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Tuesday 31 October 2023
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Fire destroys newly opened restaurant AT least seven businesses affected by a fierce blaze in Main Street, Mornington have been forced to close temporarily after a building was severely damaged and deemed in danger of collapse. Emergency services evacuated patrons on Friday night as the fire took hold in the newly opened Colt Dining at 9a Main Street. The blaze could be seen from across the bay, as flames leapt from the building and smoke blanketed the beach and the end of Main Street. Fire Rescue Victoria, assisted by several CFA units, was called to the fire at 8.43pm, arriving to find the entire second storey of the building alight. Colt Dining owner Matti Fallon watched from the street as his restaurant was engulfed by flames. The former Rare Hare, St Elmo Byron Bay, and Du Nord chef told the media it was “heartbreaking” to lose the restaurant after the effort put into getting it started. Fallon, who grew up in Dromana, and business partner Paul Goddard, have vowed to rebuild and reopen. No one was hurt in the fire, but neighbouring businesses Brass Razu, Afghan Marcopolo restaurant, Millers Bread Cantina, Schnitz, Madeline Kate Brow and Skin Boutique, and Store 15 have closed temporarily. Liz Bell
Pictures: Gary Sissons
Administrator to ‘fix’ land council woes
Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au A SPECIAL administrator has been appointed to bring the Frankston-based Bunurong Land Council (Aboriginal Corporation) back to “good health”. Peter McQuoid, who was appointment in early September, has told the land council’s members that someone in his role “helps to fix problems such as money trouble, service delivery problems or poor governance”. “… The special administrator’s aim is to work with the corporation to fix internal problems and restore it to good health. When I achieve that, I will appoint a new board of directors and hand
back control of the corporation to its members.” Under the terms of his appointment McQuoid, of PDM Consultancy, is due to hand back control on Friday 15 March 2024. In his first newsletter, McQuoid said the Registrar of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations Tricia Stroud had “formed a view that the corporation was not being governed effectively or in the best interests of the corporation and its members”. “Problems with governance and financial management have been going on for some time. The corporation hasn’t successfully held an AGM for the past two financial years, denying members their right to elect directors to govern the corporation on their behalf.” Financial statements on the Bunurong Land
Council website for the year ended 30 June 2021 show a net profit of $1,294,887 ($698,446 in 2020) and a “positive cash flow from operating activities” of $3,542,405 ($1,128,815 in 2020). The land council provides municipal councils with archaeological field assessments as part of cultural heritage management plan (CHMP) process, cultural heritage advice, and information about the Aboriginal community, people, Bunurong culture, and the environment. For each of the past two years Mornington Peninsula Shire has given the land council $100,000 under a memorandum of understanding agreement that, according to the mayor Cr Steve Holland, “details our partnership on matters such as land care, cultural training and some of the actions of our Reconciliation Action Plan”.
Holland said the land council’s involvement in CHMPs costs “from about $6000, depending on their complexity”, but was unable to say had how much the shire had paid in the past three years “due to the range of services and fees involved over multiple projects”. When announcing the appointment of a special administrator Stroud said an examination of the corporation’s books in March “identified serious concerns with respect to the standard of corporate governance of the corporation”. Examiners who checked the corporation’s books in March “confirmed poor standards of corporate governance and financial management, likely arising from long-standing dysfunction and factions among key roles in the corporation”. Continued Page 8
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