Bass Coast Post
  • Home
    • Recent articles
  • News
    • Point of view
    • View from the chamber
  • Writers
    • Anne Davie
    • Anne Heath Mennell
    • Bob Middleton
    • Carolyn Landon
    • Catherine Watson
    • Christine Grayden
    • Dick Wettenhall
    • Ed Thexton
    • Etsuko Yasunaga
    • Frank Coldebella
    • Gayle Marien
    • Geoff Ellis
    • Gill Heal
    • Harry Freeman
    • Ian Burns
    • Joan Woods
    • John Coldebella
    • Jordan Crugnale
    • Julie Statkus
    • Kit Sleeman
    • Laura Brearley >
      • Coastal Connections
    • Lauren Burns
    • Liane Arno
    • Linda Cuttriss
    • Linda Gordon
    • Lisa Schonberg
    • Liz Low
    • Marian Quigley
    • Mark Robertson
    • Mary Whelan
    • Meryl Brown Tobin
    • Michael Whelan
    • Mikhaela Barlow
    • Miriam Strickland
    • Natasha Williams-Novak
    • Neil Daly
    • Patsy Hunt
    • Pauline Wilkinson
    • Phil Wright
    • Sally McNiece
    • Terri Allen
    • Tim Shannon
    • Zoe Geyer
  • Features
    • Features 2022
  • Arts
  • Local history
  • Environment
  • Bass Coast Prize
  • Community
    • Diary
    • Courses
    • Groups
  • Contact us

Looking for Wonthaggi

12/2/2021

6 Comments

 
Picture
Can do: Volunteers knock up the Wonthaggi Surf Lifesaving Club’s home at Cape Paterson, 1960s
By Catherine Watson
 
IN 2002, when Gill Heal arrived in Wonthaggi, she knew little about the place beyond the fact that it was a former mining town that had fallen on hard times.

In fact that was why she was here: she had a job on a State Government program aimed at socially and economically disadvantaged shires and towns. Bass Coast qualified on every measure.

As she got to know Wonthaggi, however, Gill found a richness and pride in the community that belied any objective measure of wealth. And she noticed that newcomers to the town seemed to think they had stumbled into paradise.
“If you ask people that question – why have you come to Wonthaggi? – people were stumped. They talked about Wonthaggi people being friendly but I felt it was more than that. People seemed to know how to get things done.”

As part of her job of creating community connections, Gill established a community newspaper called 
The Current, she ran workshops and seminars, and, with a particular interest in theatre, she assembled a group to work on an oral history production incorporating stories and original songs. 

When Stories from the Hinterland was staged at the Archies Creek pub in 2004, no one really knew what to expect. At the end of the show, there was a rapturous and emotional response from locals transfixed by seeing their own lives transformed into theatre. 

Gill had found her audience. As word spread, her audience grew and has followed her to the productions that followed.
On February 27, many will be at The Shed for her 10th local oral history production, Looking For Wonthaggi, where a cast of seven readers, with music by Lyndal Chambers and Brian Stating, will bring stories of Wonthaggi people to life.

What makes this different from Gill’s other productions is that the town is at a crossroads. Bass Coast’s population is expected to increase by 7000 people by 2031. Most of them will settle in Wonthaggi, virtually doubling the population.

While some are delighted at the prospect of growth, many others are anxious about what might be lost, not just in the physical character but the social fabric of a former mining town with a distinctive co-operative streak.

It’s too easy to lose what you can’t identify, says Gill, who now lives in Wonthaggi herself. And so the play becomes a search for the character and values that make this a good place to live.

It’s the first part of a larger project with Maddy Harford and Harry Freeman which aims to get people thinking about Wonthaggi, about change and about how to influence it.

After all her searching, did Gill manage to find Wonthaggi?
Picture
Gill Heal with Stanley McGeagh and John Coldebella in rehearsal for her 2015 production Stormy Waters.
​Gill Heal’s productions
  • Looking for Wonthaggi, 2021
  • Stormy Waters (asylum seekers) 2015
  • Places in the Heart (Jeetho), 2014
  • A Question of Honour (Coal Creek), 2013
  • Postcards from Loch, 2012
  • In Their Own Words (Alzheimers), 2007
  • Stories from the Inlet (Inverloch)
  • Over the Bridge (Phillip Island), 2006
  • Stories from the Waterline, 2005
  • Stories from the Hinterland, 2004
“You look back at the stories and you begin to see the pattern. Loyalty. Solidarity. All words we’d use to describe the best of Wonthaggi.

“We’re all imperfect. Our values change. But there’s enough evidence for us to say we have things in common we can ascribe to those values. That’s who we are.

“I think that’s Wonthaggi’s legacy. There’s an enormous divergence of interests and values but time and time again people come together and achieve remarkable things.” 

Gill’s productions are not exactly plays or musicals. The cast are readers, not actors, but the production uses dramatic devices to bring the stories to life. And that’s the value of theatre, she says. There is something about the combination of the spoken word, the image, the music that can move audiences and convey complex ideas.

She breaks off to describe how the show ends. It gave me goosebumps. No spoilers here, you will have to go and see it. 
​
But you’ll have to be quick. Due to COVID restrictions, there are only a limited number of tickets for the three productions at The Shed, State Coal Mine, at 1pm and 4pm on Saturday, February 27, and 5pm on Sunday, March 7.  Bookings at Trybooking.
6 Comments
Anne Davie
13/2/2021 11:34:52 am

Thank you Gil for your productions over the years. They show how the power of people give a community a sense of place.
I recall with joy being able to read some of my mother's words describing her visits to Cowes as a young girl, in Gil's Over The Bridge in 2006.

Reply
Phyllis Papps
13/2/2021 11:45:28 am

Dear Gill,
another wonderful prodution over so many decades of: "your brilliant career and life."
Also we will never, ever, forget your writing abilities and skills.
Accolades and orchids to you.

Reply
Joy Button
13/2/2021 02:03:28 pm

I will always admire greatly your creative and fabulous writing skills, Gill, and to me you are an absolute legend with your ability to tell a great story. And an amazing and gracious lady to boot.
Thank you and looking forward to seeing your latest masterpiece, Looking for Wonthaggi.

Reply
Jan Bourne
13/2/2021 02:30:25 pm

Really looking forward to this production Gill - love the way you value history and create such wonderful theatrical experience's! Thank you for sharing your talents so generously. x

Reply
Imelda Daly
20/2/2021 08:36:09 pm

Have just booked for the 3rd show and looking forward to hearing your stories from the locals. Have loved attending the various “readings” you have organised Gill - at Dalyston Church and at Wonthaggi Library - some amazing readings from locals and celebs from the big smoke. Your efforts to provide entertainment (and education) are very much appreciated.

Reply
Margaret Murray
21/2/2021 07:45:47 am

Dear Gill
I would love the opportunity to see your show but that is not possible. I always felt that Wonthaggi had a spirit that made people feel comfortable, accepted, no matter who or what you were or did. I think this has come from its original background of a sharing farming community and a wonderful group of hard working people who worked the mines, made richer by the many immigrants who worked and lived in the town and all being accepted and supporting each other. I hope Wonthaggi never loses this community spirit. I wish I had the ability to do what you are doing, in Bacchus Marsh. People move here and they immediately love the town because, I believe, of its community spirit and willingness to help each other and I think it is at a crossroads between what it is now and what it will become. It is only one suburb away now from being included in the city of Melbourne. I am sure time will change that. Keep up the good work!!
Margaret Murray

Reply



Leave a Reply.