Hastings 3915

Enjoy summer at Pelican Park

Pelican Park Recreation Centre in Hastings has a range of activities this summer for kids to enjoy.

Let your children play on the exciting giant inflatable water toy; participate in the various play days or simply splash about with friends in the leisure pool. Build your child’s confidence, improve stroke technique and enhance water safety skills by enrolling them into the centre’s ‘Intensive Swim Program’. Students participate in one 30 minute lesson, Monday to Friday.   

Pelican Park has its very own child care facility and is available for program and occasional care for children from 6 weeks to 10 years old. This means you can enjoy the gym, swimming laps, relaxing in the spa or taking a bite to eat at Pelican Pantry whilst your children are cared for by qualified staff.

For more information and holiday program details call: 1300 850 197 or become a friend on Facebook.   

Pelican Park Recreation Centre is a $7 million stateof-the-art award winning facility located on the Hastings Foreshore. Pelican Park represents everything a true community building should be, offering a wide range of programs and opportunities for the community to access and enjoy.   

Location:  Hastings Foreshore, Marine Pde Hastings, Vic 3915  Tel: 1300 850 197  Fax: 5950 1754    Opening Hours  Monday to Friday 6.00am to 9.00pm  Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays 8.00am - 7.00pm      http://www.mornpen.vic.gov.au/Page/page.asp?Page_Id=293&h=0       

Submitted by Jenni Bartlett  Online Communications Coordinator  Mornington Peninsula Shire  Tel. 5950 1229 or 0435 642 401  Email jenni.bartlett@mornpen.vic.gov.au

Where to eat in Hastings

The biggest problem with places to eat in Hastings is that there are so many of them, and while quality, prices and offerings vary, we have only come across a couple we would be reluctant to go back to. The ones we list below are our personal favourites; the owners have not paid for entries and did not know that they were going to appear here. We did not receive any free meals or even discounts other than some offered to all customers.

The Beach Hut

55 High Street. 5979 1071

This is the traditional Australian cafe, open every day for breakfast and lunch, plus Wednesday to Sunday nights for dinner. As well as a regular menu there are blackboard specials with several in the $10 to $12 range. Eat inside or outside at the side (where part is covered) and if parking runs out at the front you can always park in the Safeway carpark at the back and come in through the back. Order at the counter or they'll come to the table. It is licensed with a fair selection of wines and beers. Wednesday is roast night with soup and your choice of roast for $13.90 (and if you book before 2pm by calling in or phoning you can claim the bonus of garlic bread). Thursday is parma night (even fish parma!) with a sweet course for the same price (when we couldn't find tummy room they insisted on giving the cheesecake as a takeaway). Good coffee and blue heaven milkshake will bring back memories for some.

Galley Cafe

Westernport Marina. 5979 7400

The signs to the marina take you down Mullet Street and into the huge parking area. The Marina Hotel is straight ahead, but to the left hand end of the marina is a small group of shops including the marina office. In that group you'll find the Galley Cafe. It's open for breakfast and lunch and if it is not good enough weather to sit outside overlooking the boats, there's a good inside area, or you can take away. John is of Greek origin and one of our favourites is his mousaka with salad and chips, or try the pasta marinara. Or just a sandwich or quiche. Good coffee. It is currently open for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights during the warmer weather (BYO) and as well as the menu there is a specials board.

Super Star Cafe

9/11 High Street. 5979 4665

The family who runs this and the bakery nextdoor offer a range of prepared hot food and freshly make sandwiches etc to order for lunch or just a morning/afternoon snack. Sit inside or in the arcade or, for smokers, in the entrance area though be warned that is the entrance also to the Richie's IGA supermarket so can get a little busy. Definitely not the high-end venue of Grand Theft Auto, but good food at reasonable prices, served quickly and there's a huge takeaway trade. They started with a few hot food takeaways at the bakery and it just grew. Good coffee.

Sandwich King/ Coffee King

75 High Street. 5979 1320

Originally just a milkbar this has expanded into the coffee/lunch trade with tables on the footpath, then taking over the shop next door to expand the undercover seating area, and now also with an outside seating area at the back (you can also enter from the KMart carpark). Good coffee.

King's Creek Hotel

1989 Frankston Flinders Road. 5979 2989

In many ways this is the typical pub bistro, daily from noon for lunch and 5.30 for dinner. But we recommend the soups, which are often original and always good. Meals are generous even the slightly smaller seniors serves where there are one, two or three course options. Download the menu from http://www.kingscreekhotel.com.au/includes/Bistro.php# but remember there are always specials. Coffee is not the best on this list but always acceptable and occasionally very good. And there are play areas for the kids including one area with an ancient tram. Check out the walls for details on the man who wanted to be a fish. It can be pleasant in the right weather to finish off with coffee etc at one of the bench tables in the garden.

Other places to eat where the main reason we are not a regular is that there are just so many good places to eat in this town include Marquay (pronounced Ma-kee) on Marine Parade, CJ's Fish & Chips (near IGA) and others.

(Edited Feb 13, 2010)

Origin of Western Port and Hastings names

Hastings Jetty as it is today - it was first built in 1865

"Dad... why's it called Western Port when it's East of Melbourne?"

How did you answer that? We're sure you've been asked.

The true answer is that it is West of Sydney, the most westerly port in the colony when it was named by George Bass (yep, the man Bass Strait is named for) in 1798.

So that was the 18th century. By half way through the 19th, there were some fishing shacks in this area and the King family had built a homestead at Tyabb from which they ran their property around King's Creek. The township in the area that is now called 'Old Tyabb', the area on the northern edge of what is now Hastings, was also referred to as East Moorooduc. So, whenever someone tells you definitively that Hastings was originally Tyabb, or King's Creek, or East Moorooduc, smile and say "Is that so?" knowing that all those names have been used for bits of what is now called Hastings.

There are also multiple stories about who or what 'Hastings' refers to. Most common is that the name comes from the town on the southern English coast, but there is also the story that a member of the King family was on board the Marquis of Hastings, a ship which left Portsmouth, England, in April 1827 and arrived at Sydney Cove in July of that year. A Gilbert King was the surgeon on that voyage.

Could the origin from Marquis of Hastings explain why there is a restaurant in town called "MaQuay" (pronounced Marquee which is also how the title Marquis would be pronounced in French)? But Marquess, as the English title is usually spelt, has since the time of settlement been pronounced with the 's' sounded).

Also confusing in the idea of Hastings originating from a person rather than a town or a ship, is that the Hastings peerage suffered from being given to short-lived families or being given by the wrong side in a royal dispute. It was created at least four times since the original Baron Hastings in 1263 and fought over in court many times. See Baron Hastings in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Hastings

We would welcome more definitive information.

We can write with some certainty that the Hastings jetty was built in 1865 and that there were some fishing shacks in the area and spread along the creek. My the mid 1870s there were churches and a school, and the railway reached the town in 1889. Check the Hastings Museum and also the newsagency for the books that have been published on the town and district.

Click on the 'Comments' link below to leave your views.

Retail in Hastings

High Street, Hastings, is a busy shopping street with the bay that is Western Port at the far end. Note too the nautical theme of the lamp posts.

The best, most up-to-date listings of the retail and service businesses in Hastings is the Western Port Chamber of Commerce & Industry site at  http://www.hastings.org.au

Where's a good Hastings website?

I could not find one, which is why I've started this one. It will, I hope include better information than found on many supposedly commercial ones: such as those which imply that this town has just two restaurants or another which in its list includes at least one restaurant which changed it's name several years ago and has been closed for a couple of months. They do not even hint at the kind of town which has surprised many people I've brought to the town in the range of food choices it offers. My publisher (I've written several books) has met me for lunch here every few months for several years and we have not yet been to the same place to eat twice -- and all of them have impressed him in some way. And none of them has been expensive.

I've also found it a good place to shop: not for the K-Mart and other stores which can be found anywhere, but for the smaller stores offering good value, service and choice. I worry over campaigns which have run in the past urging locals to "support their town". Hastings does not need "support". People can shop here because they'll get an overall better deal.

I'll welcome comments and items for inclusion.