Accommodation and Services at Wilsons Promontory and surrounds:

In and around all South Gippsland towns on the way to the Prom...

Fish Creek, Foster, Grand Ridge, Inverloch, Koonwarra, Korumburra, Leongatha, Meeniyan, Mirboo North, Port Albert, Port Welshpool, Sandy Point, Stony Creek, Tarra Bulga, Toora, Venus Bay, Walkerville, Waratah Bay, Wonthaggi, Yanakie and Yarram.

• Accessible
• Apartment
• Beach House 
• Bed and Breakfast
• Bicycle Friendly
• Cabin and Cottage 

Accommodation

• Stockyard Creek Cottages (Foster)
• Lavender Cottage (Venus Bay)
• Station Masters Cottage (Venus Bay)
• Port Albert Holiday House (Port Albert)
• 60 The Boulevard (Sandy Point)
• Blakey's Losman (Sandy Point)
• The Bothy (Sandy Point)
• Ferndale Cottage (Grand Ridge)
• Ocean View Cottage (Walkerville)
• Wits End Country Cottages (Grand Ridge)

Services

• Art Gallery of Inverloch (Inverloch)
• Koonwarra Food Wine & Produce Store (Koonwarra)
• Stony Creek Go-Karts (Stony Creek)
• Bass Strait Fishing Charters (Port Welshpool)
• First National Prom Country Real Estate (Meeniyan)
• Nooramunga Sailing Tours (Port Albert) 
• Classic Car Rentals (Leongatha)
• Prom Country Bike Hire (Meeniyan)

Purchase a Gift Voucher for accommodation and services at Wilsons Promontory and surrounds.


News - Australia - South Gippsland - Foster - The Mirror
 

Kid's hub money announced

THE Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education, Child Care and Youth Kate Ellis and the State Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development Maxine Morland jointly announced funding of $2.55 million for the construction of Corner Inlet Children’s Hub at Foster last week.

To be located in Pioneer Street on Crown land between the scout hall and the tennis courts, the Hub will cater for up to 58 children and house a kindergarten, child care services (long day care, family day care and occasional care), playgroups, child/ maternal health, parenting programs and allied health services in one building.

The Hub will also operate outreach services to Fish Creek, Toora and Welshpool. The location is walking distance to Foster’s primary school and secondary college. The Federal Government will contribute $1.85 million, the State Government will contribute $500,000 and South Gippsland Shire has tapped into its capital works program savings to contribute $200,000 to the project. Council’s Projects Coordinator Shelley Fixter observed that the funding for the Hub, “Was a massive amount compared to that for other locations.”

A series of local people have been consistently lobbying for a child care facility for Corner Inlet for more than 15 years and the concept of some kind of child care facility has been discussed for 20 years. The proposal took a big step closer to fruition when the Australian Labor Party promised funding if it won office at the last Federal election.

However achievement of the final result is due to the consistent hard work by a core of local individuals (a mix of parents and others who are passionate about children’s services) with support from Prom Coast Children’s Services, Foster Community House, South Gippsland Shire, Kilmany Uniting Care and local politicians.

FANTASTIC NEWS

Megan Vuillermin, a community representative who has been active in working for the Children’s Hub facility, received the announcement as “fantastic news”. She was thrilled and surprised at the amount of money being granted, and said she hadn’t realised how much the Shire were prepared to put in.

Prom Coast Children’s Services (PCCS) Committee President Sita Morton was also “terribly excited” by the news, even though a consequence of the Children’s Hub means that PCCS will relinquish its kindergarten operation licence to the Hub operator as the organisation did not tender to be the Hub’s service provider.

Although none of the announced funding is for equipping the Hub, Coastal-Promontory Ward Councillor and former kindergarten teacher Mohya Davies believes that as construction takes place, arrangements for equipping the Hub will “fall into place.”

At last week’s Council meeting, Cr Davies advised that Kilmany Uniting Care, which is licensed to operate child care in the region, was the “preferred choice of service provider” for the Hub after a range of acceptable competitive tenders had been received via an open tender process.

(Ms Fixter has advised that operating licences have not yet been approved for the Hub). “This partnership of all levels of government recognises the importance of the early years on shaping educational, social and emotional development throughout life, and a quality facility like the Hub can help overcome disadvantage experienced in the early years,” Cr Davies said. “The funding for the Hub is driven by social equity not by client numbers, which shows recognition that rural children are entitled to the same experiences as Melbourne children.”

She continued, “It’s a new, one-stop-shop concept and I hope that the outreach capacity will increase the services currently available in Welshpool, Toora and Fish Creek. “I firmly believe that it is not just Foster that is going to win out of this.”

Cr Davies also expressed hope that the Hub would be used as a pilot project providing an example to other areas about how to institute the federal Government’s announced ‘early years’ changes and associated staff training.

“These changes, such as the 15 hours per week of kindergarten time for every child, are the most significant in 30 years and Corner Inlet Hub will be in a position to take the best advantage of the changes and to be a leading example,” she stated.

While attributing praise to various elements for getting the project over the line, Cr Davies singled out Megan Vuillermin for particular thanks for “being a driving force on various committees” for the Hub project.

NEXT STEPS

The Reference Group that had been working on the feasibility evidence for the Hub project will wind up, probably at the end of February, however several of its members are expected to transfer to a steering committee/ project working group that will include the Hub service provider and Council representatives.

This group will probably include a kinder cluster staff representative, Corner Inlet community representatives, a primary schools representative and other relevant persons able to commit to working on the project.

Ms Fixter advised that the firm GHD had been chosen to draw the detailed design plans after evaluation of several acceptable bids received through an open tender process. Once the detailed design has been completed – probably by March/April, an open tender for the construction of the Hub will be put out, most likely around the start of May.

“The successful building tenderer will have to be able to start pretty well straight away because the grant requires the building to be completed by the end of December, which is a very tight time scale, however we couldn’t progress any further until we were sure we had funding,” Ms Fixter explained.

“I hope that the first sod will be turned on the site in June or more likely July.” Once the detailed building design is known and the Hub operator has been confirmed, Ms Fixter anticipates that the chosen service provider will host a public information session in Foster where interested people can have the design and operation explained by the architect and the service provider, and have the chance to ask questions and provide feedback.

In regards to the Council funding, Ms Fixter stressed that the contribution was from unspent savings in capital works and would therefore not be at the expense of any other project in the municipality.

Ms Vuillermin added that she hoped ways of encouraging community ownership of the Hub would be undertaken, such as naming the Hub, and involvement in aspects such as the garden or decoration of a wall.

More articles from The Mirror... 

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• Cabin and Cottage