NEWS DESK
Reserve price puts shire off
Memorial clean-up: Sea Shepherd’s Narelle Huxley, right, and Pete Markowiec and Nola Heaney, left, join volunteers to sort the rubbish collected from Mount Martha beach South.
Beach clean-up for environmentalist Liz Bell liz@mpnews.com.au HUNDREDS of volunteers from across Mornington Peninsula and Melbourne donned gloves for a Mount Martha beach clean-up on Sunday 15 May in memory of environmentalist Trent Williams, who died on 9 April while scuba diving. Williams was a highly respected marine biologist who had a long association with the Sea Shepherd organisation, leading its marine debris team of volunteers focussed on keeping the peninsula’s bays and waterways clear of litter. The peninsula-based marine educator was passionate about teaching young people to care for the peninsula’s beaches and was one of the leaders of the Save Flinders Pier campaign.
Williams led scuba teams to remove rubbish from the water and seabed beneath the pier and photographed the Flinders pier structure as part of the group’s independent condition report. His Save Flinders Pier colleagues remembered him as someone who provided energy, experience, knowledge and wisdom to the campaign to generate public interest. His mother Nola Heaney said the beach clean had been an opportunity to remember what Williams loved best – looking after the marine environment. “It’s wonderful to see all these people turn up, we are not only cleaning the beach and removing all this harmful litter that would otherwise end up in the bay, we are honouring Trent and what he stood for,” she said. Sea Shepherd’s Narelle Huxley said the
waste included many bottles dumped among the foreshore bushes, but the main items found were plastic food packaging and tiny nurdles, or pre-production plastic pellets, which could harm marine life. “Nurdles are a major cause of concern to out marine environment, as marine animals eat them and they are highly persistent pollutants that can travel a long way,” she said. “These ones we found today have probably entered the water in Melbourne, where there are factories, and made their way down here due to currents.” The nurdles did not break down in the environment and were toxic to marine life that ingested them. Huxley said some of the waste could be recycled, including bottles, cans and some plastics, but much of it was destined for landfill.
A $20 million price tag appears to have dashed hopes that Mornington Peninsula Shire Council could buy a 2.8-hectare former water reservoir in Mount Eliza for community use. The shire’s acting corporate strategy and business improvement director Nathan Kearsley said a decision had been made to not buy the property at 57 Kunyung Road. “We understand the state government is seeking more than $20 million for this land parcel and there are no existing council policies or strategies that would support its acquisition,” he said. “We understand there are many in the community who want to retain the site as open space. “The mayor [Cr Anthony Marsh] is in the process of writing to the Department of Treasury and Finance to urge the state government to retain the land for public open space and conservation purposes.” South Eastern Centre for Sustainability spokesperson Steve Karakitsos said the group was committed to fighting to preserve the land and surrounding wetlands as a “natural wonder” for the public to enjoy. It had recently held a poetry competition which drew a range of emotional writings about the site and what it meant to the community. He said council’s earlier efforts to investigate buying the land were appreciated. Advice from DELWP earlier this year was to contact Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio to intervene to protect the wetland. Liz Bell
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Mornington News
24 May 2022
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