Feburary News Letter

Hallo members.

We are now into the new year and so far have been blessed by great weather which has made Port Fairy even more vibrant. The Moyneyana festival was a great success for young and old and the Surf Life Saving Club did a fantastic job managing the nipper program which on the carnival day involved 600 nippers from four clubs in the Western region.

The Jazz festival is gaining momentum. Numbers of participating attendees and bands was up on last year. Meanwhile in the background the PFCG has been ticking over and has got back to normal monitoring after a bit of a break over Christmas. We have done the first monitoring session with both primary schools at Pea Soup and South Beach.

Jenny mustered the pack to do East Beach monitoring last Sunday. In general terms the sand level is looking pretty high at present, post1 extending towards post 2, being the lowest.

Moyne Shire Council is nominating our group for entry into the Victorian Coastal Awards competition. We were nominated a few years ago and were short listed but missed out on an award. The out come will not be known for a couple of months.

Last December I went to “Connecting Coastal Champions” meeting in Melbourne. It was a forum for exchanging of ideas and scientific and event presentations. One of the things that struck me was how fickle governments are in making environmental policy and how quickly an event can overturn policy.

A case in mind was that 10 years of local council policy by Narrabeen Council (Sydney) of not building any hard structures on beaches was reversed overnight following a severe storm. Often policies are formulated with little scientific input and there is a severe dearth of science degrees amongst Federal Government ministers. We need scientists in Parliament who understand politics.

I have just been asked if we could do a presentation to the Governor in March. David Bills- Thompson did one a couple of years ago during a visit which was well received. Well I will not bore you further except to say that don’t forget to go to the open forum run by Moyne Shire Council and Parks Victoria on Thurs. Feb 22 nd from 10am to 4pm at the Community Service Centre. They need feedback from the Community about the Draft Management plan for the Belfast Coastal Reserve. Horses and dogs on the beaches are one of the issues.

Best Wishes, Nick Abbott. (Chairman) 20 February 2018