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Times
TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2020
GIPPSLAND
& MAFFRA SPECTATOR
SMOOTH TRANSITION TIMBER UNCERTAINTY AFTER
Tuesday Possible shower - Min: 6 Max: 15
Wednesday Mostly sunny - Min: 8 Max: 15
Sale Greyhound Club bistro waitress Mikaela Williams welcomes customers back to dining-in. Advertising feature on eateries opening, pages 13 to 15.
Return of dining
Thursday Mostly sunny - Min: 3 Max: 15
Liz Bell and Liam Durkin WELLINGTON Shire eateries embraced the return of table service yesterday with gusto, showing diners they were well prepared and giving them a promising preview of ‘business as usual’. That, of course, could be a long way off, but yesterday, restaurants and cafés began to ‘buzz’ with life again and prove they are an important part of the shire’s social fabric. While the new rules mean any eateries that provide dine-in services can seat up to 20 patrons per enclosed space, there are some caveats that kept venues busy last week preparing for the changes required. Firstly, venues must offer table service to serve food, so there won’t be any eating at bars, and public bars and gaming areas remain closed. Apart from standalone cafés and restaurants, bistros within pubs, hotels, bars, RSLs, fast food outlets, cafeterias and canteens can also resume table service. There are also changes to menus, with buffets and other communal serving dishes no longer on offer, including selfserve drink dispensers. It’s a welcome step for the Lakeside Club in Sale, which has been doing a thriving take-away trade, but can now seat up to 20 patrons in each separate dining space because it has more than the required 80 square metres of floor space. Establishments with less than that, but at least 40 square metres of floor space, can seat a maximum of 10 diners in each ‘space’ — but they must all meet the four square metres per patron rule. General manager Lauren Glover said it had been a busy time preparing for social distancing requirements and ensuring all staff received the mandatory hygiene and disinfection training. But she said everyone was pleased to return to some level of normality. “We’ve put all the changes in place and all our staff have done a lot of work to prepare for this, so we were certainly ready,” she said. Continued page 5
INSIDE
Battering for coast Liz Bell
WILD storm surges are battering Wellington Shire’s iconic 90 Mile Beach, stoking concerns about continuing erosion, shrinking coastlines and damage to coastal infrastructure. New reports warn sea level rises and increasingly violent weather will eventually leave low-lying areas on the 90 Mile Beach unliveable, and could cause some beaches to disappear by next century. The 90 Mile Beach takes in the shire’s coastal towns of Loch Sport, Golden Beach and Paradise Beach, The Honeysuckles, Seaspray,Woodside Beach, McLoughlins Beach, Manns Beach and Robertsons Beach, and stretches 151 kilometres from Corner Inlet to Lakes Entrance. But being flanked by the wild waters of Bass Strait and a series of loosely formed dunes, it is one of the most
vulnerable stretches of coastlines in Victoria. A report by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council, released in March, confirms fears the beaches are at risk of being lost, and warns that climate change, sea level rises and increasing storm intensity will continue to increase the threat. The VEAC’s report cites a 20-centimetre sea-level rise for the state’s coastline by 2040, and between 40cm and one metre by 2090, and suggests that if current warming continues, a 1.5°C rise may be reached between 2030 and 2052. It marks Gippsland as an area at most risk, and says the predicted warmer temperatures will lead to more flooding of low-lying areas, loss of coastal habitat, cliff, beach and foreshore erosion. Global warming has already reached 1.0°C above pre-industrial levels, Continued page 9
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GippslandTimes
Photo: Jessica Kerr
SALE MAZDA
SALE MAZDA & MITSUBISHI
PropertyGuide
Seaspray Beach has taken a battering in recent weeks.
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WEATHER
PAGE 7
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PAGE 8
SCHOOL COURT BACK RULING