NEWS DESK
Federal $5m cash splash for pool FLINDERS MP Greg Hunt has promised the federal government will chip in $5 million for the proposed Rosebud Aquatic Centre. “For the past 15 years I have been supportive of the genuine need for improved aquatic facilities in the southern part of the Mornington Peninsula and to see this project start to take shape is truly extraordinary,� Mr Hunt said. (Mr Hunt was once photographed marching with placard-bearing ratepayers demanding the pool be built on the foreshore at Rosebud. The plan was eventually abandoned for not conforming with state government regulations governing buildings on the foreshore.) “This is an incredible endeavour by the shire to build this facility and we will do our part to support them with a $5 million investment to help with development and construction costs,� Mr Hunt said last week. His office confirmed the money would be provided through a funding agreement with the shire. It said the agreement included “milestones and timing of payments [which] will be negotiated with the council in coming weeks and will largely depend on project timings�. The estimated $43m centre will be built on shire land in Besgrove Street. The council says it is supporting a “fast-tracked approach� to deliver the centre by September 2020.
Significant: The former children’s hospital’s administration building at Mt Eliza.
Former hospital goes up for sale AN historic former children’s orthopaedic hospital in Mt Eliza owned by the state government is about to be put up for sale. The 3.2 hectare site at 33 Jacksons Road has been deemed “surplus to requirements� by the Department of Health and Human Services. It is not known how the site will be marketed or what sale price is expected. The department was contacted for comment. Built in the early 1930s, as the orthopaedic branch of the Children’s Hospital, it treated thousands of children with polio, tuberculosis, osteomyelitis and congenital deformities before discharging its last patient in 1971. The centre was converted into a geriatric hospi-
tal in 1969 and became the Mt Eliza Centre run by Peninsula Health. The buildings are designated “historically, architecturally and aesthetically significant� by Mornington Peninsula Shire. The buildings are seen as “fine examples of inter-war Mediterranean style clearly demonstrating the characteristics of early 20th century hospital design�. The “significant� buildings, including part of the former administration block, treatment ward and chapel, are included in a heritage overlay. A large Moreton Bay fig tree outside the former administrative block, which had been considered significant by the shire, has had its importance downplayed by the department and is excluded
from the heritage overlay. The hospital was established in response to an epidemic of infantile paralysis in the late 1920s and a lack of space to treat them at the Children’s Hospital campus, Carlton. This idea gelled with the period’s perceived benefits of fresh air, sunshine and brisk sea breezes. The site at Mt Eliza – a grand holiday home with bay views owned by a prominent Melbourne architect in 1878 – was snapped up when it became available. The Governor Lord Somers laid the foundation stone for the 100-bed hospital in 1929 but, because of the effects of the Great Depression, less than half the beds were occupied when it opened the following year.
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Southern Peninsula News
3 July 2018