Southern Peninsula
Features inside RED HILL SHOW PAGE 27 FOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT PAGES 29–31 SOUTHERN PENINSULA SCOREBOARD PAGES 34–35
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4 April – 17 April 2013 Your fortnightly community newspaper covering Safety Beach to Portsea For advertising and editorial needs, call 1300 MPNEWS (1300 676 397) or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
A cut above the rest SORRENTO Football Club’s Dion Phillips put his heart, soul and a few drops of blood into the grand final rematch on Easter Saturday when the reigning premiers took on Dromana Tigers. The Tigers appeared to have recovered from the heartbreaking, two-point grand final loss to Sorrento last season and had the Sharks’ measure at the final break, leading by 38 points. Surely this was a big enough lead? As all good football judges know, you can never discount Sorrento. The Sharks kicked a goal within 20 seconds of the final quarter starting and in three minutes had four goals on the board. Sorrento turned the deficit into a 13-point victory. Dromana knows Sorrento is the benchmark and a win for the Tigers might have heralded a false dawn. The Tiges were not disgraced with several recruits playing well. Instilling mental toughness into his charges will be the aim of Dromana coach Greg Artico. Saturday sees the rest of Nepean round one games and the start of Peninsula League. Picture: Andrew Hurst
Pt Nepean open for business By Mike Hast and Keith Platt POINT Nepean is one of four national parks slated for tourism development. Over Easter, the state government released guidelines for the building of hotels, restaurants and other visitor facilities at Point Nepean, Port Campbell, Wilsons Promontory and the Grampians (Gariwerd). While some of the developments are listed in the 2009 Point Nepean Draft Master Plan released by Parks Victoria, the Department of Sustainability and Environment has taken over the
strategic planning at Point Nepean. The master plan seems likely to become a dusty, unopened memory in a bureaucrat’s desk drawer. Stuart Hughes, the business manager at Point Nepean who oversaw the creation of the plan, has been transferred and replaced by Kristen Jackson. A DSE spokeswomen was unable to provide The News with the status of the draft plan while a Parks Victoria officer described his department’s role as “operational; DSE does the strategic planning�.
A long-time campaigner against the over-commercialisation of Point Nepean, Kate Baillieu said yesterday that “shonky developers will be revving up again�. Time and input by government departments, individuals and interest groups would be wasted if the existing 105-page draft master plan was not adopted. “People were basically pretty comfortable with it. Why didn’t [Environment Minister] Ryan Smith sign off on it?� Ms Baillieu asked. “I’m sure all the old proposals are
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a govt development target�, 21/8/12). The News reported extensive work had been done installing infrastructure at Point Nepean National Park. Speculation about the government’s plans to open up the state for tourism came from the 2011 report Unlocking Victorian Tourism by Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission. The speculation has now become reality with Mr Smith on Easter Sunday releasing guidelines for facilities in national parks that used to be forbidden.
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being dusted off. We will see the ewords coming out again for projects – eco this, edu that or enviro – and all without the backing of a sound or sustainable business plan. “As in 2003, we’ll never know who’s really behind these projects. It was always breathtaking when we traced them back to the real proponents.� Ms Baillieu said developers did not realise how slow the southern peninsula was in the off-season. The government’s intentions were outlined in The News last year (“Parks
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