senior Sergeant Steve Duffee, of Rosebud police, said their friend managed to scale the cliff while it was still light and alert authorities with the help of a passing hiker. The multi-agency rescue response included Rosebud police, Rye CFA, Sorrento SES, Dandenong high-angle rescue crew and the police Air Wing. Rye CFA captain Glenn Diamond said his crew erected lights so the helicopter crew could see the cave, allowing them to winch the couple to safety. “If we’d had to use the high-angle crew it
would have been a problem because it was dark and the cliffs are sharp limestone,” he said. The couple were taken to Stringer Rd reserve, Sorrento, and then Rosebud hospital for observation. The other man was able to drive home. Earlier, the Police Air Wing rescued two teenagers stranded on rocks off Flinders ocean beach. The 14-year-old boy and girl had wandered away from their carer about 1pm and walked out to an exposed Mushroom Reef about 400 metres from shore. They were cut off when the tide came in and waves started to break over the rocks. The alarm was raised and the Air Wing was able to winch the teenagers to safety. Senior Sergeant Duffee cautioned water users to keep an eye on conditions and alert others to their whereabouts. A Red Hill man in his 70s was airlifted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with a suspected broken leg and dislocated shoulder after being injured when his his ride-on mower tipped over, 3.10pm Sunday.
Timely pick up: Two teenagers are plucked to safety by the police Air Wing Sunday afternoon from Mushroom Reef, Flinders. Picture: Matt Drysdale
Storm before calm as Canberra boxes on By David Harrison GREAT sheets of silent lightning flashed over the Rip as Council Watch headed for the Rosebud meeting, listening in the car to excited radio speculation on who would be prime minister after this night. CW wondered what the Boon Wurrung (or indeed the Bunurong) made of dramatic celestial pyrotechnics back in the Dreamtime. They had not heard of Canberra. The restless sky portended rain. The restless radio appeared to be hoping for a warm change in Canberra, where the boxer and the banker were contesting Round 2 in their drawnout bout for supremacy. CW recalled Simon & Garfunkel’s The Boxer: “After changes upon changes we are more or less the same.” Inside the predominantly tory council chamber, the atmosphere was flat, preoccupied, thoughts probably wandering north to the political stoush. Two councillors, David Gibb and the mayor Bev Colomb, were apologies. Lynn Bowden remained on leave of absence. Deputy mayor Graham Pittock was in the chair, brisk and businesslike. CW wondered how he votes. Anne Shaw and Andrew “Billy” Dixon have tory links and Cr Bowden’s spouse is a retired Liberal MP, but the chamber sees little evidence of party line voting. Several councillors studied their iPads intently, possibly awaiting political news. The national capital’s name is generally regarded as aboriginal-de-
rived, from “cobbrra” or derivations “kabura” or “kabera”, meaning great corroboree meeting ground. Emphasis on the first syllable. The settlement was originally named Canbery. A rather unprophetic tombstone marking an 1845 death states: “For here we have no continuing city, but seek one to come.” The city without a heart flourishes despite this. But CW digresses. The council meeting recorded the passing of John M Morgan, pharmacist and 1970s councillor of Mornington Shire, aged 78. Then followed a single question, on possible leachate from Rye tip damaging the Tootgarook wetlands. Assurance was given that this was highly unlikely, but that an old landfill closer to the wetlands was being monitored as the Environment Protection Authority requires. East Timor was in the agenda and was also subject of a notice of motion on seabed boundaries, as reported in The News (“Shire urged to back East Timor’s gas field claim”, 15/9/15). The shire’s Friends of Lospalos group, now 15 years old, advanced a step last December with the signing of a municipal agreement formally linking the Mornington Peninsula with Timor Leste’s Lautem municipality, in which the Lospalos sub-
district is located. The motion, moved by Friends group chairman Cr Tim Rodgers, was carried, with a couple of abstentions. It calls on the federal government to start negotiations on establishing permanent seabed boundaries that would provide the impoverished fledgling country with a revenue share from offshore oil and gas fields. Cr Tim Wood pointed out that Australia was acting properly in its approach to these fields, the Greater Sunrise and Laminaria Corallina. Cr Rodgers said East Timor was 45 minutes’ flight from Darwin. The Koreans and Chinese were more active there than is Australia, he said. Ditto the “four-step context analysis and design response guide”, aimed to “assist prospective planning permit applicants and design consultants” to achieve better results “and hence contribute to the quality of the built environment on the Mornington Peninsula”. CW remains sceptical, having seen monstrosities rise on hills and valleys around the peninsula. Municipal waste, also on the next agenda, usually raises temperatures in the chamber but this evening a profound change was approved without a single raised voice. Councillors decided to close the shire’s last tip, the odiferous Rye Landfill in Truemans Rd, and seek a site outside the peninsula to take the kerbside waste. Shire policy for years was to keep shire rubbish in the shire. That changed when it became part of the metropolitan waste management program and the EPA refused to allow
the old Pioneer quarry on Arthurs Seat to become a rubbish tip. Oh, and not to forget the proposed RACV behemoth, high as a sevenstorey building, about to loom over the Cape Schanck settlement. What VCAT orders, the shire must cop. Blessed be the name of VCAT, and the folk who render their judgements on our neighbourhoods. Red gondolas? Splendid! Blue gondolas? Even more magnificent! A great contribution to the natural beauty of Arthurs Seat, to be sure. The Hastings plan for High St and local laneways prompted discussion on traffic speed – no provision for fast cyclists and a ring road speed of 40kph in the interests of pedestrians, mobility scooters and children – and passed, with a dissenting vote from Cr Pittock. The Tootgarook wetland, rightly a favourite of councillors, has had imposed on part of it an environmental significance overlay, with two land parcels, part of the Boneo Equestrian Centre, excluded, effectively for reasons of mapping difficulties. In the same agenda item a small area of Bittern was proposed to be protected by an overlay, to create a graduated density zone on the outskirts of the village. Councillors were told a decision that night would protect the area until a ministerial ruling was made, by designating it “a seriously entertained proposal”. In the intricacies of planning, CW is a babe in the woods, but he thinks that was the gist of the explanation. “There are some greedy developers
out there,” the meeting was told. A series of items on land subdivisions, tennis courts and waste monitoring whizzed through on the “moved, seconded, carried” basis. Then came the notice of motion on flood maps – a show-stopper which, councillors were told by governance manager Joe Spiteri, would have no effect even if councillors passed it, since the maps already had ministerial approval. Cr Tim Rodgers had proposed suspending use of the maps as they were causing great difficulties for builders – as reported in The News (“Flood maps blamed for $2m work loss”, 15/9/15) – as well as what were described as inaccurate as well as involving tedious bureaucratic requirements and unnecessary costs. Municipal building surveyor David Kotsiakos was not present to help with the map problems, which deeply disappointed Cr Rodgers. Cr Anne Shaw came to the rescue, suggesting replacing the words “council suspend” use of the maps to “council require a report … on 12 October” regarding the maps. Problem neatly solved, and probably a nice problem created for Mr Kotsiakos. The final agenda item was so confidential mere ratepayers could not even be told its subject. So, back into the lowering night, to await the result of our national leadership bout. Like a chess move, an Abbott fell to a Turnbull. Checkmate?
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Western Port News 22 September 2015
Mornington Peninsula News Group
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