Hastings 3915

Concrete jetty for Hastings is Parks plan

Parks Victoria has released a plan for the Hastings Jetty, with improvements proposed for fishing access, promenading and reinstating safe access for boating.

However the plan seems to be for a concrete pontoon similar to those installed at San Remo Pier and the Warneet South Jetty. The extent that the timber section of the jetty may be retained is not clear (at least to us) from the plans produced but the pier head, the current end and the part which has long been fenced off because of its dangers would go.

A press release states: "The plan includes construction of a fishing platform and upper deck promenading area including seating, fishing rod holders and upgraded hand railings. A new floating pontoon will also be constructed to improved safety and access for boats to using the pier and will be designed to cope with Western Port’s sea conditions and large tidal range.

"Similar facilities have already been installed in Port Phillip and other Western Port locations such as San Remo Pier and Warneet South Jetty. The project has been made possible through $570,000 in grants and funding from Department of Sustainability and Environment, Parks Victoria, Fisheries Victoria and Marine Safety Victoria."

Parks Victoria is inviting public comments on their site at http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/3hastings.cfm

Final date for comments is April 30.

Email: hastingsjetty@parks.vic.gov.au
In writing to: Hastings Jetty Upgrade Consultation, Parks Victoria, PO Box 338, San Remo VIC 3925.

The above page also links to two jetty plans as PDF files:

Hasting Pier Upgrade Concept (59kb)
Hastings Pier Upgrade Locality Plan (291kb)

Western Port Parade at Hastings February 27

Westernport Festival took place in Hastings this weekend (February 26-28) and below is a slideshow of the Street Parade on Saturday afternoon February 27. Click the play button and a new window or tab will open in your browser and the slideshow will load; a few seconds later the Smilebox slideshow will open. Close the window or tab and you will return here.

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All photos by Gordon Woolf, copyright 2010

Wind power returns to Hastings

About 18 months after it broke down, the wind turbine at the Kings Creek Hotel in Hastings is again providing electric power to the hotel - about a quarter of the electricity needed to run the venue.

It was, according to a story in the Western Port Trader, a journey for the hotel management that included finding their own sources for parts and tradesmen to carry out the repairs but now the 9-metre blades are turning again.

The turning blades are a landmark for Hastings and when they are turning they can be spotted from many kilometres away on the Mornington-Tyabb road.

Australia Day in Hastings 2010

Australia Day celebrations in Hastings are being organised by the Western Port Festival committee and take place mainly on the Hastings Foreshore.

They start at 10am with a free community brunch, sponsored (somewhat strangely) by the Grand Hotel which is in Mornington. At the same time there will be live music by the Western Port Regional Band and the group Reworkt. Also at this time there will be children's rides and games.

The flag raising will be at 11am with the Tingara naval cadets and an Australia Day address by Robert Walls. Robert Walls played football for 15 years for Carlton and Fitzroy and captained Victoria. He played in Premierships in 1968, 70 and 72. He then coached for 16 years at Fitzroy, Carlton, Brisbane and Richmond and in 1987 was Carlton Premiership coach. He coached Victoria in last State of Origin game in 1999. He currently works for AFL media with Channel 10, 3AW, The Age and FOXfooty.

New Hastings Community Centre

The new building for Hastings Community Services, i.e. the health centre "plus", is now open in High Street, Hastings, between the CFA fire station and the Western Port College.

As well as the Peninsula Health facilities from their former home on the corner of Coolstore Road and Victoria Street in Hastings, it will also include the Hastings Community Information and Support Centre from their former, and now empty, home in King Street. (Sadly the web site for the information centre, linked in our left hand column does not mention the new premises but it does detail their services which continue at the new centre).

Services provided through Peninsula Health will include dental, physiotherapy, speech pathology, dietetics, diabetes education, podiatry and children’s, women’s, and family and services. The Peninsula Health website is at http://www.peninsulahealth.org.au/

At the time of writing the one service lacking is doctors, which continue in their existing offices on either side of Victoria Street north of High Street in the centre of Hastings.

Hastings Community House is also moving into the new centre ready for its new season's activities starting in October. Though their website has also not yet been updated, their phone and email contact details remain as listed at http://www.hastingschi.com.au/ (click on the smile to get in!)

In a letter to the Hastings News August edition, local councillor Reade Smith suggests that the old community house buildings in Marine Parade "should be pulled down asap" but that other adjacent buildings should be retained and/or renovated.

Phone numbers:
Hastings Health Centre                                                 59792894
Hastings Community House:                                         5979 2918
Hastings Community Information & Support Centre         59792762

Safeway/Caltex service station to become Coles/Shell

Most real estate pamphlets which arrive at our home go straight into the round file but one which came this week from Century 21 had more news than we've seen in some editions of the 'local' newspaper.

For example, there was the inside story on the closure of the Safeway/Caltex service station due to the end of its lease on July 31, and its current renovation into a Coles/Shell service station which should be open by the end of August.

For a long time it was Coles' customers who had to travel to use their 4-cent discount vouchers, now it will be Safeway/Woolworths customers who cannot take up the fuel offer locally.

And though the Century 21 newsletter states that Caltex have bought the service station at the corner of Graydens Road and the Frankston/Flinder Road (one of more than 300 Mobil stations they've bought across the country, subject to ACCC approval), that will be surrounded by the new Bunnings development -- and Bunnings is part of the Wesfarmers group, as is Coles.

So Safeway customers will have to go out of town to use their dockets (closest is Somerville). That's not good -- even if the average docket does save less than the real cost of travelling about 4 or 5 kilometres. Maybe they'll switch their custom to Ritchies IGA.

Slide Show of the Hastings Parade 2009

The parade is held each Fedruary and is part of the Western Port Festival. For details on last year's festival see http://www.westernportfestival.org.au/

They do need help of all kinds to run the 2010 event. Contact details are at the link above.

You are welcome to go to the Slide.com site from the links above to obtain a copy of this slide show. We also welcome your comments. Click the comments link below to leave your comments here.

How we get our news

(Updated September 2010)

There are two weekly newspapers covering the Frankston/Hastings region, a fast growing fortnightly tabloid produced by the local Hastings newsagency, a regular Mornington Peninsula Shire newsletter in tabloid form, two quarterly magazines catering for tourists to the whole peninsula from Frankston down, and a lifestyle magazine covering most of that area. Real estate publications come and go, so ask the local real estate agents if you are interested in those.

The newspapers are:

The Hastings Leader, http://hastings-leader.whereilive.com.au/ is what is known as a slip edition of the Frankston Leader with offices in Mornington. A slip edition means it shares most pages with the parent newspaper but with the front page and several other pages changed. It is part of the Leader group (part of News Ltd).

The second weekly was called the Hastings Independent, which a long time ago was a true local newspaper, and until recently was printed and published in the town, but in 2006 it became part of the Fairfax Media group (which includes The Age). As I write it is about to become the Western Port Weekly with a slightly smaller page size to match other publications from Fairfax in Melbourne suburbs. Its office has moved from Hastings to Mornington and when we checked before the change it was being printed in Wodonga. Type in hastingsindependent.com.au and you'll be taken to the Frankston Independent site: http://www.frankstonindependent.com.au/

These newspapers also face a problem in achieving consistent delivery. Ours are mostly delivered late in the week and there have been extended periods when one or other, and sometimes both, have not arrived at all. They depend on "walkers" with the sales pitch to get such workers being as much to the exercise they'll get as to the financial return for delivering them.

The truly local paper is the Western Port News, which is now one of several "News" titles throughout the peninsula, and was started in 2007 as the Hastings News by local Hastings newsagent Cameron McCullough. Originally monthly, it is now published every second week and is getting noticably thicker. It tends to avoid bad news but is not afraid of being critical, especially in its column by The Western Port Whisperer. Sadly that column is often printed in small type and on a grey background, but the anonymous writer is well worth reading to know what is going on in this town. The newspaper does not currently have a news web site but there is information at http://www.mpnews.com.au/ and the site is clearly under construction and some of it is massively out of date. They also use Twitter: http://twitter.com/mpnewsgroup

The magazines which cover the peninsula as a whole include:

Peninsula Visitor http://visitor.com.authe bimonthly lifestyle magazine Goodlife - Peninsula Style) and are locally owned in Frankston (they also publish the annual Peninsula Wine Country guide

Holiday Magazine http://www.holidaymagazine.com.au/ is published by the Fairfax group

There is also a local community radio station. 3RPP (which though its callsign stands for Radio Port Phillip does broadcast to and for Hastings too) is on 98.7FM and has a wed site at http://3rpp.com.au/ They'd appreciate a donation. You can also listen to them live online