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22 DECEMBER, 2021
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Summer beach fun
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Altona Beach will come alive this summer, with visitors expected from all across Melbourne. In a bid to improve safety over the summer months, Hobsons Bay council has closed The Esplanade in Altona to cars between Bent and Pier streets, as part of the annual Altona Beach Precinct pedestrian-only zone, The zone creates a safer environment for pedestrians, reduces hoon driving behaviour and supports police surveillance. Road detours are in place and cyclists will be asked to either dismount at the pedestrian safe zone, follow the road detours or use the shared trail along the beachfront at low speeds. The Altona Beach Precinct Esplanade closure was trialled for the first time during the summer of 2018-19, with overwhelmingly positive feedback. Parks Victoria has also closed Altona Pier while it is being redeveloped, with the works set to be completed in 2023 Molly Magennis Fletcher, 6, Natalie, 4, Zara, 4, and Solomon, 6, are keen to spend the summer at Altona beach.
‘Blown away’ by support By Tara Murray The owners of a food truck company whose business has been destroyed by fire have been blown away by community support. Fire tore through Happy Camper Pizza’s factory in Braybrook on Wednesday, destroying a 1960 era food truck and severely damaging two others. One of the owners, Sonia Lear, said the fire was the latest blow after an exhausting two years and not being able to operate the catering businesses through successive lockdowns. She said support from the local community
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had made the owners and staff vow to continue on and find ways to give back. “It has been full on,” she said. “We’ve been blown away by the community. A rival pizza food truck company has set up a GoFundMe page and another one has offered us the use of one of their trailers. “West Footscray Primary School has said we can use their commercial kitchen. Other people have offered to help with working bees. “It has been amazing and we want to fight on and keep going.” Ms Lear said the fire had damaged one side of the building, which they had structurally been able to prop up. The kitchen and
refrigeration container were on the other side of the building and survived. The trucks weren’t insured, as a consequence of the pandemic. “It takes a long time to build those trucks,” Ms Lear said. “We don’t even know where to find the people to fix them at this time of year. “We cut the insurance during lockdown. We couldn’t afford to pay $4000 a month so we cut it. We had only been back open two weeks and hadn’t got around to it.” The money from the GoFundMe page will go to help complete another truck based in the country, which they had been working on before the pandemic hit.
Another consequence of the fire is that work on a pizza bar at the factory will have to be postponed. “We started doing takeaway pizza for the locals during lockdown,” Ms Lear said. “We started renovating it into a permanent pizza bar. We were looking to make it into a social enterprise as well. We had been supplying the Duke Street Neighbourhood House with pizzas. “That will have to stop for now, as we’re more about rebuilding structurally. “We’ve got big plans. We want to keep going and give back.” http://ow.ly/mHF650HcKzO