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Reservations over reservoir: Self-proclaimed Mornington town crier and Mount Eliza resident Ian Morrison, South Eastern Centre for Sustainability president Steve Karakitsos, environmental advocate Craig Thomson, Mornington MP Chris Crewther and shadow planning minister James Newbury are backing the conservation of the former South East Water reservoir. Picture: Supplied
Liberals add reserve to by-election issues
A FRESH push for the decommissioned water reservoir in Kunyung Road Mount Eliza to be protected from development and kept as community space has begun in the lead up to the Dunkley by-election. Mornington MP Chris Crewther, shadow minister James Newbury, South Eastern Centre for Sustainability president Steve Karakitsos and Ian Morrison, of Mount Eliza, visited the site on Tuesday 23 January. The MP and candidate had earlier inspected the Beleura cliff path at Mornington which has been closed because of landslides (‘Spy cameras’ on wrong track, The News 30/1/24). The South East Water reservoir land has been handed to the Department of Infrastructure and Transport and is in the midst of a process to either transfer its ownership or to be sold. Crewther - the former MP for Dunkley who was defeated after one term by Labor’s Peta Murphy who died last December - said there was
an opportunity to keep the land for the public or put it in philanthropic hands as a public-access ephemeral wetlands and reserve, similar to the decommissioned Frankston Reservoir. Crewther said the land also acted as a drainage sink during wet weather or flooding. “The alternative may be selling off the site to a private developer for up to 40 homes, which residents are strongly opposed to,” he said. Crewther said the “the best and easiest result” would be for the land to be transferred to Parks Victoria along with a minimum $1 million from state and or federal governments for basic rehabilitation. He said it “it may be something that could be committed to as part of the Dunkley byelection”. The 2.8 hectare site at 57 Kunyung Road has some bay views. In 2022 Mornington Peninsula Shire Council passed up the opportunity to express an interest to buy the site “for a community use”.
Promise to revive rail extension THE Liberal Party has promised to spend $900 million to electrify the rail link from Frankston to Baxter if it wins government. Opposition leader Peter Dutton made the pledge in Frankston on Friday as part of the campaign by the Liberal Party’s Dunkley by-election candidate, Frankston mayor Nathan Conroy. The planned electrification and duplication of the Stony Point line from Frankston to Baxter was abandoned by the federal government after an infrastructure review last year. A business case has estimated it would cost $1.5 billion to electrify and duplicate the train line to
Baxter. Dutton said having diesel trains running on a single line “is just not right”. “When we give a commitment we deliver on it. We made a promise to fund this project, we are going to fund it, and we are relying on a state government that will see this area as a priority,” he said. Meanwhile, Frankston Council has made a list of alternative projects which could be paid for by the $225 million cut from the abandoned rail extension by the federal government. The Dunkley by-election will be held on 2 March. with the next federal election expected in 2025.
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6 February 2024
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