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1 November – 14 November 2012 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
Social effects from dog ban DOGS may become an endangered species on beaches within the Mornington Peninsula National Park. Parks Victoria is seeking public comment on new regulations for the beaches, including possibly a ban on dogs at all times. At the moment they are allowed on beaches before 9am provided they are restrained by a leash. The move is designed to lessen the impact on native animals and birds, and nuisance to other beach users. However, banning dogs would create its own set of problems for people who walk their dogs for exercise and social reasons. Losing the right to walk his dog, Prince Leo, would be hard to bear for John Morobito of Rye (pictured). Already fined for not using a leash, the 87-year-old has failing eyesight and could not travel daily to the nearest leash-free beach. Picture: Yanni See full story Page 12
Rosebud 2100 flood risk
By Mike Hast TOWNS and suburbs on Port Phillip including Rosebud and McCrae could be submerged by coastal flooding combined with heavy rain events by the end of the century, says an unpublished confidential report. Port Phillip Coastal Adaption Pathways Program studied four bayside areas – Rosebud-McCrae, Mordialloc, Elwood and Southbank as well as a low-lying area in North Melbourne. The existence of the report was revealed after Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors held a private meeting on 24 September.
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This was after the public gallery was cleared at the end of the final public meeting before the council went into caretaker mode in the run-up to last Saturday’s election. The equipment used to tape open meetings was accidentally left running and captured the private meeting. Four sound files of the meeting were then posted on the shire’s website without being checked. The fourth file contained the private meeting at which councillors and senior shire officers, including CEO Michael Kennedy, discussed what the council would say if the report was leaked or made public by the federal
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and Noosa Heads. Places like the Gold Coast and Noosa have battled erosion for many years, but the rate has increased in modern times. The report urges Port Phillip’s floodprone communities to “adapt� as the cost of “retreat� would be far greater. Last year the federal government’s climate change unit said 250,000 coastal homes worth more than $60 billion were at risk of flooding from sea rises over the next 90 years. Although the study covered Rosebud and McCrae, many other parts of the peninsula on both Port Phillip and Western Port would be at risk. See “Wet warning� on Page 8.
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these extreme conditions – $20 million at Southbank, $15 million at Elwood, unknown millions at Mordialloc and $100 million at Rosebud-McCrae. The report has a cost-benefit analysis of whether to “retreat� or “adapt� as sea levels rise and storms increase. Landowners in NSW and Queensland are being told by climate experts they should consider retreating from the coast as storm surges from the Pacific combined with high sea levels threaten coastal communities. NSW has 15 “hot spots� including Batemans Bay, Collaroy and Byron Bay while Queensland has more, including the Gold Coast, Caloundra
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government or the Municipal Association of Victoria. The government and MAV are joint sponsors of the report, which warns bayside areas face huge damage bills after big storms and rising sea levels. A map in the report, due to be released in February, shows flooding in large areas of Rosebud between Jetty Rd and Lonsdale St, and parts of McCrae east of Lonsdale St. This would occur during a “perfect storm� of coastal flooding combined with heavy rains when stormwater would not run into Port Phillip. The damage bill could be many millions of dollars a year by 2100 from
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