Mornington Your guide to what’s on this weekend for peninsula families
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Tuesday 24 February 2015
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Last chance to see? MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire’s Young Citizen of the Year Sarah Berry of Mt Eliza took a selfie shot with Prime Minister Tony Abbott at Frankston RSL last Thursday. The increasingly embattled Prime Minister left behind leadership speculation and cabinet leaks in Canberra to visit Frankston for an afternoon tea hosted by federal Dunkley Liberal MP Bruce Billson to thank residents who contribute positively to their community. See story, Page 14. Picture courtesy Business Times
Push for new reserve Mike Hast mike@mpnews.com.au PRESSURE is building on South East Water and Mornington Peninsula Shire to create a nature reserve instead of a housing estate on land occupied by an old reservoir at Mt Eliza. Last year the government water authority asked the shire to rezone 2.8 hectares on the corner of Barmah and
Kanya roads, east of Kunyung Rd, for 24 blocks of about 1000 square metres. The shire called for public comment and is likely to consider the matter at its 23 March meeting in Mt Martha. Several of more than 75 submissions point out this part of Mt Eliza has just two inland reserves – Bruce Cameron Reserve (site of Kunyung Preschool) and an uninviting, flood-prone area next to Gunyong Creek.
An open space policy currently being prepared by the shire states peninsula towns or precincts should have at least five per cent open space. Some new subdivisions have 10 per cent. The land was acquired by the state government in the early 1960s for a reservoir to serve a growing Mt Eliza but was decommissioned in the 1990s, as were many other open reservoirs such as Devilbend (near Moorooduc)
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and Frankston, both of which are now nature reserves. Frankston’s and Mt Eliza’s reservoirs have become islands of nature surrounded by suburbs. Reservoir neighbours formed a lobby group, Kunyung Residents Group, in late November to push for a reserve. Wildlife experts helping the group have identified 18 species of native birds using the fenced-off land and dam, which has water after rain, as
well as four kinds of skink, two species of blue-tongue lizard, three species of frog, and four mammal species. The land is worth about $450,000 a block, $10.8 million all up. Money would need to be spent to fill and compact the reservoir, install services and build roads, including an extension of Bethanga St, which ends at the southern side of the reservoir land. Continued Page 11