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Wednesday 6 October 2021
5974 9000 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
Artists invited to share peninsula impressions
Showtime: Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery director Danny Lacy says Front Beach, Back Beach will display the whole of the peninsula. Picture: Yanni
THE peninsula’s arts sector has received a boost as it seeks to recover from COVID-19 with the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery being given $300,000 from the federal government. The grant will be used to set up public art events with 15 artists being commissioned by November to create works that “respond to key sites and stories that have shaped the Mornington Peninsula”. “It doesn’t happen every day,” gallery director Danny Lacy said. “This is a great opportunity to present a broad project that displays the whole of the peninsula.” Mr Lacy said the gallery was a major partner in the Front Beach, Back Beach project developed with Deakin University’s public art commission. He said “project curators” would choose 15 local and national artists to “respond” in painting, sculpture, performance, or film to 15 locations, including Dromana Drive-In, Point Nepean and beaches. The artworks will be displayed at the sites they represent in November next year before being exhibited at the gallery from December 2022 to March 2023. Mr Lacy said the name Front Beach, Back Beach was chosen because the peninsula was surrounded by water. “We like the idea that the projects happen between the front beach and the back beach,” he said. “It’s quite unique to our part of the world down here. We imagine some projects will be located close to the beach, but others will be inland.” Mr Lacy said the grant would “ensure we can work in partnership with Deakin’s public art commission to deliver an ambitious public art project that celebrates key sites and stories across the whole of the peninsula”. Flinders MP Greg Hunt said the money would provide “critical support” for the peninsula’s arts community and artists. “Like our many small businesses and community organisations, artists contribute to their local communities, and it’s important they can continue to do so,” he said. Stephen Taylor
‘Death threats’ over kangaroo cull Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au
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like that. I think culling is much more humane.” The manager said the activists’ actions were “having the most impact on the kangaroo population on the peninsula – as I’m not alone in being the only farmer targeted”. Wildlife groups were last week frantically seeking to save a large mob of kangaroos from being slaughtered on the Patterson Road property (“Call
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THE manager of a Cape Schanck property preparing to cull upwards of 250 trapped kangaroos blames “passionate, but misguided and ill-informed animal activists” for their fate. “If they had left our fencing alone, these kangaroos would be happily
living their lives in the park,” said the manager, who did not wish to be named after receiving what he claimed were “death threats” on social media. “I could be happy spending my time farming instead of dealing with the problem that they alone have created through their misguided efforts resulting in the need to cull this regal animal to only be buried in a pit. “It breaks my heart to see them suffer
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to reprieve ‘doomed’ kangaroos” The News 27/9/21). Mornington Peninsula Wildlife Action Group said up to 200 kangaroos were trapped inside the 70-hectare property and could not get back to neighbouring Greens Bush wildlife reserve “even if they wanted to”. The group said neighbouring landholders had told them a kangaroo cull took place on the property last year and
believed “another cull is imminent”. But the manager – who describes himself as a “greenie” – said an electric kangaroo exclusion fence was erected in line with NSW parks guidelines for “animal safety”. “The original herd of resident kangaroos numbered around 40 and were retained within the 176 acres and accommodated nicely with our cattle farming practices.” Continued Page 5
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