Bass Coast Post - Catherine Watson blog

Ventnor victory one for the ages

14/9/2018

September 2011: Phillip Islanders protest at Planning Minister Matthew Guy's decision to allow a new housing development at Ventnor.

By Catherine Watson

IT WAS a David and Goliath battle, pitching a small community against the might of a minister of state. Seven years on, the Ventnor saga continues to make waves, with the Labor State Government gleefully wheeling 32 boxes of documents relating to the case into Parliament two weeks ago.

Would you like a credit card extension with that?

3/7/2018

Cartoon by Natasha Williams-Novak

On a visit to her local bank, Catherine Watson discovers that she’s too feckless to get a loan but still qualifies for the special offers.

Smells like home

1/6/2018

By Catherine Watson

WE’RE smoked. Well and truly. Our clothes reek of that lovely campfire smell of burning eucalyptus leaves.

We also have a new deeper sense that we belong here. The smoke, we have been told, is a virtual passport through Bunurong country, at least for as long as our smokiness lingers.

Mutton bird special

19/5/2018

By Catherine Watson

“Shearwater birds on road. REDUCE SPEED!” the electronic sign warns as we approach the bridge to Phillip Island. The young birds are often found, grounded and bewildered, waddling on the bridge after their first attempt at flying comes to grief.

The art of Robert Smith

16/12/2017

Robert Smith and Wendy Crellin at the launch.

By Catherine Watson

NEWS late last year that an art collector had bestowed his collection upon Wonthaggi raised more questions than answers: who, what, where and most of all why.

Last Friday week, in the old Wonthaggi post office, some of us finally got to meet the mysterious benefactor, had a glimpse of the collection and heard the background to his gift.

Bullseye!

15/12/2017

By Catherine Watson

Two yobs in a pub, tinnies in hand, casually impale Adam Goodes. A hound on a surfboard cuts a perfect move. Cats carouse in a nightclub. Joan Kirner plays lead guitar. The devil comforts Cardinal George Pell ...

Just some of the memorable images that Natasha Williams-Novak has created for the Bass Coast Post over the past four years.

End of the line

18/8/2017

Peter Short

By Catherine Watson

WHEN he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in early 2014, Coles Express CEO Peter Short decided he wasn’t going meekly. Instead he turned his considerable corporate expertise to the campaign for assisted dying.

Full and plenty

7/7/2017

While the periodic flooding of the Powlett estuary causes consternation to some local landholders, it's a time of full and plenty for water birds and freshwater fish.

Natural tucker

24/6/2017

The “best ever” loaf, made using seeds from kangaroo grass. Photo: Bruce Pascoe

Kangaroo grass seed bread, anyone? Producers at a Korumburra food forum were fascinated by Bruce Pascoe’s account of the potential of foods from Australia’s indigenous past.

Value for money

23/6/2017

Cr Les Larke wants to cut 46 council jobs to save money. But perhaps he should look at his own position first.

Clear as mud

22/4/2017

Cr Les Larke

By Catherine Watson
April 23, 2017

A COUNCILLOR’S relentless campaign for “transparency” hit the wall at Wednesday night’s council meeting when his eight fellow councillors told him “Enough!”

Beyond the call of duty

22/10/2016

Cartoon: Ross Bateup

Good luck to all our new councillors. You’re going to need it, along with the wisdom of Solomon and the hide of a rhinoceros.

The crusaders

8/10/2016

By Catherine Watson

One group just wants to go it alone; the other is hell-bent on saving the Inverloch tip. Yet the Phillip Island Progress Association and the Bass Coast Ratepayers and Residents Association have formed an unlikely alliance that appears to have one common aim: getting rid of the current Bass Coast councillors and the CEO.

Barking mad

16/7/2016

A move towards ‘ethical banking’ by the council provokes the scorn of the local press.

Party animals

2/7/2016

Catherine Watson has two conversations that make her wonder if universal suffrage is such a good idea.
Cartoon by Natasha Williams-Kovak

Singing the song of angry men

6/5/2016

Bass Coast councillor Kimberley Brown recently received an email that began “You disgust me …”

Taking the waters

2/4/2016

Catherine Watson had no idea she needed a bird bath until her friends decided she did.

Beginnings and endings

12/3/2016

In character till the end, Bernadette Miles left instructions that there was to be no funeral or death notice. But if she was hoping to slip away unnoticed, it was a vain hope.

Michael Whelan’s tribute to his long-time colleague Bernadette Miles, which hangs in the Wonthaggi Library.

Switched on islanders show the way

30/1/2016

Trevor Robotham explains a battery storage system.

By Catherine Watson

WHEN it comes to renewable energy, French Islanders have a lot to teach us. With no electricity supplied to the island, they’ve always lived “off the grid”.

Thanks, mate

19/12/2015

Kilcunda fireys, from left captain Dave Wingfield, Norm Burne, Neil Austin, Will McKay and Phil Ruby.

With a bush fire approaching, Catherine Watson gives thanks to the fireys of Kilkunda CFA.

Last orders

5/9/2015

Malcolm Bain (centre) and the Zia Carmelina crew at a Wonthaggi wedding.

Four days before he died, Malcolm Bain was in his element, cooking Indian curries for a function for 40 people.

The sands of time

20/6/2015

Where’s our sand gone and will it come back? Around 80 Inverloch residents gathered last night to hear what an expert made of it all.

‘Call me Joan’

6/6/2015

Joan Kirner’s legacy is all around us in Bass Coast, writes Catherine Watson

Cartoon: Natasha Williams-Novak.

The tumult and the shouting dies

2/5/2015

In the midst of the Anzac centenary craziness, Larry Hills’ local cantata proved to be the perfect antidote.

Composer/conductor Larry Hills congratulates pianist Carmel Slater following the final performance of They Went With Songs.

Songs of innocents

11/4/2015

The American-born Hills says his outsider status allows him to look at the Gallipoli legend and Anzac Day more objectively.