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Tuesday 16 January 2018
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Turning logs into art WOMEN and chainsaws are not usually mentioned in the same sentence – except when the woman is chainsaw artist Angie Polglaze. The Hastings resident carves timber into eye-catching shapes and has won more awards than any other female carver in the world. Her skills have earned her a Service to the Arts Award from the United Chainsaw Carvers Guild in 2011 for her “encouragement and inspiration to women carvers everywhere”. Their challenge is to carve sculptures from a single piece of wood. This year’s theme is The Garden. “Chainsaw carving is mindboggling,” said Ms Polglaze, who draws her inspiration “from life” and learned her craft mainly from watching fellow competitors. The arts honours graduate’s 22 years as a wood carver included a decade “living out of a suitcase” while travelling the world. Times have changed: “Five years ago I got a house and a mortgage, two dogs and a cat, and decided not to travel so much. I’ve got critters who count on me.” Ms Polglaze loves giving renewed life to cypress pine which is her favoured material as it “doesn’t split, holds together and paints well”. “I find the events exciting. Coming from an arty background I use a lot of colour – that’s my trademark.” This week Ms Polglaze competes in the annual Australian Chainsaw Carving Competition at the SkyHigh Observatory, Mt Dandenong, 16-21 January. Her nine opponents include Canadian Marina Cole and men from the US and Japan. Stephen Taylor
Picture: Yanni
Rocks to fight erosion Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au BOULDERS will be used in a bid to stop further erosion of cliffs at Mt Martha Beach North and damage to the Esplanade. Engineering consultants have warned that the ongoing loss of the cliffs between Alice and Augusta streets threatens to eventually damage the coastal road linking Morning-
ton and Safety Beach. The bitumen is cracked in many sections of the road which has also been closed twice in recent years because of landslides Work on installing rocks at the cliff base will start in April, although 430 metres of the beach is likely to remain officially closed until the project is completed. The Mt Martha North Beach Group sees the rock revetment going only “some way towards solving our problems”.
Members of the beach group believe a 25 metre long rock groyne should be built north of the beach to prevent further loss of sand. Consultants have put a $330,000 price tag on the groyne (“Call to make a point” The News 5/12/18). In the weeks leading up to Christmas five beach boxes were demolished, while others remain on precarious stumps. Access stairs to the remaining beach boxes end high above the sand, giving an indication of how much of the
beach has been swept away. Steps to the beach opposite Alice St are closed. The cliff continues to crumble behind the boxes making them vulnerable to landslides as well as to being knocked down by the sea. Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio says while $880,000 will be spent protecting the base of the cliff the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) will have a closer look at “engineering solutions” to prevent further erosion of
the beach and cliff (“Beach ‘repairs’ could cost $4m” The News 31/10/17). Mornington Peninsula Shire – in a news release welcoming the state government’s intervention – points out that it only manages the beach which is owned by DELWP. “Significant erosion and wave action over a number of years has caused damage to the land and buildings located on the foreshore resulting in unstable cliffs,” the shire states in its news release. Continued Page 7
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