By Catherine Watson
 
BASS Coast has joined the chorus of councils calling for fossil fuel companies to pay for the impacts of climate change.
 
A notice of motion from Cr Mat Morgan at Wednesday’s council meeting highlighted the mounting costs of extreme weather on residents, businesses and council budgets.
 
It called on the federal government to introduce a levy on major fossil fuel companies and launch an inquiry into whether national adaptation funding is falling short.​​

Cr Morgan said Australia’s first national risk climate risk assessment, released last year, found 750,000 properties may become uninsurable by 2050.

By Brad Lester
 
A MAN who narrowly survived drowning has thanked staff at Wonthaggi Hospital’s Emergency Department for helping to save his life.
 
Peter Hawkins was treated at the Emergency Department, operated by Bayside Health, after being caught in a rip at Inverloch Surf Beach that took him up to 400 metres offshore. 
 
Having endured hypothermia after an hour in cool water, breathing in sea water and suffering a heart attack, Peter was later told his situation was life-threatening.
 
He was transferred to Wonthaggi Hospital by ambulance after being rescued from the ocean by a surfer and a member of the Inverloch Surf Lifesaving Club, and stabilised on the beach by paramedics. ​

​By Catherine Watson

ANTICIPATION is building in Inverloch as the long-awaited dune reconstruction project moves from planning to reality.

Contractors are currently preparing a pipeline that will soon be laid along the foreshore to transport a sand slurry that will replenish the Surf Beach.

Around 100,000 cubic metres of sand will be pumped from Anderson Inlet to rebuild the dune along Surf Beach, from the western arm of Wreck Creek to Ozone Street, east of the Surf Club. The work will be carried out in 50-metre sections, starting at the eastern end.

Sand pumping is expected to begin in mid-April and finish by mid-June.

By Denise Dillon

COLD nights will again bring a warm response, with the Bass Coast Winter Shelter set to reopen in June after a successful pilot season last year.

Chair David Rooks said the 2025 trial proved the impact of a community-run winter refuge.

“At the outset we said that if we made a difference in the life of one person, we would be happy. And we did,” he said.

“One of our guests moved into permanent housing. That alone makes the effort worthwhile."

By Maurice Schinkel
 
PLANs for the Port of Hastings have loomed large for Phillip Islanders over recent years as we united with residents across the bay to fight off first a major container port and then a floating gas import terminal.
 
Despite our obvious interest, the Port of Hastings Corporation has released its port strategy for the next three decades without even notifying media in Bass Coast.
 
The corporation is legally obliged to produce a strategy every five years, with the most recent strategy dated 2018! ​

By Catherine Watson
 
THEY may be potholed and breaking up but history shows Bass Coast residents are reluctant to give up their sealed roads.
 
In 2013 residents of Pioneer Bay fought tooth and nail to stop the council ripping the temporary seal off Kallay Road.
 
More recently residents of a section of Queen Street in Wonthaggi have opposed the council’s plan to remove their seal.
 
So a plan by our council to “unseal” 30 roads across the shire over the next three years is set to test neighbourhood unity. 

Between 2005 and 2007, dust suppressant seals were trialled on unsealed roads across Bass Coast as a low-cost, temporary solution to reduce dust and improve amenity.

By Catherine Watson

COUNCILLORS say they have no legal grounds to stop the felling of 44 trees as part of a major redevelopment of a Phillip Island holiday park.

However, they have appealed to the owner to listen to community concerns and minimise the tree loss.
​
The proposal, lodged by the Park Lane Group for its site at 1805–1825 Phillip Island Road, will replace ageing buildings with 23 new tourist cabins, upgraded parking areas and enhanced bushfire protection measures.

By Catherine Watson
 
SOPHIE Thorn, a 34-year-old youth mental health worker, has been selected as the Greens candidate for Bass in the November state election.
 
Ms Thorn lives in Cape Paterson and has lived and worked in the electorate all her life.
 
She joined the party last year and volunteered in Greens leader Adam Bandt’s office at the federal election
 
The Greens vote typically hovers around the 10 per cent mark in Bass. Ms Thorn said she hopes to raise it to 15 per cent by engaging people who feel disengaged from politics, particularly young people.

By Catherine Watson

A 30-UNIT social housing development just minutes from the Wonthaggi CBD will be fast-tracked by the State Government.
​
The $12.7 million development by Housing Choices Australia Ltd, a not-for-profit housing provider, comprises 17 one-bedroom dwellings and 13 two-bedroom dwellings, each with a private balcony.

By Catherine Watson

Council contractors are working against the clock to extend the sandbag wall on the Inverloch foreshore before the start of the holidays.

Funded by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), the $700,000 project includes construction of about 110 metres of new sandbags to the east and west of the existing wall below the surf lifesaving clubhouse.

Work began in late November but will pause on December 18 for the summer holidays and restart in early February.​

BASS Coast Mayor Rochelle Halstead declared herself ready for action after being re-elected unanimously at today’s council meeting.
 
Deputy Mayor Brett Tessari was also re-elected unanimously, giving him an enviable record of two terms as mayor and four as deputy mayor in his nine years as a councillor.
 
Cr Halstead thanked her fellow councillors for their confidence in her.
 
“It’s lovely to be back. We have a big year ahead of us. Elections are upon us. I think we’ve set a very good foundation. And now let’s go after the money, shall we?”