NEWS DESK
Zombies unleashed on line Neil Walker neil@baysidenews.com.au IF you see hordes of shambling blood-splattered hordes near train stations in the next few weeks there may be no need to call police or protective services officers for help. The mob may be dressed and made up as zombies as part of an independent short movie project called Benedict being filmed in Melbourne and its suburbs. It’s a ghoulish sight familiar to fans of TV show The Walking Dead but is slightly less common along the Frankston line. Zombies shuffled along to Mordialloc on a Sunday morning last month (18 September) to film some scenes under the railway bridge next to Mordialloc Creek. Bonbeach actor Rick Vaveliuk, 38, was one of the few, in his role as the titular Benedict, not infected by a zombie plague so still had the brainssss to tell The News about filming at Mordialloc for the spin-off prequel from another independent film due for release next year called The Last Hope. “The scene was set in Europe where the outbreak begins so it’s six months before the events in The Last Hope,” he said. “It was an escape scene at the train station so that’s why we used the tunnel and that part of Mordialloc because it fit the setting perfectly.” He said there were about 30 people on the makeshift set, “mostly zombies and a few civilians”.
Approval for the early morning shoot was approved by Kingston Council, police, emergency services and Metro Trains. “Everyone was very helpful,” Vaveliuk said. The actor says he also shot scenes in Mentone, Brunswick and Doveton and “I’m spitting out all these little short movies for practice”. A shorter version of Benedict is online on YouTube now and the scene filmed at Mordialloc will be added to “an extended director’s cut”. Benedict’s big brother film feature The Last Hope, written and directed by St Kilda resident Leigh Ormsby, is a zombie tale with a modern Australian twist. The film’s synopsis reveals: “The world has been devastated by the virus that has reanimated the dead to consume the living. Australia has so far remained unscathed through a brutal border protection policy and internment facilities.” As is the custom in such films, all hell breaks loose, this time due to the arrival of “a mysterious girl” and an uprising at a detention centre. “Will Australia, the last hope for many, finally fall?” the synopsis asks. The short film was partly financed by its makers via Pozible crowdfunding campaigns. Its modest budget aims to take some sharp shots at Australia’s and is billed as “a metaphor for everyone who sees Australia for what it is.” “For Australians, our country is a beacon of hope for many due to our high living standards, the fact we are
CEO pay up KINGSTON Council’s highest-paid executive has picked up a pay rise. Councillors discussed council CEO John Nevins’ performance after last month’s public council meeting on 12 September behind closed doors as is customary for council employee matters. Councillors decided to hand a 1.4 per cent rise to Mr Nevins bringing his remuneration up to $376,511. Mayor Cr Tamsin Bearsley confirmed “a scheduled annual CEO review, as set out under the current contract, was recently independently facilitated”. Cr Bearsley said the CEO’s salary is in line with similar sized municipalities. Mr Nevins was appointed CEO of Kingston Council in 2005 and his latest contract expires in November 2018.
Lighters spark raid
Up zombie creek: Rick Vaveliuk, top left, with a zombie mob assembled for the filming of a short movie in Mordialloc. Picture: Gary Sissons
so connected to the world, yet so isolated. “For anyone who lives here, there is hope that you can become someone. For people wishing to live here, Australia is a land of hope and freedom. But what happens when that hope is stripped away for both those wanting to come here and for those
that already living here? “Also, zombies are cool and who doesn’t love a good zombie film?!” Benedict and The Last Hope will both be released like a zombie virus next year and its makers hope they spread quickly online. See @filmthelasthope page on Facebook for further information.
Waterways levy falls by wayside Neil Walker neil@baysidenews.com.au A LONG-RUNNING dispute over maintenance costs for Waterways residents has finally been resolved after Kingston councillors decided council will now pick up an annual tab of $310,000 for mowing and upkeep of shared areas in the suburb. Homeowners in the sprawling 46-hectare suburb that includes vast tracts of parkland and manmade lakes have long argued they should not pay for council services provided elsewhere as a matter of course. At last month’s public council meeting outgoing councillor John Ronke successfully proposed the time had
come for Waterways homeowners to receive the same services from council as ratepayers elsewhere in Kingston. Cr Ronke said the additional cost impost on Waterways residents was a legacy of council being a financial “basketcase” in 1997 when Portland House Group wanted to build “an environmental oasis together with a vibrant community”. He said council had to make some “tough decisions” and maintenance standards were under pressure so council at the time decided to place a levy on Waterways homeowners so the housing estate could be built. Cr Ronke said council’s stronger financial position now made it feasible to axe the levy.
“No other community in Kingston pays a maintenance levy for the same standard of service anyone else in Kingston gets. “It’s not a gated community. Every resident in Kingston has the opportunity to visit and spend time there.” Waterways Owners Corporation chair David Flew welcomed council’s decision to immediately end the levy. “We are extremely pleased and happy that the decision to bring this longrunning issue to an end has finally occurred,” he said. “Special thanks to Cr John Ronke for proposing the resolution, to Cr David Eden for seconding and supporting it, and to Cr Tamsin Bearsley for all the work she did to ensure this came to council in a timely manner.”
Cr Rosemary West believed the move to axe the levy, before a council officer’s report into the matter was completed, set a bad precedent for future developments. “This was a development in the Green Wedge that really never should have been allowed,” she said. Cr West noted the maintenance costs were being shifted to all Kingston ratepayers who may not enjoy the luxury of an abundance of open space near their homes. The Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2011 used Census data to determine that Waterways, with 2160 residents at the time, rated higher than Toorak, Brighton and Canterbury or any other suburb in Melbourne in an index of socio-economic advantage.
More than 2,000 cigarette lighters shaped like high-top sneakers were seized from a Moorabbin importer last month over safety concerns for children. Consumer Affairs Victoria product safety inspectors discovered the banned lighters, which were poised for sale in Victorian stores, following a tip-off from interstate authorities. In total 2361 lighters were seized, valued at about $12,000. Toy-like novelty cigarette lighters were permanently banned nationwide in 2011 in a bid to keep kids safe. Traders supplying banned goods can face fines of up to $1.1 million and $220,000 for individuals. Monash University’s Victorian Injury Surveillance Unit statistics show 40 children were taken to Victorian emergency departments for burns caused by using or playing with cigarette lighters in the past five years. Anyone with concerns about product safety issues can contact Consumer Affairs Victoria on 1300 36 48 94 or visit consumer.vic.gov.au
Dangerous: Seized lighters.
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Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News
5 October 2016
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