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Rearguard action on Aldi land
Groundwork
By Mike Hast SOMERVILLE historians Leila Shaw and Brenda Thornell have mounted a last-ditch attempt to stop the shire selling the Somerville Preschool land to Aldi. The preschool land was donated to the then Shire of Frankston and Hastings in 1946 by Thomas Brunning, Ms Shaw’s father, who fought in the First World War. Somerville residents raised the money to build a maternal and child health centre on the block at 1097 FrankstonFlinders Rd as a Second World War memorial. The building later became a preschool. Ownership of the land passed from the old shire to the new Shire of Hastings in 1966 and again to the new Mornington Peninsula Shire in 1994. In 2010, Mornington Peninsula Shire supported the relocation of the preschool to a new building behind the primary school and agreed to sell the land to Aldi for about $700,000 for a supermarket and car park. Aldi owns the block next door. The issue has created tension in the town with the “old guard” appalled at the proposal and newer residents keen for Aldi to come to town and provide competition for existing supermarkets. Last month the shire held a special meeting, known as a Section 223 Submission Committee Hearing, to hear objectors and supporters of the land sale plan. Leila Shaw said she was speaking on behalf of “Somerville’s war veterans – those who died, were wounded or taken prisoners of war, their families
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No sooner had pilot Paul Bennet thrilled the crowd with aerobatics in his Pitts Special S1-S biplane at Sunday’s Tyabb Airshow than he was out of the cockpit signing autographs for Josh Taylor, of Somerville, who was at the show with his father, John. More Yanni pictures Pages 10 and 11.
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and the town’s pioneering families who suffered through wars and then worked hard to build our Second World War memorial”. Ms Shaw, the author of three acclaimed history books on the town, gave an impassioned speech at the 223 hearing, saying: “Destroy our memorial and you dishonour the servicemen and their families who built Australia’s first fruit-growing region.” She said the memorial in front of the preschool was “the last bastion of our pioneering families and their history.” “Over the years, various shire councils have desecrated memorials to our servicemen and women until we have but one left,” she said. “They cut down our Avenue of Honour [in Eramosa Rd East] and lost the plaques at the base of each tree. “They sold off our memorial cannon for scrap metal and moved our First World War memorial to an insignificant side street. They lost our Second World War memorial plaques from the preschool site as well as the wrought iron gates bearing the words ‘Lest we forget’.” Ms Shaw said if the preschool land was sold, the full amount should be given to the Somerville, Tyabb and District Heritage Society so it could buy a suitable block of land to establish a memorial garden. Brenda Thornell, speaking on behalf of the heritage society, said the welfare centre (now preschool) was built as a memorial because there was already a cenotaph. Continued Page 2
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