“THERE’S a song in my head which won’t go to bed and it’s connecting me to you.” These words by Mark Pottinger, lead singer of the Nine Mile Creek band, were inspired by a songwriters workshop at the Wonthaggi Golf Club last Saturday.

Some of Bass Coast's very talented musicians and songwriters are showcased in Songcatchers, an intimate film in which they explain why they live here.

The elements and bureaucrats have been against them but backers of Wonthaggi’s Rescue Station arts centre are determined to fight on.

Ellen Palmer-Hubble is using her Archibald portrait of photographer Andrew Chapman to raise awareness of a disease that has afflicted both their families.

Sophie Cuttriss jumped at a chance to direct the anti-war Minefields and Miniskirts in the Vietnam Veterans Museum, writes Gill heal

MID-WINTER readings have been a feature of local life since 2010, when local theatre director and writer Gill Heal decided we needed something to lighten the winter gloom.

Carolyn Landon’s new biography of Celia Rosser matches the skill of the author with that of the artist, writes Kay Patterson. CAROLYN Landon has captured Celia Rosser to a tee – her growth as a person,...

PHILLIP Island Offshore Theatre is presenting two one-act plays for its 2015 May performance: Butter Side Up by Maggie Dealey, directed by Sara Fleisner, and A Little Box of Oblivion by Sean Bean, directed by Jan Coulson.

ON PALM Sunday, I saw a play called Stormy Waters performed by a group of Bass Coast residents under the direction of Gill Heal who researched and wrote the piece.

THE centenary of Anzac gave Chris Lermanis an incentive to go back to the photos he took in the 1980s and 90s around the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance

Bev Leversha’s art philosophy is simple. “I know what I like, and I like making what I like.”

WONTHAGGI Theatrical Group presents its first offering for the 2015 season, the much-anticipated, all-new version of Bend it Like Broadway, writes Karen Milkins-Hendry

The third Shearwater Festival brought the community together in a creative, cultural and environmental celebration of the short tailed shearwaters.

“IT WAS like meeting old friends,” says Laurel Billington of the pleasant but slightly unsettling sensation of rediscovering works to put together for her first solo exhibition.

Anne Broadway salutes Inverloch’s mysterious tepee builder.

You’ve square danced and line danced, but circle dancing adds a whole new dimension, writes Robin Bunker

KERRY Spokes’ work Unnatural Selection #2 has won the 2014 Bass Coast Shire Council’s major art award.

IT STARTED as an all-in poetry brawl and it ended in a duel: Mike Cleeland’s ballad of a modern-day shearer versus Alice Ansara’s ode to lovelorn rage and revenge.

This year, dozens of Victorian and national touring shows will visit Warragul, Traralgon, Sale and Bairnsdale, but they won't be coming to Bass Coast. CATHERINE WATSON reports on a missed opportunity.

Why are so many people gathering regularly to sing songs with strangers?

The award-winning Cowes author on the intensity of the teenage years, making connections and her vision for a very different Phillip Island.

Carolyn Landon’s biographies combine the personal and the political in compelling true stories, writes Anne Paul.

Wonthaggi composer Larry Hills draws on his American heritage of choral singing to delve deep into the history of his adopted Australian community. ​​Gill Heal reports

FOUR places, four mini-productions and a bus ride narrated by a local farmer ... the Loch Arts Council’s latest production, Places in the Heart, was a skilful mixing of history and theatre.

Most of Ray Dahlstrom’s paintings make a point, but he’s not precious about it.

The Fiddlehead Festival at Yinnar reminded Jacqui Paulson of the sheer joy of creating music with friends and strangers.

IMAGINE a cabaret act with a chorus of very large tap-dancing boys and you can begin to imagine the colourful life of one of Wonthaggi Theatrical Group’s latest recruits to the stage, Hamish Trumble.

Leanne Aitkin's new exhibition expresses the joy of being released from the daily grind.

THE reality rarely matches the dream but Wonthaggi’s Artspace Gallery appears to be an exception.

For the past year, Phi Henshall has been exploring Gippsland’s southern coastline between the Nobbies and the Prom, and all in the name of art.