By Adam Carey, Sarah Danckert, Lachlan Abbott and Angus Delaney
The owner of a Mornington Peninsula home destroyed in a landslide on Tuesday says his wife and daughter narrowly escaped another landslip that damaged the house a week earlier.
Another three homes were damaged in Tuesday morning’s landslide in McCrae, 60 kilometres south of Melbourne, and a council worker was injured.
The house at 3 Penny Lane in McCrae was destroyed on Tuesday morning.
Seven properties were evacuated as authorities expressed concern about possible further landslips, and neighbours said they had begged authorities for years to fix water issues in their street.
Emergency services were called to the corner of Point Nepean Road and Penny Lane just after 9am after a house collapsed.
Melbourne IT entrepreneur Nick Moran confirmed he and his wife, Kellie, own the $2.1 million property at 3 Penny Lane. He told The Age via text message that he and his family were OK.
‘We are grateful nobody died’
Moran released a statement on Tuesday afternoon on behalf of his family: “We are grateful nobody died today,” he said.
“Our thoughts are for the injured Mornington Shire employee, who we understand is in a stable condition.”
A photo posted by Nick Moran on Monday following a landslide that hit his home last week.Credit: LinkedIn
Moran said their holiday home had been damaged in a previous landslide a week ago.
“A landslip impacted our property from a property above ours last week. On that occasion, family members were in the house, and fortunately no one was injured or killed ...”
3 Penny Lane, as it used to be.
Moran posted about the earlier landslide on LinkedIn on Monday, including an image that showed piles of earth had ploughed through the back of his three-level holiday home after his family had spent time there over the summer break.
“I’m not even sure how to comprehend what has occurred and how lucky we are,” he said in his post.
“Exactly a week ago, we had a 30-tonne landslide at our vacation home. It looks like it has destroyed our house, which doesn’t matter in the overall scheme of things, but narrowly missed my daughter and wife let alone the stack of people we entertained there over the break.
“I know everyone goes through stuff and doesn’t necessarily get a positive outcome but on this occasion, I know how bloody lucky we are.”
Moran said on Tuesday that he was talking to lawyers about the matter.
“We will have a measured approach to working through this with all the relevant parties. The slip occurred from above onto our land, and the civil issues relating to that will be in an objective manner. We have engaged a lawyer and insurance and will be working through them.”
Speaking at the scene, State Emergency Service incident controller Mark Daw said one house had been destroyed and three other homes had been damaged in Tuesday’s landslide – one significantly – while seven homes had been evacuated.
Daw said geotechnical engineers were investigating.
He said the SES was concerned about rain forecast for Wednesday afternoon, which could worsen the situation.
“We’re unsure of what that potentially could do,” he said.
Point Nepean Road would remain closed for at least 24 hours, and it could be a long time before evacuees were able to return home, Daw said.
“We’ve still got issues from [a landslip] two years ago with a couple of the houses,” he said, adding the SES had responded to smaller landslides in the area before “but nothing of this scale. This is a whole new thing for us”.
Ambulance Victoria said paramedics had responded about 8.45am and took a patient to hospital in a stable condition. Mornington Peninsula Shire confirmed one of its workers had been injured.
Ambulance Victoria senior team manager Daniel Candy said the injured worker was fortunate not to have been hurt more seriously.
“A structure collapse like this, there’s potential for serious injuries, and I’d certainly say it’s incredibly lucky that the male’s escaped this one with minor injuries,” he said.
An alert for a landslide on VicEmergency warned that other properties could be in danger.
“A structural collapse has occurred due to a landslide on Penny Lane. This has affected properties on Point Nepean Road,” the message said. “Stay informed. Stay away from the landslide. The slope may continue to move for hours or days afterwards.”
‘A huge crash’
McCrae residents Bronwyn and Gerry Borghesi live immediately uphill from the collapsed house, and said they had been pleading with Mornington Peninsula Shire and South East Water for years to fix problems caused by water bubbling up from underground in their street.
The collapsed house had been evacuated after the earlier landslip and was unoccupied.
Bronwyn said she heard it crash down the hill at 8.45am.
“A huge crash and rubble sliding. I went out and saw the dust still rising and wet soil coming up from underneath the head of it,” she said.
Uphill from the collapsed house, running water could still be seen on Tuesday afternoon bubbling up out of drains and into gutters. Part of Coburn Avenue was closed off because a section of the road had collapsed and flooded.
‘Chronic problems’ in street
The Borghesis said the street suffered from chronic problems caused by an underground water source.
A landslip had occurred further down the street two years ago, prompting major resurfacing and works along the roadside. Those works had covered up the problem until about two weeks ago, they said.
The house slid down a cliff at McCrae on the Mornington Peninsula on Tuesday morning.
“For the last week-and-a-half, we’ve been jumping up and down, seeing the cracks get bigger and the soil starting to slip down the cliff, which gave way this morning,” Bronwyn said.
Gerry claimed Mornington Shire Peninsula Council and South East Water had each sought to avoid responsibility for the problem, instead of working to fix it.
The dispute over who bears responsibility for rectifying the landslip is set to play out in the legal system this year. The Borghesis have taken action against Mornington Peninsula Shire Council in a matter that will be heard before the Building Appeals Board. They have also taken the council to VCAT.
The council issued a statement on Tuesday’s landslip saying the issue had been reported to WorkSafe, but it declined to answer questions while an investigation was under way.
“Following the landslip in McCrae this morning, our priority is to work with emergency services to ensure the safety of affected residents and our broader community.”
South East Water said in a statement late on Tuesday: “Our thoughts are with those impacted by this landslide event.
“We’re working with key authorities and providing assistance where appropriate.
“The cause of the landslide is still undetermined, it would be inappropriate to comment further until this work has been completed.”
Neighbour Peter Johnson has lived in the street since the 1960s and said running water had been a problem for as long as he could remember.
“It’s been an ongoing problem, and the council have known about the instability of the cliff face because whenever someone applies to build something on the cliff face they have always thrown all sorts of restrictions at them and tried to turn them off,” Johnson said.
Josh Heath said his grandparents’ house on Penny Lane had been caught up in the landslide in November 2022 – and they had been unable to return since.
He said his family was one of two subject to emergency orders preventing occupancy.
“This morning, I actually rolled my eyes, I’ll be honest, because it’s been a well-known issue, and it’s just gone back and forth between different agencies,” said the 25-year-old from Eltham.
Heath said the local council was engaged in a drawn-out legal stoush over who should foot the bill to repair the hill and ensure the homes below could be deemed safe.
Mornington Peninsula Shire Mayor Anthony Marsh said the council’s thoughts were with the injured worker.
“The incident has been reported to WorkSafe. We are on site working with state authorities and the Victorian government and further investigations are under way,” he said.
A WorkSafe spokeswoman said: “WorkSafe has been notified and inspectors and investigators are responding.”
Local MP Sam Groth said his office received a complaint previously regarding the landslide in 2022, which it had referred to the Ombudsman and the council.
His office received a final update in October 2023 from the Ombudsman that said the matter was moving forward. “We’ve had no further complaints to our office about landslides in McCrae,” he said.
‘We heard this almighty sound’
Tanina Osborne witnessed the landslide and posted a video of the collapsed house on Facebook shortly after 9am.
“So there’s been a massive landslide in McCrae,” she said.
“We heard this almighty sound and thought that a truck had lost a whole lot of gravel, but instead it was this house.”
Speaking at a press conference, acting Premier Ben Carroll said his thoughts were with the family in the home.
“It must be devastating for them, and obviously, their neighbours as well,” he said.
“This will be something that obviously the planning minister, the minister for building … all the authorities will look at what’s happened here [and] consult with the local council. But it hasn’t been an issue that’s been raised previously.”
Kim, a caller on radio station 3AW, said the house fell into the back of other homes on Penny Lane.
“There are still two houses at the top of the hill that haven’t been impacted,” she said.
“The units that are on the street level … they’re still standing OK. And the house just came down behind [them] and collapsed.”
With Carla Jaeger
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