Out With The Old at Phillip Island

THE owners of a 26-hectare Phillip Island farm, until three years ago owned by AMP Capital Investors and earmarked to become a retirement village, have applied to Bass Coast Shire Council to remove the entire aged-care component of the proposal.

The owner of the site paid AMP a reported $8 million for the Ventnor Road block and a permit for a 184-lot residential subdivision.

A major aged-care complex and community facilities were required to be developed as part of that permit. However, the council will now decide on whether to issue a new permit resulting in the entire farm, about three kilometres south-west of the centre of Cowes, being subdivided into 304 standard residential lots.

Read more

Phillip Island’s Isle of Wight Pub Site Listed For Sale

SIXTEEN months after it was destroyed by fire – which was a month after it was permitted for demolition – the waterfront site where Phillip Island’s popular Isle of Wight hotel once stood is for sale.

The prominent and elevated property – which stares down the Cowes Jetty – measures 9197 square metres and runs behind many shops on the western side of Thompson Avenue, which is the sleepy hamlet’s main retail strip.

The Bass Coast council controversially approved the historic pub (pictured, above) be demolished in April 2010, despite it being recognised as one of South Gippsland’s most significant landmarks. The site is for sale with a permit for a nine-level resort and retail development with hotel rooms and apartments.

Read more

Plans Lodged to Subdivide Historic Phillip Island Homestead

ANOTHER establishment family is lobbying to slice and dice their substantial holiday home retreat.

This time, on Phillip Island, the Grollo family have submitted plans to subdivide the historic eight hectare estate, Woolamai House (pictured, right), which was built in 1876 for wealthy hotelier and horse trainer John Cleeland and is one of Victoria’s oldest coastal homesteads.

Woolamai House includes an Italianite Gothic mansion and gardens with heritage plantings abutting the Cape Woolamai foreshore, all of which are included on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Read more

Controversial Compulsory Acquisition Program Secures Phillip Island’s Penguin Colony

PHILLIP Island’s fairy penguin colony will be protected forever, with the completion of a controversial compulsory home acquisition program in a precinct on the south-west corner of the island known as Summerland.

All up, 774 privately owned properties across 85 hectares were compulsorily acquired by the state government since 1985.

The program was initially costed at $10.5 million, and expected to take 15 years, but blew out after a real estate property boom on the island stretched the government’s budget.

Read more