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Wednesday 22 February 2023
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Water masters LIFESAVERS from across the Mornington Peninsula showed their skills in the water at the Victorian Masters Championships at Lorne Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC). Life Saving Victoria’s most experienced lifesavers from 23 clubs, plus visitors from Queensland and South Australia, put on a masterclass of skills at the championship event two weeks ago, which saw the Point Leo club announced as water champions on the day with 348 points, while Mount Martha claimed the beach events with 139 points. LSV senior manager sport Chris Schleusener said with competitors aged 31 to 76, the masters championships kept people engaged with lifesaving long-term, offering community, social and fitness benefits. “The masters championships allows some of our most experienced lifesavers, some of them with 40-plus years of patrolling under their belts, to display their rescue ready skills in an inclusive competitive environment,” Schleusener said. “Our masters competitors are the backbone of our clubs, from their role on the front line saving lives, their tireless work behind the scenes on club committees and supporting the next generation of lifesavers through nippers, training and development. “We have incredible competitors, such as Michael Wilson from Portsea, who have decades of competition and patrol experience, and multi-generational families like Martin and Samantha Barrow, whose family now competes and patrols at Mordialloc with them.” The masters is the first of three state championship events to end the summer season, with the Victorian Senior Championships coming up at Ocean Grove this weekend.
Lifesaving masters: Competitors from Point Leo Surf Lifesaving Club focus on the task as they head to the beach. Picture: Supplied
Landlords stay put as communities ‘eroded’ Liz Bell liz@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council’s call for Airbnb owners to open up properties for long-term rental has largely fallen on deaf ears, with few owners taking their properties off the holiday rental market. In a desperate attempt to resolve the shire’s rental shortages, the shire sent emails and letters to property owners over summer to encourage them to switch from offering short-term holi-
day leases to longer-term leases. The mayor Cr Steve Holland said it was hard for the council to know exactly how many people responded to the appeal to holiday home owners, as they were asked to contact real estate agents directly. “However, we fielded about 10 inquiries from people interested in listing their place and connected them with either an agent or local support service,” he said. There are about 4000 people on the public housing waiting list and around 1000 sleeping rough, according to
the council, but close to 5000 vacant private properties on the peninsula available only for short stays (as of 17 February, 2023, Inside Airbnb). Real estate agents say renters are inquiring daily about vacancies. Stockdale & Leggo Dromana/ Rosebud rental manager Danielle Bickerdike said the end of summer holidays saw a small number of homes being put back onto the longerterm rental market until next summer, but no more than happens every year at the end of the season. The peninsula’s rental squeeze
hit the national news last week, after Mount Martha resident Kellie Langeliers spoke to The Age and the ABC about the community impact of turning residential areas into “commercial profit centres”. Langeliers is part of a growing movement of business owners and welfare groups calling on authorities to curb the growth of the short-stay rental market. She said communities were suffering due to the lack of permanency in the populations of holiday hot spots, with family homes continually being
turned into Airbnbs because of the high rents. “The growth in short stay accommodation is eroding communities, there are fewer permanent residents so it’s hard to get volunteers, it’s hard to get staff, it’s hard to develop a caring community,” she said. Langeliers said the peninsula should have learned from other tourist hotspots like Byron Bay and even overseas, where tourist towns service the wealthy and become “soulless” because of the transience of the population. Continued Page 8
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