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THE P RO PE R TY INSI G HTS SITE
Tuesday 5 December 2017
5973 6424 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
Oarsome news for paddlers at Devilbend KAYAKERS and canoeists can now legally use Devilbend Natural Features Reserve, Tuerong, near Moorooduc. Parks Victoria has introduced rules allowing paddlers on a 47-hectare section of the former reservoir. Powered craft are prohibited. An exclusion zone has been set aside to provide habitat for wildlife. Earlier this year, Parks sought public comment on allowing non-powered boats on the water following research on their impacts on blue-billed ducks and other waterbirds by the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research. Most of the 96 submissions supported the boating plan. “Experiencing the park from a canoe or kayak offers a different perspective and greater connection with the beauty of the park, enhance fishing opportunities and another way to exercise or get active in the park,” Parks Victoria area chief ranger Georgia Kerr said. The reserve’s 44 species of birds includes eight which are listed as threatened. Since being opened to the public the reserve has become a popular fishing spot for estuary perch and trout which are regularly re-stocked by the Victorian Fisheries Authority. All-abilities visitors will be able to take their vehicles to the water’s edge with a permit from Parks Victoria. Details: call 13 19 63 or visit parks.vic.gov.au
TRISTAN Rogers, of Mt Eliza, caught this estuary perch from his kayak at Devilbend reservoir on Monday. He threw the little fella back. Picture: Gary Sissons
Club’s new lease of life Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au AFTER a long battle Devilbend Golf Club has signed a 21-year lease with the Mornington Peninsula Shire, starting with a yearly rent of $10,233. The rent will increase three per cent annually. The new lease ends a bid by the shire to advertise the course is available for lease, as well as appointing a commercial manager (“Golf club leads scorecard in bid for lease”, The
News, 11/7/2017). In April, the shire’s property operations team leader Greg Collins said granting the club a third 21-year lease over the Crown land “would limit council control over the property to the terms and conditions of the lease”. However, his report was dropped without explanation from the agenda (“Golf club in the rough over lease”, The News, 25/4/17). The volunteer-run club’s president Brad Johnston said that it had been a “tough fight to overturn [the] recommendation to put the course out to
tender to find a commercial operator earlier in the year”. He said the club’s 450 members “were to be congratulated on their coordinated lobbying campaign which provided the councillors with enough information to enable them to make an informed decision on who was best placed to manage the lease”. The club, in Loders Rd, Moorooduc, was established in 1974. Mr Johnson said the work of volunteers in the 42 years since in improving the course and its facilities “with little or no coun-
cil assistance” was a compelling argument in its push to run the course. He thanked councillors who voted unanimously to give the club the lease. In particular he praised the efforts of Cr Kate Roper for her “unwavering support for the club and its volunteers throughout their campaign”. Mr Johnson said the club could now “plan for an exciting future with several proposals for improving the course in the pipeline”. “This course is in magnificent condition and is teeming with wildlife,” he
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said. “It is an absolute pleasure to play in this great environment.” The not-for-profit club employs six full time and seven part time staff. An audited financial report supplied by the club for the year ending 30 June 2016 shows a net operating profit of $71,642 from an annual turnover of $1.36 million. In the 10 years to 2016 the club spent $760,000 on course improvements (not including of staff/volunteer labour); $41,900 on maintenance; and $594,000 to buy machinery.