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Tuesday 22 February 2022
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Devils in the detail
‘All aboard’ - shire’s call on electric train Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au
AN original image is now covering the walls next to 100 Main Street, Mornington, following the hasty removal last month of mural that too closely resembled a work of art in Europe. This time, a different artist, Tyson Savanah, has rendered a piece called Deep Blue Devils for the Mornington Peninsula Shire’s arts and culture program’s anti-graffiti mural project. The brief sought an anamorphic artwork that used the three-walled nook near the ANZ Bank in Main Street.
Savanah said the idea for his underwater image came to him when he saw the trunk of the existing palm and the wooden box covering the water metre. “I knew it was a sunken treasure chest near a pier pole. I chose to add local blue devil fish as the protectors of the treasure,” he said. The first mural was deemed too similar to a painting in Germany by a Swiss artist (“Mural covered up over ‘copy’ claims” The News 10/1/22). Savannah (Father Marker on social
media) said the mural “provided a nice challenge”. The line work for his piece was tagged but, rather than see the negatives, Savanah invited the tagger to assist. On social media Savanah wrote that the incident made him think about how many young taggers and street writers were out there looking for opportunities to show their love of art and street art-based culture in a more publicly acceptable way. Liz Bell
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council has agreed to lobby for electric trains to run between Frankston and Langwarrin as the first stage of a service to Hastings. The estimated $650m to $850m cost for six kilometres of double track would include parking for thousands of cars, allowing peninsula residents to park and catch a metro train to Frankston and beyond. At its second last meeting for 2021 (7 December) the shire’s councillors voted unanimously to lobby for a two-staged approach to having an electric train service to Hastings. Cr Paul Mercurio (endorsed Labor Party candidate for Hastings at the November state election) successfully moved that the shire “endorse an advocacy campaign” for an electrified double rail track from Frankston to Langwarrin, while still seeking state and federal money to extend the electric service to Hastings. Cr Steve Holland, who seconded the move, said: “As far as I can tell, the only thing holding up this project is the state Labor government, all other state and federal parties are committed to the rail extension. So, any advocacy campaign is likely to centre around the state Labor candidates on the peninsula." At the same time as it presses for the Langwarrin development, the shire also wants the state government to improve the diesel rail service to Stony Point, with trains running every 20 minutes during peak times and 40 minutes “all day”. Councillors also want “immediate improvements” to public transport in the Hastings area. If it does get the green light from governments, the Langwarrin station car park and possible bus terminus would be on former Telstra-owned land in McClelland Drive, close to Peninsula Link. In the lead-up to the shire’s changed position on primarily wanting the electric train service to Hastings, councillors were briefed by Ginevra Hosking, CEO of the lobby group Committee for Greater Frankston. In a media release, Ms Hosking said shire councillors had unanimously supported extending the line because “they know it will form the backbone of our region’s future transportation network”. “Electrifying the track to Langwarrin is an immediately achievable first step as there is already $225 million of Commonwealth government funds guaranteed in the federal Budget.” Continued Page 11
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