Bellarine Times
Tuesday 22 February 2011
VOL 4. No 8
www.bellarinetimes.com.au
FREE WEEKLY
$16million upgrade
The Bellarine’s inaugural Festival of Glass proved an overwhelming success on Saturday with more than 3,000 people attending the exhibition of all things glass at Drysdale’s Potato Shed. Local artist David Hobday’s Mushroom Rock Wave was one of the works on exhibition, shown here by Colleen Kenwood from Queenscliff’s Seaview Gallery. Hobday is one of the featured glass artists at Seaview Gallery. For more MICHAEL CHAMBERS photos from the festival, see page 7.
BARWON Water will spend $16million upgrading the Queenscliff and Point Lonsdale sewerage system to improve services. The project, which involves constructing a new pump station, two pipelines and upgrading an existing pump station, was approved last week and will increase the system’s capacity. Barwon Water managing director, Michael Malouf, said the new pump station would be built west of the 600-lot The Point residential development, near Point Lonsdale. A new 4.7-kilometre pipeline will be built from the pump station to connect to the sewerage system near Ocean Grove. The existing pump station in Grimes Road, Point Lonsdale, will be upgraded to handle higher flows and a one kilometre pipeline will be constructed to connect it to the new pump station.
SITE IS SAFE Dive companies and tourism bosses slam “absurd” unsafe claims
BY ALISON MARTIN SAFETY warnings issued to divers exploring the HMAS Canberra dive site have angered experienced divers and frustrated tourism authorities. Dive Victoria director, Jason Salter, who has been involved with the dive site off Ocean Grove, including the preparation of the former warship for scuttling, has described the media beat-up over the warnings as “absurd”. “The Canberra is actually developing into an artificial reef faster than expected. There are many species of sea life that have made it their home and a lot of juvenile species as well, proving it to be a
Surf Forecast
perfect breeding ground as well,” Salter said. “And yes, things like cabinets and tables have moved around the ship as we knew they would, which makes it interesting. “A lot of artificial reefs are boring because the ships have had everything removed but a real shipwreck has loose things floating around just like some things in the Canberra are no longer sitting where they were… but there is no danger.” Concerns were initially sparked by a consultant’s report identifying loose items within the sunken ship, however, Salter urged Parks Victoria to consult with diving experts to make an accurate assessment of the site.
“The Canberra is the only purpose-built site for scuba diving out of the 45 artificial reefs and it’s the safest of all of them,” he said. “We are the experts in the dive industry, not the consultants, and we are taking the liability when we dive and we wouldn’t do it if it was dangerous – first and foremost because we would lose our business. “They need to give us more credit when it comes to safety. “We’ve taken thousands of divers in there and never had an injury… people should not have been given the impression it was unsafe.” Geelong Otway Tourism (GOT) executive
director, Roger Grant, said Salter’s comments were valid and he had already approached Tourism Victoria to assist with pushing the Canberra wreck as a “wonderful, world-class opportunity” for visitors. He said GOT would also be trying to get dive sport specialists and media down to the Bellarine to see the Canberra for themselves. “There has already been terrific marine growth and we want to highlight the site isn’t just a steel container and that there are interesting, lose and mobile items – just like in a real shipwreck,” he said. “When you talk to divers, that’s what they want… not something that has been cleaned out, but a dive that takes on the ambience of a shipwreck.”
WED 1-3ft easing S 21° THU 1-2ft windswell S/SW 23° FRI 1-2ft inconsistent S/SE 22° SAT 1ft+ small N/NE 26°
PAGE
11 6
Vinyl Plank Floating Floor IDEAL FOR D.Y.I. NOW IN STORE 61-63 Murradoc Road, Drysdale
PH 5253 1855