By Catherine Watson
 
A WALKING and cycling trail connecting San Remo and Inverloch sounds like such a great idea but the first draft of the trail plan gives an inkling of just how difficult it’s going to be to achieve it.
 
The Yallock-Bulluk walking and cycling trail was a $19.6 million election commitment of the ALP before the 2018 state election.
 
The draft Yallock-Bulluk plan, released after a year of public consultation and design, focuses on the access and infrastructure required for the trail, including roads, car parks, tracks, boardwalks, toilets, shelters, resting places  and signs.

By Catherine Watson
 
A GRANTVILLE sand mining company does not have to meet the same environmental standards as other land users, the company’s lawyer has told a planning panel hearing.
 
James Gobbo, QC, was summing up in Dandy Premix Quarry’s application to expand and deepen its current sand pit and to open a new one.
 
Mr Gobbo said the quarry had been identified as a priority mining site, in an extractive industries area of interest, which meant it was subject to looser constraints than other land users would be. ​

By Neil Daly

Returning to the 6,058 submissions to the Crib Point Gas Import and Gas Pipeline Project and the underlying theme that the people want to retain Western Port’s unique environment in a world where such places are being destroyed by inappropriate industrialisation, perhaps ultimately, there may be only one solution:
            Western Port be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Am I reaching for the stars, maybe?

A sensor camera in a Grantville garden shed just happened to catch a tiger snake as it twisted and turned to free itself from a mouse trap. Video by Gil Smith, who said all that was left the next day was an empty mousetrap. The snake has not been seen since. "My partner had accidentally sprayed it with the hose the day before so it probably decided to find somewhere quieter!"

By Neil Daly
 
THE 75 likes for my article Thank you, AGL indicates there is interest in the proposal for a Western Port Strategic Management Plan (WPSMP).
 
Over time, I have put this proposition to the pub test; I can assure you the "real world people" say yes. 
 
They reason, in many cases, there are too many levels of government, statutory authorities and others all jockeying to manage Western Port, not to mention the endless sums of money spent on feasibility studies and academic research projects.

By Catherine Watson
 
THIS week many Grantville residents received a letter containing a notice of an application by Dandy Premix to expand their current pit, opposite Deep Creek Road in Grantville, and open another pit in a wooded area on the same site.
 
According to a report submitted as part of their application, total production from their Grantville site is expected to double to about 750,000 to 800,000 tonnes per annum by 2026.

By Werner Theinert
 
I’VE been working in power stations and the power industry for over 40 years and have always been a fan of solar photo voltaics (Solar PV). 

​We had a 6 kilowatt system installed in our Callignee home, a 7.5kW system in Wonthaggi and finally a 12kW system here in Harmers Haven.  The dream was always to have a battery storage system capable of effectively storing the sun’s excess power during the day and using that stored electrical energy during the evening. 

By Neil Daly

WE'RE lucky here, for along parts of the eastern arm of the Western Port foreshore, you can have the world to yourself – or so you think!

It was a warm summer’s morning in January 2020.  The tide was out; the Queensferry foreshore was mine.

Suddenly, there they were some 50 metres or so offshore, ‘three shapes’ knee-deep in mud dragging a sled.
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Momentarily I thought of Scott and his party in the Antarctica struggling to get back to the Base Camp, but I came to my senses and waited for reality to arrive.

Fifteen minutes later, the ‘shapes’, dressed in wet suits and a little exhausted, made dry land.

​By Catherine Watson
 
A PROPOSED walking trail between San Remo and Inverloch should turn inland for much of its length, according to an alliance of resident and friends groups.
 
The Yallock-Bulluk Coastal Alliance last week released its submission on the proposed Yallock-Bulluk walking trail, part of a new marine and coastal park promised by the Andrews Government before the 2017 election.
 
While the original promoters of the park probably envisaged a 50-kilometre coastal walk, the Alliance argues that walking along the coast between Kilcunda and Inverloch should not be encouraged or promoted as part of the walk, due to the fragile nature of the coastal vegetation and the rare birds that breed on the beaches.