NEWS DESK
Sand sculpting heads back to the peninsula Neil Walker neil@mpnews.com.au THE high-profile sand sculpting exhibition that lured millions of visitors to Frankston is moving back to the Mornington Peninsula. The annual sand sculpting exhibition, hosted at the Frankston waterfront for the past decade, will not return next summer. Failed negotiations between commercial event organiser Sandstorm Events and Frankston Council about making the sculptures exhibition an all-year round event are believed to be partly behind the decision for the event to leave Frankston. Sandstorm Events did not return calls from The News before publication but council did confirm the sand sculpting exhibition’s exit. “The end of the major event contract with council coincided with a change in management structure, which unfortunately means that the exhibition as we know it is not returning to Frankston next summer,” council stated on the Frankston & Peninsula District Ratepayers Page & Regional Political Forum page on Facebook, where news of the event’s exit first appeared. The statement was made by “Frank Stone”, a council Facebook account verified by The News as being legitimate, and it also said: “We worked collaboratively with Sandstorm Events over the past three years to support their bid for a year-round permanent attraction, which unfortunately was not able to be realised. “Council appreciates the great attraction they brought to our waterfront every year. The sand sculpting exhibi-
Nothing lasts forever: Construction on last year’s sand sculpting exhibition at Frankston. Picture: Gary Sissons
tion was hugely popular and over the 11 years that Frankston’s waterfront was the home of sand sculpting over 1.2 million visitors enjoyed their magnificent and detailed carved artworks.” An announcement on Sand Sculpting Australia’s website says Boneo Maze near Rye will be “the new home of Sand Sculpting Australia” from December this year. The move to Fingal on the southern
peninsula is a return home of sorts for the sand sculpting exhibition. Frankston snared the event from Rye 11 years ago. Former federal Dunkley Liberal MP Bruce Billson announced in February 2016 that a $750,000 federal grant would go towards building “a weatherproof structure” including a roof to potentially make the sand sculpting exhibition an all-year round event at
“committed to supporting unique events and tourism experiences which attract visitors to our city”. A Food Truck Park festival at the waterfront in October was announced as part of the 2018-19 tourism attraction program and Australian Beach Games will also be held at the waterfront in March next year. Full details of tourism events can be found at visitfrankston.com online.
Frankston. However, the grant was dependent on matched “like for like” funding. Sandstorm Events managing director Sharon Redmond at the time said the company would match the funding bringing the total to $1.5 million. Frankston Council stated any structure at the waterfront site would need to comply with planning regulations. Council last week said it remains
Sports’ fixtures create finals fiasco Brodie Cowburn team@mpnews.com.au A DECISION by the Mornington Peninsula Junior Football League to play its finals on Saturdays is forcing some players to choose between playing basketball or football. Clubs in the MPJFL usually play on Sundays, allowing many team members to play other sports on a Saturday without fear of a scheduling conflict. “Many children play basketball on a Saturday, so now we're in a position where the finals fixtures clash with us
because they're played on a Saturday too," Mornington District Basketball Association general manager Samantha Browne said. "When the children signed up to play football they were of the understanding they would be playing on a Sunday.” Ms Browne said the basketball association was unable to change its fixture this late in the season, leaving children “in a position where they'll have to either forfeit their football matches or their basketball matches”. "We should be able to work together to avoid these situations, because we
know that having children play multiple sports is really healthy. All this is doing is making children choose and putting kids in really difficult positions," she said. The full junior football finals fixture for 2018 was released on 22 July. All finals last year outside of the junior, intermediate and youth girls' games were played on a Sunday. MPJFL senior vice-president Paul Lonsdale said the league tried its best to find a ground for all finals on a Sunday, but the lack of availability made Saturday finals a "last resort". “Junior football is growing so much
stop this from happening.” Mr Lonsdale said the MPJFL was “working really hard” to avoid a repeat of the problem next year. “There's a decision to be made for players and now we're going to lose players back to netball and basketball too; it's hard to try and please everyone but we were working hard to get everything on a Sunday. "We thought long and hard about it and we had no other options. We want to make sure we get on with all codes, but the size of our league and the ground availability is making it harder and harder."
it's just so hard to hold finals all on the same day,” he said. “We don't have the grounds and the time, it's very difficult. We would have loved to have a three or four ground facility, we approached Mt Eliza but with their seniors teams playing finals they shot us down. “There are 28 finals to be played and we can only realistically fit 13 in one day on a two-oval set up. We know it was late timing, but we tried finding a three-oval setup and this was our last resort, it wasn't that we were trying upset anybody, we were just trying to find another avenue to
Calling for expressions of interest in Round 4 of the
STRONGER COMMUNITIES PROGRAMME Does your community organisation have a project which could benefit from funding? Local Flinders non-profit and community organisations are encouraged to apply for funding to undertake small capital works through round 4 of the Turnbull Government’s Stronger Communities Programme. I encourage local groups to contact my office on 5977 9082 or complete an expression of interest form through my website www.greghunt.com.au
Expressions of Interest applications close 5pm, Friday, 31 August 2018.
GREG HUNT MP
Federal Member for Flinders
1/49 Eramosa Road West, Somerville VIC 3912 5977 9082
Authorised by Greg Hunt MP, Liberal Party of Australia, 1/49 Eramosa Road West, Somerville VIC 3912.
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Southern Peninsula News
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greg.hunt.mp@aph.gov.au
greghunt.com.au
greg.hunt.mp