NEWS DESK
Challenge taken for hospital PENINSULA Health’s call for the community to participate in its FEB 50 Challenge to raise money for Rosebud Hospital was answered loud and clear when it kicked off last Thursday (1 February). The FEB 50 Challenge encourages participants to walk, run, ride or choose the activity they prefer to complete 50 kilometres in February. The campaign started last week with a Peninsula Health-coordinated five kilometre walk from Rosebud Hospital to Rosebud pier and back. Rosebud Hospital is part of Peninsula Health, the major public health service providing healthcare for Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula. The hospital has one acute and one rehabilitation ward and a 24-hour emergency department at the main entrance on Point Nepean Road. The hospital site encompasses renal dialysis, community, mental and allied health services, as well as dental clinics and a rehabilitation service. It is adjacent to Peninsula Health’s Cancer and Clinical Trials Hub, also on Point Nepean Road, Picture: Yanni
where six chemotherapy chairs are located. The hospital admits and treats about 2000 people annually. The number of emergency department presentations averages 20,000 a year, around 1700 each month. This figure can jump significantly in summer when many holiday makers visit the area. To donate to the cause, go to feb50challenge. raisely.com/ There is also a community-driven fundraiser for the hospital redevelopment. Organisers of the Rosebud Hospital rally held on Wednesday 24 January are hoping the large turnout of community members will convince politicians, business entities and philanthropic donors to support the redevelopment of the hospital. One of the organisers, Jo Gilbert, said the turnout had been a massive show of support for the hospital and backed the argument for the need to keep it in the local community.
Reservations over reservoir: Self-proclaimed Mornington town crier and Mount Eliza resident Ian Morrison, South Eastern Centre for Sustainability president Steve Karakitsos, environmental advocate Craig Thomson, Mornington MP Chris Crewther and Dunkley Liberal Party candidate Nathan Conroy are backing the conservation of the former South East Water reservoir. Picture: Supplied
Liberals add reserve to by-election issues A FRESH push for the decommissioned water reservoir in Kunyung Road Mount Eliza to be protected from development and kept as community space has begun in the lead up to the Dunkley by-election. Mornington MP Chris Crewther, shadow minister James Newbury and the Liberal Party’s Dunkley candidate Nathan Conroy, South Eastern Centre for Sustainability president Steve Karakitsos and Ian Morrison, of Mount Eliza, visited the site on Tuesday 23 January. The MPs and candidate had earlier inspected the Beleura cliff path at Mornington which has been closed because of landslides (‘Spy cameras’ on wrong track, The News 30/1/24). The South East Water reservoir land has been handed to the Department of Infrastructure and Transport and is in the midst of a process to either transfer its ownership or to be sold. Crewther - the former MP for Dunkley who was defeated after one term by Labor’s Peta Murphy who died last December - said there was
an opportunity to keep the land for the public or put it in philanthropic hands as a public-access ephemeral wetlands and reserve, similar to the decommissioned Frankston Reservoir. Crewther said the land also acted as a drainage sink during wet weather or flooding. “The alternative may be selling off the site to a private developer for up to 40 homes, which residents are strongly opposed to,” he said. Crewther said the “the best and easiest result” would be for the land to be transferred to Parks Victoria along with a minimum $1 million from state and or federal governments for basic rehabilitation. He said it “it may be something that could be committed to as part of the Dunkley byelection”. The 2.8 hectare site at 57 Kunyung Road has some bay views. In 2022 Mornington Peninsula Shire Council passed up the opportunity to express an interest to buy the site “for a community use”.
Promise to revive rail extension THE Liberal Party has promised to spend $900 million to electrify the rail link from Frankston to Baxter if it wins government. Opposition leader Peter Dutton made the pledge in Frankston on Friday as part of the campaign by the Liberal Party’s Dunkley by-election candidate, Frankston mayor Nathan Conroy. The planned electrification and duplication of the Stony Point line from Frankston to Baxter was abandoned by the federal government after an infrastructure review last year. A business case has estimated it would cost $1.5 billion to electrify and duplicate the train line to
Baxter. Dutton said having diesel trains running on a single line “is just not right”. “When we give a commitment we deliver on it. We made a promise to fund this project, we are going to fund it, and we are relying on a state government that will see this area as a priority,” he said. Meanwhile, Frankston Council has made a list of alternative projects which could be paid for by the $225 million cut from the abandoned rail extension by the federal government. The Dunkley by-election will be held on 2 March. with the next federal election expected in 2025.
Death, rescues at Rye, Cape Schanck
PRINCIPAL PATRON
PRINCIPAL PATRON
TIM FAIRFAX AC
PRINCIPAL PRINCIPAL PATRON PATRON
TIM FAIRFAX AC
TIM TIM FAIRFAX FAIRFAX ACAC
PAGE 10
Western Port News
7 February 2024
IT was a horror weekend in the water on the Mornington Peninsula, with two deaths in Rye and people swept off rocks at Cape Schanck. Police will prepare a report for the coroner following the death of a man at Rye pier on Saturday (3 February) morning. Emergency services were called following reports that a scuba diver had been pulled from the water about 10am. It is understood the man was found unconscious in the water by other scuba divers, but he could not be resuscitated. Emergency services are searching for a swimmer who is still missing at Rye after being caught in a rip on Sunday 4 February. Emergency services were called to 16th Beach on Sunday night after reports a man was missing
in the water. Police said the man had been swimming with friends when they were caught in a rip about 7pm. Two people managed to make it to shore but the 20-year-old man was reported missing. The police Air Wing, Lifesaving Victoria and Ambulance Victoria searched the area Sunday night, but the man is yet to be found. Eight people also had to be rescued after they were swept off rocks near Cape Schanck, on Sunday afternoon. Ambulance Victoria said two teenagers were taken to Frankston Hospital in a stable condition with lower body injuries. Six other people were assessed but did not require hospital treatment.
