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Wednesday 13 March 2024
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Artists invited to move in (for a week) OAKHILL Gallery, Mornington, has a new micro residency program that is giving artists an opportunity to engage with gallery visitors and increase their exposure. Artists are offered week-long free use of the space to exhibit their works and work on site, as well as chat and meet members of the public and other artists. County Court illustrator Fay Plamka – who works in a range of mediums - was at the gallery last week to start the program. She will be followed by different artists each week until early May. Members of the public can visit to say hello and view works being exhibited. Oakhill Gallery is a not for profit co-operative run by artists and volunteers, with a focus on providing accessible art spaces for all. The gallery is based out of the historic Dunns Homestead in Mornington-Tyabb Mornington, and offers a range of programs, from studio residencies to exhibition spaces to artist-led classes. The gallery also has a new gift shop and is calling on artists to include items or art or jewellery to sell. Details: oakhillgallery.com/
ARTIST and County Court illustrator Fay Plamka was in residence at Oakhill Gallery last week to kick off the 10-week micro residency program. Picture: Gary Sissons
Hands up for beach cleaning Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula beaches will be cleaned by hand instead of a mechanical rake for the next 12 months after July. The hand cleaning of peninsula beaches on Port Phillip will undergo a 12-month trial and cost about $733,000. Beaches will no longer have the groomed look created by a mechanical rake, but they will retain seaweed and other natural organisms that contribute to a healthy environment. Surveys have shown that mechanical cleaning, while being aesthetically pleasing, can leave behind broken bottles, shredded plastic and even hypodermic needles.
The practice has also seen tonnes of seaweed taken to landfill instead of being left on the beach where it is an essential part of the environment. Award winning beach cleaning campaigner Josie Jones OAM said hand cleaning beaches was “more effective” and would enable cleaners to reach “vegetation areas where oftentimes people will sit away from others and smoke or sit and eat”. “A lot of littering happens within the vegetation area, including children playing and for me this is part of the beach and should be part of coastal cleaning,” she said. Jones attended Mornington Peninsula Shire Council’s public meeting last week (Tuesday 5 March) and commended councillors for “understanding why there needs to be a change”.
Councillors in turn praised Jones’s efforts to maintain beaches and retain their natural environment. “If the people employed are trained properly and do their job properly, then we should see the results,” Jones told The News. “I estimate that this winter we will have litter appearing as we have two more months of peak season, along with council continuing to rake until the new contract in July. “It would’ve been great if it was an 18-months trial of hand cleaning because then we would’ve been able to compare the winters. “The second winter will be a clear sign that hand cleaning is working, and we have broken the pattern of monthly litter appearing on our beaches.” Jones said the hand cleaning team would have to collect litter and re-
move residual broken plastics. The shire’s coastal planner, Hayden Forrest, recommended that councillors support a 12-month hand cleaning trial of 80 per cent of the shire’s bay beaches, with the mechanical rake still accounting for 20 per cent of beaches. He said using both cleaning methods would “cater for the strong recreational values associated with select beaches whilst also providing a better environmental outcome for majority of the Port Phillip Bay coastline”. Cr David Gill said beaches had been raked “for 20 or 30 years or more”, with about 143 tonnes of rubbish taken from beaches to landfill each year. He said mechanical raking “doesn’t work” and was sometimes dangerous and should be replaced by “environmentally friendly hand cleaning that
protects children from hidden dangers. “It removes habitat and kills or harms small creatures and breaks glass,” Gill said. He said hand cleaning would restore beaches to a more natural state. “We might set ourselves up as world leaders … as how to improve and clean beaches.” Cr Sarah Race said organic matter taken to landfill emitted CO2. “The role of seaweed on a beach can’t be underestimated for animals, and coastal erosion, when looking at storm surges.” Cr Debra Mar compared looking at a well-groomed beach to an iceberg: “You don’t see what’s underneath broken plastic, seaweed has broken bits of rubbish in it because of this. We need to break the cycle of mechanical raking.”