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Wednesday 12 May 2021
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Survival flights not affected by pandemic
ARTIST Kate Gorringe-Smith has co-curated an exhibition of works to highlight the need to protect habitat for migratory birds. Picture: Yanni
THE coronavirus pandemic may have put a firm brake on international travel for many people, but it has had no effect on the flights of migratory birds. The birds continued their annual hazardous 25,000 kilometre round trips from the northern to the southern hemisphere. Western Port and Port Phillip bays are the favoured destinations for many species and more than 300 artists have contributed to an exhibition that highlights the tenuous existence faced by these intrepid international travellers. A family day was held at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington last weekend for World Migratory Bird Day and The Overwintering Project-Westernport exhibition which, co-curated by artist Kate GorringeSmith. The MPRG is a fitting place for the exhibition (which ends Sunday 23 May) as it sits between Port Phillip and Western Port bays, which both include important locations on the world map of bird migrations. The Overwintering Project is a long-term environmental art project that sees artists around Australia uniting to raise awareness for the most endangered group of birds, migratory shorebirds. Migratory shorebirds spend the summer on Australian beaches before heading north, some as far as the Arctic, to breed. The exhibition at the MPRG focusses on Western Port and features works by 17 artists in a variety of media. The works are being shown in conjunction with the Overwintering Project Print Portfolio, a growing collection of more than 300 original prints made by artists from Australia and New Zealand in response to the unique nature of their local migratory shorebird habitat. The exhibition was also being shown at the same time that power company AGL was refused permission on environmental grounds to moor a floating gas import terminal at Crib Point. Gorringe-Smith said the local community had been “delighted” when Western Port’s internationally recognised shorebird habitat “won a recent reprieve from AGL’s proposed development”. The Overwintering Project-Westernport ends Sunday 23 May at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Civic Reserve, Dunns Road, Mornington. Call 5950 1580. Keith Platt
Thumbs up to cut road speed Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au FOUR people have died so far this year on peninsula roads, but no deaths have been recorded on the 33 roads where speed limits have been set at 80kph. The speed cuts from 100kph and 90kph to 80kph were introduced in December 2019 on about 110 kilometres of selected Mornington Peninsula
Shire-managed roads as part of a twoyear trial. Now, half way into the trial, results of an online and phone survey into public acceptance of reducing speeds shows 59 per cent of the 1059 respondents in support and 21 per cent against. A further seven 7 per cent were strongly opposed to the speed trial while 20 per cent were neutral. In 2020, a year where COVID-19 saw road use drop, the peninsula re-
corded nine deaths; in 2019 there were 12 road fatalities. Many of the 33 “high risk sealed rural roads” chosen for the trial had a significant history of road deaths and injuries, and high crash risk rating when speed limits of 100kph and 90kph applied. National and international research has shown that a relatively small reduction in average vehicle speeds leads to a large decrease in road trauma. Councillors have been told that set-
ting 80kph speed limits on high risk rural roads, deaths and serious injuries are expected to drop by 30 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. The speed trial is part of a five-year strategy aimed at eliminating road deaths on the peninsula, with safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds and safer drivers (“Strategy to end deaths on peninsula roads” The News 29/6/20). It also comes at a time when the RACV is compiling a list of the Morn-
ington Peninsula’s most dangerous roads so it can lobby governments at all levels to make roads safer and look at lowering speed limits to match conditions (“Defining ‘danger’ roads” The News 15/3/21). The trial was established to analyse quantitative and qualitative information about crash statistics, vehicle speeds, and the community’s views. Continued Page 9
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