Hon. John Brumby, Minister for State and Regional Development, has replied to our letter supporting his Government’s acceptance of "the continuation of chemical storage at Coode Island determined by the previous Government". He said they recognized the environmental issues that relocation, which would obviously be on a Bay foreshore, would prompt, and were determined to apply high standards to redeveloping Coode Island. At an Australian Conservation Foundation function on Saturday I explained to its Executive Director, Don Henry, the opposition by PPCC Inc. and Geelong Environment Council Inc. to ACF’s campaign to relocate the Coode Island facility. Don said he had not been personally involved in the issue, and appreciated my raising it with him. 

Ian Haskins, President of Nepean Conservation Group Inc., invited me to its 2000 Annual General Meeting at Sorrento, where its large workload was evident to those present, including Dromana MLA, Martin Dixon, and Cr Margaret Bell of Nepean Ward. I told Cr Bell of our concern at her Council’s planned works on the large sand dune at St John’s Wood Rd, Blairgowrie. We joined NCG Inc. in contributing to successful opposition to a huge ‘boatshed’ proposal at Point King, Portsea. 

Bayside Council is no longer pursuing the restaurant for Green Point, Brighton, that I reported in October, but it is pursuing a restaurant at Brighton Baths and a ‘teahouse’at Hampton. An officer’s report to Bayside Council even proposed, unsuccessfully, that it review its policy against ‘teahouses’ being licensed. Certain councillors' enthusiasm for ‘teahouses’ might linger from the former Kennett Government’s misplaced push to commercialize public lands that people had innocently assumed were safe. Last year I addressed Council briefly on the ‘teahouse’ plan, but failed to convince them they were sacrificing a rare urban landscape and environmental asset to replace it with a commercial commonplace that could easily be put on freehold along Beach Rd. The new Council might rethink it, but we should try to show the Minister, and her Shadow, with us now, that it is an unwise project. Bayside battles ahead include bicycle road foreshore incursion threats at Brighton and Beaumaris. 

An amicable reshuffle has had three Office-Bearers change positions so that our Senior Vice-President is now Len Warfe, our Junior Vice-President is Janet Ablitt, and our Treasurer is Stephen Calvert-Smith. Len has worked with a newly-elected Mornington Peninsula Shire councillor that is campaigning strongly against diminishing the sand dune at St John’s Wood Road. Len has publicly protested for us against an unauthorized expansion of a Dromana foreshore car park, and earthworks on a McCrae foreshore walking path that use Centenary of Federation funds provided by the Commonwealth, and were begun before the advertised deadline for input to Council passed. 

Leave of absence to our Secretary, Stephen Morey, for overseas study, has been well covered by Olwen Bawden. We thank her for her good work. Stephen Calvert-Smith is making his mark as our new Treasurer. He has drafted a letter we sent seeking Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act protection for an 11 hectare patch of rare remnant plants inside Mordialloc’s 100-year old Epsom Race Track. 

We thank Alan Clark for representing PPCC Inc. regularly on the EPA’s Advisory Committee.