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THE P RO PE R TY INSI G HTS SITE
Tuesday 10 October 2017
5973 6424 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
Soggy koala finds solace in blanket COAST Guard volunteers based at Hastings had an unusual passenger on Sunday - a koala rescued from a mooring off Warneet. The koala was picked up after being found shivering on the mooring about 100 metres from the jetty. The rescue boat was on its way back to Hastings at about 9.30am after towing two men in a tinny to Warneet whose engine had broken down off Crawfish Rock. “I saw the koala on the mooring and at first thought it was a stuffed toy,” rescue boat crew member Sean Hannam said. “We turned the engine off and I threw a blanket over him while I was standing on the ladder at the back of the boat. The rest of the crew stood on the side to balance the boat. “The koala didn’t struggle and we took him ashore and released him on Quail Island.” Mr Hannam said it was the first time he’s been involved in rescuing a koala, although he’d been told it wasn’t unknown for koalas to be found in waters near Warneet. “Wrangling him on board and releasing him was a team job,” he said. Keith Platt Rope trick: The Koala found clinging to ropes on a mooring at Warneet was picked up by the Coast Guard’s rescue boat and then delivered home safe and almost dry to Quail Island. Pictures: Sean Hannam and Gary Sissons (boat)
A council on the move
Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is continuing to look far and wide for innovation and inspiration with two councillors and its top executive preparing to pack their bags for overseas and interstate travel. In November, CEO Carl Cowie and Cr Simon Brooks propose being in Germany for an international climate
change conference and Cr Julie Edge wants to be in Brisbane for a forum on disasters. If approved by councillors at last night’s meeting (Tuesday 10 November), before arriving in Bonn for the United Nations’ COP23 conference, Mr Cowie will have already been to Sweden and plans to later head south for another conference in Malta. Closer to home, Cr Edge has sought permission to attend the Fire, Cyclone and Flood Disaster Management and
Recovery Forum in Brisbane from 29 November to 1 December. Total cost of the three journeys is about $25,500. This amount may rise as a report to councillors by Mr Cowie’s executive assistant Bianca Hubble states that the “CEO, potentially with other representatives” of the shire will meet and speak with people “who are all working towards the same goals at the shire”. The shire’s communications and media manager Mark Kestigian said he was unable to provide names or de-
tails of the shire representatives who may be going overseas with Mr Cowie until after tonight’s council meeting. If the conference attendances are approved, the councillors’ costs - $8000 for Cr Brooks and $3000 Cr Edge will be deducted from their $16,000 a four-year term training, conferences and seminars allowance. Mr Cowie’s expenses ($14,500) will be the first to come out of his $30,000 study tour allowance approved by council in September 2016.
In February, the mayor Cr Bev Colomb said the study tour allowance was “an offer that may or may not be taken up by the CEO” (“CEO study deal revealed” The News 27/2/17). This latest round of overseas and interstate travel follows the September study tour to China by Cr Hugh Fraser, chief operating officer Niall McDonagh and waste services team leader Daniel Hinson. Continued Page 6
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