Catherine Watson blog

Best of luck

18/8/2023

Almost $20 million was lost on Bass Coast’s 213 pokies in 2022-23.

By Catherine Watson

IT’S 9.48am when I enter, feeling slightly ashamed. I’ve warned my friends, in case they happen to be passing by and see me slinking in to the pokies. And worry for me.

They needn’t. I have many unfortunate addictions but this isn’t one of them.

I sign in to the club as a visitor, which is done by putting my licence in a card reader and receiving a three-day pass. It’s only later that I read the pass and see that I’ve certified that I live a minimum of 10kms from the venue. (I don’t.)

The gaming room is tucked away down a passage, far from prying eyes. This is actually a requirement for pokie venues. And staff are not allowed to disclose the identity of the clients. Make no mistake: there is embarrassment about entering a pokies venue. I hope I don’t meet anyone I know.

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Enough talk

21/7/2023

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Graham Street, "the concrete jungle". Beautification works are on hold until post-consultation consultation exclusively with traders.

By Catherine Watson

WE’VE been talking about the revitalisation of the Wonthaggi CBD since 2015. In that time we’ve seen a concept plan, an activity centre plan, a streetscape plan, an access and movement study, a traffic plan and a master plan.

Finally, after eight years of talk, councillors this week voted to adopt the Wonthaggi Activity Centre Streetscape Master Plan … with a proviso for more talk.

At Wednesday’s council meeting, Cr Brett Tessari successfully pressed for a late amendment that means “beautification” works in Graham Street will not proceed until we’ve talked some more.

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What happened to our cultural precinct?

22/6/2023

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John Mutsaers: "Culturally this is probably the most valuable site in Gippsland now." Photos: Geoff Ellis

By Catherine Watson

ON A freezing Saturday afternoon, John Mutsaers is showing us some of his favourite features of the old Wonthaggi High School.

Sitting in one of the school courtyards, he can envisage the artists in these spaces, and visitors relaxing between exhibitions and performances. Outdoor performances in summer, perhaps. He’s been told there’s a commercial kitchen. There’s plenty of room for a café and outdoor seating, shaded in summer, sheltered in winter.

Those old portable classrooms, scattered around the edge of the campus? Artists’ studios. “Artists need spaces where it doesn’t matter if they spill the paint.”

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The good oil

17/5/2023

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The olive pickers: Glenda, Ted, Liane, Matt and Catherine

By Catherine Watson

WELL here we are: the olive pickers. Five of us picked about 50kgs over a couple of hours in a neglected olive plantation at Sarah and Hayley’s place high in the Woolamai hills. Amazingly we scored a still, sunny day for picking.

Ted and Glenda picked faster than the rest of us (they once owned their own olive plantation) but kindly agreed to share the spoils with us beginners.

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That’s a wrap!

22/4/2023

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Bass Coast Mayor Michael Whelan and Deputy Mayor Rochelle Halstead lead councillors into the DAL hearings to show support for the campaign to protect the Western Port Woodlands. Photo: Kate Harmon

By Catherine Watson

AS THE Bass Coast Distinctive Areas and Landscapes hearings draw to a close, we can reflect on a tumultuous two months in which our landscape and community has been probed, questioned, discussed, debated, pondered and revised as never before.

The high point for me was the appearance of seven Bass Coast councillors at the Cape Paterson Surf Lifesaving Club on Day 19 of the hearing, when the combined conservation group began their presentation on the Western Port Woodlands.

Their appearance was a powerful statement that showed the council and community are united on the issue, and it was acknowledged by the chair of the panel, Kathy Mitchell.

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Trees versus views

22/4/2023

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Photo: Corinella Foreshore Committee

By Catherine Watson

THE Corinella foreshore has become the battleground for a bitter dispute between those who believe the foreshore reserve should be a natural environment that provides habitat for native birds and animals and those who want a more manicured foreshore, with bay views for homeowners.

There have been heated arguments between those removing vegetation on the foreshore and others trying to stop them, and claims that the government-appointed foreshore committee has been stacked with those who prefer views over trees.

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‘This is our story!’

25/3/2023

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Jim and Marg McCulley are dedicated members of a team of volunteers who keep the State Coal Mine State Park running. A double blow has left Wonthaggi’s premiere – and only – tourist attraction reeling.

By Catherine Watson

IT'S a brilliant autumn afternoon when the Post visits Wonthaggi’s State Coal Mine and the park-like grounds are immaculate. Before Covid, this place would have been buzzing with tourists emerging from their underground tour or hanging out at the café.

Today there are just four vehicles in the car park. One is mine and one belongs to Marg and Jim McCulley, two of the most dedicated members of the Friends of the State Coal Mine group that supports Parks Victoria staff to keep this place running.

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Call this a compromise?

18/2/2023

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By Catherine Watson

EIGHT years after consultation started, the Wonthaggi Activity Centre Plan has been transformed into the Wonthaggi Streetscapes Master Plan and we are finally about to get some action. Or maybe.

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Guide Park: the review

26/1/2023

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Adventure playground experts Esme and Clem check out the
$1.77m makeover and give their verdict.

By Catherine Watson

LIKE many locals, I've watched with interest over the past six months as Guide Park underwent a $1.77 million makeover, opening on schedule just in time for the summer holidays.

The old Guide Park was pretty bog standard – some swings and a plastic slide on a barren bit of ground. It looked pretty dreary to me though it seemed to get plenty of use.

I thought the new one looked interesting as it took shape … lots of big rocks and timber, nice hillocks (miniature versions of Birrarung Marr), shady trees, interesting shapes and textures, and lots of new planting.

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When knowledge is power

21/10/2022

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Werner Theinert spreads the word

By Catherine Watson

WERNER Theinert is explaining the Coefficient of Performance of heat pumps to us. It’s like the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. You put in one unit of energy and get back two to three units of cooling or heating.

Werner has written on the blackboard: THE ENERGY REVOLUTION IS HERE! He loves this stuff. He's so excited he strides the width of the room with his pointer. I’m reminded of those old Energizer ads, which is apt since we are here at Bass Coast Adult Learning (BCAL) to learn about renewable energy as part of BCAL’s Sustainability Series.

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The alchemy of art

19/10/2022

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The moment every artist is waiting for, says John Adam, is the moment when they lose control of a work. That’s when the magic happens.

By Catherine Watson

FOR ONE of Bass Coast’s most accomplished and acclaimed artists, John Adam is surprisingly hesitant about how to actually do art – and even sometimes about the value of doing it.

“Sometimes I think a career in art is a waste of time,” he muses. “At the same time I think art is the backbone of society. The aesthetic sense is what distinguishes humans from animals.

“I always think my painting is terrible. I always hope the next one will be better. Sometimes I can do what I want to do very fast. Sometimes I just can’t get to it. It depends on all kinds of things. I’m never sure what I’m doing until I’m doing it.”

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One for the birds

16/8/2022

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Emma and Steve Plowright have no intention of pretending to be farmers.

By Catherine Watson

WHEN friends and strangers ask Emma and Steve Plowright what they plan to do with their Woodleigh farm, they are often taken aback by the answers.

“As little as possible,” Emma jokes.

“Are you going to graze cattle?”

“No,” says Steve. “We’re trying to create habitat.”

“So you’re going to harvest the timber?”

“No. Why would we put the bush back and then cut it down?”

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The new post

1/7/2022

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By Catherine Watson

A HEARTFELT thank you for all the messages of goodwill and support for the Bass Coast Post over the past two weeks. It was like going to my own funeral. No one was allowed to say anything bad about the recently deceased.

The Post got some wonderful presents, including a gorgeous hand-knitted hotty cover from Mary Whelan (best present ever!), a nude painting of the editor from Jeni Jobe and The Secondary Students’ Spelling Book from Liane Arno and Matt Stone.

“So you can correct our work,” they helpfully noted.

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The cycle of life

18/6/2022

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Terri Allen on the Rifle Range Wetlands

By Catherine Watson

TO SAY that Terri Allen is a blogger for the Post may give you the wrong impression. When she’s got something to “post”, she writes it out in her very neat script on lined airmail paper and visits her sister Leonie who types it up and emails it to me. If Leonie is away, Terri walks over to my place and leaves it in my letterbox and I type it up.

Often after a blog post, a former pupil will send Terri a comment or greeting via her blog page and the communication process unfolds in reverse. I print out the comment or email and take it round to Terri. Then we have a cup of tea and a slice of her home-made cake.

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Post mortem

18/6/2022

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As the Bass Coast Post turns 10, editor
Catherine Watson looks back in wonder.

By Catherine Watson

In June 2012 Alan Brown decided to take over Bass Coast. It was for our own good, of course. Rates were too high. The executives were paid too much. He put a team together. They weren’t allowed to speak to the media and he was to be mayor.

Everyone knows Brownie: former Wonthaggi mayor, former MP, former leader of the Victorian Liberal Party, former Victorian Consul General, current property developer. Most of us would wonder whether it’s a good idea for a developer to control a council. Not our local newspapers. They couldn’t get enough of Brownie. It seemed to be a done deal.

Everyone I knew whinged about it, but what could you do? The papers were free to publish what they wanted.

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On the koala trail

3/6/2022

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By Catherine Watson

PEOPLE sniff many strange things on a Saturday night and we are sniffing a koala poo on a toothpick. The oblong pellet smells faintly like eucalyptus oil. We sniff a possum poo as well, because we need to know how to tell them apart. The possum poo is the same oblong shape but slightly larger, rougher and less eucalyptusy.

“We” are a team of 20 or so citizen scientists, so called by researcher Kelly Smith, mostly members of the Save Western Port Woodlands group, and we’re about to embark on a night search for koalas and koala poo in Adams Creek Nature Conservation Reserve, between Nyora and Lang Lang,

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Back to nature

3/6/2022

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The former Scenic Estate is now a conservation success story. Photos: Visit Phillip Island

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My spider and I

19/5/2022

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Cartoon by Natasha Williams-Novak

By Catherine Watson

MY SPIDER and I get along pretty well. I can’t remember precisely when he came into my life. I think probably two or three years ago. When I first noticed him I meant to catch him and put him outside, but I never got round to it. Then I got used to him and he got used to me.

Spiders used to freak me out, especially Australian spiders. I grew up with daddy long leg spiders and they didn’t worry me. They’re spindly and insubstantial. My spider’s not like that. He’s about the size of a 20 cent piece, chunky, broad shouldered, a bruiser. And he’s black. Hard to miss.

My spider lives in the corner of the window above my desk. His web has expanded over the years until it now covers an area about 60 x 50 cms. It’s not a beautiful web. It’s higgledy-piggedly and full of stuff: fly carcases, blowfly wings, gnats, sandflies, dust. There’s a kind of funnel right in the corner that he goes in and out of. And he’s messy: the windowsill below is littered with wing bits and spider shit.

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Never mind the devastation; look at the vista

9/4/2022

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Cartoon: Colin Suggett

By Catherine Watson

TWENTY years ago, newly arrived in Bass Coast, I remarked on “the beautiful rolling hills of Gippsland” to a new local friend. Richard is a pacifist so he didn’t yell at me. He merely said “I can’t look at them without thinking of what used to be there.”

I’ve thought about that many times since. Of course! When we look at those rolling hills we are looking at a skeleton. In just 150 years they’ve been cleared of forests and groves and native grasslands. A few landholders – sometimes the descendants of the original land clearers – are valiantly replanting the hills but it’s a long road back from that scale of land clearing.

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A tale of two cooks

23/2/2022

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Farewell and thanks to Jan Cheshire

Welcome, Pip Sibley.

By Catherine Watson

THROUGH all the years of the Post’s existence, Jan Cheshire has been a constant. Now, after almost 10 years of writing A Cook’s Journal, she has decided it’s time to hang up her cook’s apron, or at least to stop writing about cooking.

Jan has been our cooking writer for the past nine and a half years, which makes her our longest-running contributor!

Her first column for the Post was in the spring of 2012, so naturally it included tips on making the most of asparagus, plus a recipe for a broad bean dip.

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Making peace

28/1/2022

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Debbie Williams, left, and Sonia Weston

By Catherine Watson

Townsend Bluff, Australia Day, 2022, a hot morning. In the shade of a casuarina tree on the brow of the hill, overlooking a glittering Andersons Bay, two women are making peace.

Debbie Williams and Sonia Weston have never met before but they both carry the weight of their family history with them.

Sonia is a cultural officer for the Bunurong Land Council. She grew up in Inverloch in the days when no one talked about Aboriginal dispossession.

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‘I have nothing to hide …'

27/1/2022

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Francesca Curtis in 2015: “I have nothing to be
ashamed of …” Photo: Gary Jaynes

By Catherine Watson

Francesca Curtis was buried on the hill in the beautiful Phillip Island cemetery, in the midst of a spectacular electrical storm that seemed apt to mark the life of a fearless freedom fighter.

In Australia in 1970, male “homosexual acts” were still illegal. There was no statute against lesbianism but it was a source of great shame. Gays and lesbians were publicly vilified and often privately bashed, including by the cops. You could be fired for being queer. (You can still be fired today but now only by people of faith!) Not surprisingly, most gays kept their inner lives well hidden.

Not Francesca. In June 1970, she was interviewed about her lesbian life on a current affairs show The Bailey File. Gays and lesbians had appeared on television before but the practice was to black out their faces. Francesca declined to be hidden, thereby becoming the first lesbian to come out on Australian TV.

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Missing in action

17/12/2021

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Cr Les Larke

By Catherine Watson

CR LES Larke has long claimed to be the voice of financial prudence on the council, committed to getting “value for money” for the ratepayers of Bass Coast. But there is a growing gap between his words and his actions.

He is paid an allowance of more than $ 26,245 a year plus super to fulfil his duties as a councillor. Not a fortune for the average councillor who puts in 20-30 hours a week on committee work, policy workshops, training and representing the community.

But it’s a nice little earner for someone who’s just filling a chair. That pretty much describes Cr Larke’s contribution.

Much of the work of councillors is done on committees, both internal and external. Councillors share the workload and most serve on three or four.

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'Noel Counihan draws with tears in his heart'

15/7/2021

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Noel Counihan: The Cough. Robert Smith Collection. The renowned realist artist spent six weeks in Wonthaggi in 1944 sketching
the miners at work.

By Catherine Watson

PICTURE the scene. The Wonthaggi Workmen’s Club, 1959. A young man from the National Gallery of Victoria is in town as part of a statewide education tour. He plans to show some slides of works from the NGV collection and give a little talk. He spoke to the club manager earlier and suggested they might start at 7pm.

“Don’t be daft!” the manager said. “They’ll all be drunk by then.”

So they’ve settled on 12.30pm, before the serious drinking starts. The young man’s talks are tailor made for his audience. No flower paintings this time. But Robert Dickerson’s Smoko will appeal, and Noel Counihan’s works, of course.

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Eat your heart out, Daylesford

21/5/2021

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From left, Greg Tingate, Cr Leticia Laing, Mykey O’Halloran, Lauren Brooks, Bass Coast Mayor Brett Tessari and
CEO Ali Wastie

By Catherine Watson

I NEVER thought I’d see the day when International Day against Homophobia would be marked in Wonthaggi, let alone by our home-grown, footy-loving mayor raising the rainbow flag, surrounded by a sea of people toting rainbow umbrellas.

It reminded me of how far we’ve come since I first stumbled on this town. In the winter of 1996, my partner and I bought the poor person’s version of a holiday house: a two-bedroom miner’s cottage in Wonthaggi, complete with outside loo and a bathroom in a cupboard.

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