Bass Coast Arts news and features

A stage for young talent

5/8/2026

New festival gives Bass Coast's emerging musicians their chance to shine.

YOUNG musicians will take centre stage when the inaugural Breakthrough Music Festival is held at the YES Youth Hub in Wonthaggi next month.

The event is organised by Green Room Concept Studios, a music school based in Dalyston, in partnership with the YES Youth Hub.

The free festival will showcase solo performers, bands, singer-songwriters and instrumentalists from across Bass Coast.

Green Room’s Callum Lee Gow says the festival is aimed at young performers of all experience levels, from first-time musicians to those already playing local gigs, with a focus on building confidence and connecting young artists rather than competition.

The poemteller

2/8/2026

Malcom Brodie: poet, a lover of cemeteries and a "poemteller"

By Catherine Watson

MALCOLM Brodie liked cemeteries. They are the settings for many of his poems. His funeral notice includes a photo of him at the San Remo Cemetery, sitting contentedly with his little dog by the graveside of his mother Florence.

On Friday he was buried close to Florence, his frequent muse.

A poet, a prodigious reader, a letter writer and a storyteller, Malcolm was of an older bardic tradition. He mistrusted the orthodoxies of the modern world.

I encountered his name long before I met him. Back in 2004, when Gill Heal, editor of The Current, invited locals to nominate their favourite buildings, Malcolm replied:

A tale of two violins

1/8/2026

Ellen Hubble plays her new violin for the first time, marking the beginning of a new family story.

By Ellen Hubble

MY OPA, Hans Fischer, arrived in Australia in 1943 with his wife, Lisa Charlotte, and their four-year-old daughter Elizabeth, my mother. As German Jewish refugees they arrived with almost nothing: a few pieces of jewellery that could be sold if necessary, and Opa's violin.

Before the war Hans had been a classical violinist with the Munich Symphony Orchestra. There was little demand for concert violinists in Australia, so he found work as a dental mechanic.

Come as you are

13/7/2026

Irene Bennetts from Sisters & Misters has spent a lifetime singing professionally. These days, she gets her biggest thrill from helping other people discover their voices.

Irene Bennetts has spent a lifetime singing professionally. These days, she gets her biggest thrill from helping other people discover their voices.

By Irene Bennetts

I SPENT more than 40 years as a professional singer and 20 years teaching singing in primary and secondary schools before I turned my attention to adults.

Starting Sisters & Misters was a way of reinventing myself while staying true to what I love most: helping people discover the joy of singing.

The Melbourne version of the choir started in 2009 and the Phillip Island version is entering its eight year. They’re non-auditioned choirs. Anyone can join, even if they think they can't sing.

Up the creek together

9/7/2026

Tracey Miller’s Archie’s Creek District Choir (ACDC) will perform their first full concert set.

WHAT happens when a Hawaiian psycho surf clad band joins forces with a 30-voice community choir?

We'll find out next month when two titans of the Bass Coast music scene join forces in a celebratory concert at the Archies Creek Hall.

Inverloch-based street band Invy Horn Jam, led by Strat and Lyndal, has been entertaining crowds throughout Victoria and interstate for a decade, since forming as part of Community Music Victoria’s Street Sounds project in 2016.

Lights, cameras, action

2/7/2026

Festival director John Frohlich wants to bring bold ideas, big stories and tiny budgets to the big screen.

IT’S time to get out the cameras or phones and make your mini masterpieces for the Bass Coast Shorts film festival.

The festival returns in November for its fourth year, with a growing reputation as a lively showcase of local talent alongside filmmakers from across Australia and overseas.

Festival director John Frohlich says it offers filmmakers an opportunity to bring bold ideas, big stories and tiny budgets to the big screen.

Keen to keep the festival accessible and grounded, he says it’s all about the DIY spirit.

“Anyone can make a short film these days. You can do it on your phone, use free editing software, copyright-free music and special effects.

Going, going, gone

30/6/2026

The next generation of Bass Coast artists shine alongside established names at the
2026 NAIDOC exhibition. Fan bird by Baylee Carlyon

By Liane Arno

I AM obviously very ignorant because when I first read about the theme of NAIDOC Week 2026 – 50 Years Deadly – I thought it was odd because I had understood that First Nations people had a deep respect for the deceased as I, like you, had often seen the disclaimer, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this website may contain images and voices of deceased people.

Well yes, I am ignorant because then I found out that First Nations people use the word deadly to mean excellent, awesome, fantastic, or cool. And that is exactly what you get when you attend the NAIDOC Art Exhibition at ArtSpace.

All together, now!

17/6/2026

Larry Hills celebrates the first 20 years of the Bass Coast Chorale.

By Larry Hills

WHEN I first stood in front of the newly formed Bass Coast Chorale in 2006, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. The room was filled with individuals who had never performed together as a group, yet each person brought their own unique talents to share.

Although I was no stranger to choirs and choral music – having been involved in them my whole life – this was a fresh experience. By the end of that very first rehearsal, everyone was singing together and feeling good about it.

Alive and kicking

17/6/2026

From Yackandandah via the US, Japan and now Wonthaggi ... five times Golden Guitar winner
Pete Denahy headlines the third Wonthaggi Acoustic Music festival.

By Ellen Hubble

WONTHAGGI town hall will once again come alive with the sound of strings, voices, drums and shared stories as the Wonthaggi Acoustic Music (WAM) Festival returns for a third year on July 3-5.

The three-day celebration of acoustic music promises to warm the heart and soul, with a bush dance, headline concert, street band, a dozen acoustic music performances, singing workshops, and stalls over three days, all wrapped in Wonthaggi's distinctly local and welcoming spirit.

The long view

4/6/2026

Helen S. Tiernan: Mother and Child of Gippsland, 2004

By Rosemary Forde

TIMELINES by Helen S. Tiernan brings together, for the first time, works drawn from over twenty years of painting by this visually eloquent, technically masterful artist. The exhibition allows us to move through and between multiple timelines – tracking the artist’s own trajectory.

Upon entering the exhibition at Berninneit, we are met by the powerful gaze of Maggie Arnott, painted at a monumental scale on a three-by-two metre unstretched canvas titled Mother and Child of Gippsland (2004). Arnott, an Aboriginal woman, identified in archival records simply as ‘of the Gippsland tribe’, was photographed in 1878 by the German-born photographer Fred Kruger. In the original albumen print, a studio portrait is staged against a backdrop of forest leaves. Maggie carries her baby, swaddled to her side, wrapped not in a possum skin cloak as she may have once been, but in a government-issued blanket of the period.

Pride of place

3/6/2026

Dennis Leversha's drawing of the old mine brace in its heyday finds a fitting home in the
Rescue Station Arts Centre.

By Catherine Watson

AS IT slowly crumbles, Wonthaggi's No. 5 Mine Brace has intrigued and inspired photographers and artists for almost half a century.

One of them was Wonthaggi artist Dennis Leversha, who painted and photographed the historic structure countless times throughout his life.

Now a detailed pencil drawing he completed in the late 1970s has found a new home at the nearby Rescue Station Arts Centre, just a stone's throw from the old brace itself.

Cold comfort

3/6/2026

Win free tickets!
Celebrate the Winter Solstice with this heart-warming production.
First to email [email protected] wins two free tickets to Sea Wolves Howl.

It started with two women meeting on a beach during Melbourne's lockdown.
Now Sea Wolves Howl comes to Berninneit. Photo: Noa Smith Fletcher

WHEN two women met on a beach in September 2020 during Melbourne's lockdown, they had no idea they were starting a movement. By December, sixty women had joined them. They called themselves the Mt Martha Sea Wolves.

Sea Wolves Howl brings their extraordinary stories to life through vivid theatre and original songs. Five characters guide us through their daily ritual: waking before dawn, gathering on the shore, stripping down to their togs, joining hands so no-one can chicken out, howling like wolves, and plunging into the icy water together.

A writer's life

18/5/2026

Meryl Brown Tobin by Michele Tobin

MERYL Brown Tobin’s writing journey started when she was eight years old and contributed to the children’s pages of The Age and The Sun.

Since then her writing has continued in one way or another and she presumes it will go on until the end - an ‘Unbreakable Bond’.

On Sunday, June 21, 1.30-3 pm U3A Bass Valley is hosting her for an afternoon at the Corinella and District Community Centre. She will tell the story of her writing journey.

The day will culminate in the launch of another, Unbreakable Bond, her third solo collection of poetry and 22nd book.

Meryl Brown Tobin’s books include activity books, black line masters of educational puzzles, primary school work books, a travel book and a picture storybook. As a guest on the set of Channel 7's children's program The Book Place, she read her picture storybook LEFTY with regular presenter, Lynn Weston.

Not fighting, dancing

16/4/2026

Gonzalo Varela: 'Starting over with nothing, just us', 2026

By Catherine Watson

IN THE paintings of Gonzalo Varela, the world feels both ancient and not-yet-born. Figures drift in luminous, half-ruined landscapes, as if time has folded in on itself.

It’s a fitting visual language for his exhibition, The Second Horizon, now showing at Berninneit Art Gallery.

This is Varela’s return to painting after years of multidisciplinary work, but nothing about it feels like a step backwards. If anything, it’s a deepening, a slower, more introspective process that mirrors his shift from inner-city life (Argentina, Spain, Melbourne) to the quiet of South Gippsland.

Coming to a screen near you

16/4/2026

Keith Stevens screened the first Wonthaggi
International Film Festival in 2010.

By Larry Hills

This weekend's Wonthaggi International Film Festival (WIFF) enters its 14th year with another outstanding array of international films.

WIFF was the brainchild of Keith Stevens, the past manager of the Wonthaggi Cinema. Keith was a projectionist and a cinematographer and had some amazing connections in the film industry from all over the world. He was able to bring in some fantastic films, some even before their Australian release.

Keith inaugurated the first WIFF 16 years ago in February, 2010. (This would have been its 16th year, except for Covid.)

The WIFF sparked an interest in fine films amongst the local community and the Bass Coast Fine Film Group was formed in order to get an audience for regular screenings of fine films in Wonthaggi. There were 46 members in the first year and that’s grown to more than 250 in 2026!

The art of illusion

1/4/2026

By Catherine Watson

EVERY time I pass Pat Wishart’s place I slow down, scanning for something new, a life-sized dinosaur, perhaps, or some other surprise.

The other day I stopped for a chat and a closer look. Stepping into Pat's garden is a fantastical, slightly mind-bending experience. Giant crabs munch on seashells. An echidna stands guard over a spiky banksia cone. An oversized fist crumples the letterbox.

The show goes on

20/3/2026

Gwen Derrick, centre, the 'creative, tireless heartbeat' of the Wonthaggi Theatrical Group.

By Karen Milkins-Hendry

This was Gwen Derrick’s 100th year and I was struck by the sheer amount of change and generational influence she faced, yet she always appeared so contemporary and ‘living in the moment’ to me.

Born on 5 November 1926 as one of eight children, Gwen grew up in Richmond. As a young child she was sent to live with a wealthier relative in Richmond who could take care of her. When she was 14 her mum came to collect her, took her out of school and she was sent to work in a factory.

At the age of 19 she married John (Jack) William Derrick on 6 April in 1946. She moved to Wonthaggi as a young war bride and out of the several jobs she had was most well known for her work in the pharmacy for 28 years.

So real you can almost smell them

16/1/2026

JAM Jerrup fibre artist Jennie-maree Tempest is forging a growing reputation with her extraordinary botanical works.

She works with fabric and thread on her sewing machine in a free motion form to produce botanical sculptures, predominantly native.

Her studio at 219 Bay Road, Jam Jerrup is open from 11am-4pm on Fridays. You can see more of her work at facebook or Instagram Jemartem Textiles.

Where words grow wild

15/1/2026

Poet Kathy Wiltshire finds her voice on stage.

By Kathy Wiltshire

LAST September, I set a goal for creating a place where I could share my poetry and share the spotlight with others, without having to drive hours to get there. I stepped onto the stage at Archies Creek Hotel as host and began the ‘Wild Words’ poetry and spoken word nights.

I consider myself a quietly spoken person, but when on the stage I have the courage to release ideas and emotions that are too complex to say in conversation.

Everybody’s experience is unique. I get the audience involved too, inviting them to choose a favourite poem or poet.

My appreciation of poetry grows as I meet people. I see how one person can adore a piece that another finds distasteful, shaped by the experiences we each bring.

The back story

13/12/2025

Author Kate Mildenhall is presented with a tray of Grandma's Lemon Slice from a recipe in her childrens' book To Stir with Love

By Julie Statkus

WILL they turn up? Will they get lost? Will the punters come? Will they enjoy the talk? Will the author sell lots of books?

I’m a bit of a worrier at the best of times and it's always a bit scary when you organise an author talk.

Many, many years ago I declared that if I ever went on another committee it would be the Friends of the Inverloch Library (FOIL) committee. It took a while but I’ve now been a member for a couple of years and I reckon I’ve found the perfect job!

End of the journey

12/12/2025

By Daryl Pellizzer

LAST Monday at Bass Coast Adult Learning we celebrated our Long Journeys project. We had around 45 people party with us and we were honoured to host some special guests to our little party.

There was a beautiful welcome from Aunty Fay Stewart-Muir, a Boonwurrung / Wamba Wamba Elder. She made a special Welcome to Australia for our migrant students. We also had Kate Gorringe-Smith attend. She is an artist who lives in Melbourne. We have worked with Kate in the past creating some beautiful bird images using the cyanotype process.

The summer canvas

11/12/2025

The hanging team at work before the opening of the Small Works Exhibition at Berninneit

By Catherine Watson

On Tuesday, some 50 artists descended on Berninneit Art Gallery carrying around 130 artworks for the Small Works Exhibition, which opened Phillip Island’s summer season of art.
It was absolute bedlam – and curator Warren Nichols loved it.

Now in his fifth year curating the PICES (Phillip Island Contemporary Exhibition Space) program, Warren still feels the same buzz on delivery day. He likens it to tackling a giant jigsaw puzzle: finding the right piece for the right place.

The Small Works Exhibition reflects the PICES ethos of giving everyone from beginners to seasoned professionals a chance to exhibit at Berninneit. It’s a non-curated, open-entry show, with all works accepted provided they measure no more than 50 x 50 centimetres.

Millowl comes alive

12/11/2025

Vegas Fitzmaurice turned to nature for a moving artistic tribute to his late mother.

VEGAS Fitzmaurice’s deeply personal and powerful new exhibition Millowl – A Mother’s Element was created in honour of the artist’s late mother and of Millowl (Phillip Island) itself.

Fitzmaurice, who has Aboriginal heritage (Yarra Yarra, Wurundjeri), says the works draw inspiration from the four sacred elements – fire, water, air and earth – as experienced across the island’s landscapes and seascapes.

Into the music

8/11/2025

After the long quiet of lockdown, Anne Olsen found her voice
again in singing with others.

By Anne Olsen

WHEN I moved to Phillip Island I was still working part time as a secondary school teacher. I was looking forward to retirement and had some vague ideas about joining something or other at some stage. Despite my good intentions, after the Covid lockdown I seemed to become something of a recluse. It was only two and a half years ago that I started thinking about joining a community choir.

I’ve always loved music and singing but I had not been a member of a choir since my student days and I was not at all confident about my abilities. I found the Island Harmony Choir through searching online for a choir close to home. Reassured that no audition was required for membership, I turned up at the rehearsal venue … just to listen.

Fleeting moments

16/10/2025

Kate Muir’s and Tessa Hubble’s contrasting styles and painting techniques open different windows on the passage of time for their joint exhibition at ArtSpace.

Kate Muir: Glimpse of Western Port Bay, oil on canvas