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Post mortem

18/6/2022

28 Comments

 
PictureAs 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.

A few days later, I was mucking around on a website program. I mocked up a little online paper called the Bass Coast Post. I thought it had a rather nice ring to it. I wrote a kind of credo: the Post was to be a forum for informed discussion, a civil place where people could debate issues and ideas, rather than criticise personalities. 
 
I cobbled together a few stories. My finger hovered over PUBLISH for several seconds. Did I really want to do this? It sounded too much like work. Too late now. The Post was in the clouds but suddenly, on June 23 2012, it was also a thing.
 
I sent a link to a few friends and asked them to send it to their friends. And I pestered my friends to write for it. They tried to avoid me but I was relentless. No one escaped. The plumber only had to say “I was down the street …” and I would suggest he wrote a story for the Post.
 
Our list of contributors grew week by week, as did the readership. If nothing else, Alan Brown got us interested in local politics again. A record 26 candidates stood in the election. As it happened, Brown didn’t win. I may be self-deluded but I like to think the Post played a small part in the result. Had he succeeded in his grand plan to take over the council, I think Bass Coast would be very different today.  
 
I had set up the Post to provide a fair election forum for candidates and voters. By the time the election was over, it had grown like Topsy. We had a gardening column, a bird column, a botany column. We had local history and arts sections. I decided to keep going for a few more months.
 
I wasn't paying much attention but suddenly the Post is 10 years old. This is edition 329.  At an average of eight stories an issue, that’s over 2500 stories. A mlllion words, say, enough to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools. Laid end to end, they’re reach to the moon and half way back.
 
Ten years after we started, the Post has around 1400 subscribers. It’s not the Washington Post but I like to think it’s read by the people who matter: residents who take an informed interest in their community.  
 
I say “we” but it’s an editorial we. Early on a councillor told me the Post had to have an editorial board. I said I could attend meetings or I could publish the Post but I couldn’t do both. A couple of other people demanded to know who I was, which made me laugh.

I run it as a benevolent dictatorship. I’m just one of many writers. I’ve counted 42 regulars and there would have been well over 100 occasional ones. I won’t name anyone but hover your mouse over Writers on the Home Page and you will find some distinguished names. Amazingly some have been here for the entire 10 years. There is only one rule for writers: try not to be boring.
 
It can be hard work. Then I get an email from a new writer with something interesting to say or a new surprising way to say it.  Or someone says “I love the Post.” What, really?!
 
I know I’ve been a little soft on the council, mainly because for decades the local press was so relentlessly anti-council it would have felt like bullying to pile on with them. A young council worker told me she and her colleagues dreaded Tuesdays when the local paper came out because they knew there would be another front page story about council excess and bloated bureaucrats. “It made us feel worthless.”
 
One of her workmates suggested she subscribe to the Post. She described the relief of reading reasoned discussion of issues and initiatives and thanked me with tears in her eyes for some pretty standard journalism.
 
Initially I’d thought of the Post as an online news hub. Though we’ve had a few scoops along the way our forté is the essay: natural history, local history, profiles, commentary. These days I call it an online magazine, which excuses me from having to cover the “news” of the day.
 
It’s fair to say that most of our writers are left-leaning, and so presumably are most of our readers but the Post itself has no political leanings. One of my biggest battles is to stop it turning into the Bass Coast edition of the Green Socialist Weekly because that would be boring for everyone.
 
Sometimes I think if I gave it up I could do other things. I don’t mean brain surgery or writing the great Australian novel. I’m thinking more of floating down the Powlett on a lilo and finally learning the names of birds. Then I think “But what if I got really angry and HAD to write something?”
 
The ideal would be for some bright youngish thing to take over the Post, add some bells and whistles, and I could be an occasional contributor. Tell me if you know that person!
 
In the meantime, please tell your friends about the Post. Read us; even better, write for us. Everyone has a story to tell. And the more you write, the less I have to.
 
The Bass Coast Post is celebrating its first 10 years on Sunday, June 26, 2-5pm at the Gurdies Winery. Friends of the Post are welcome!

28 Comments
Phyllis Papps
18/6/2022 08:52:07 am

Dear Catherine The Great,
I can't possibly imagine anyone 'filling your shoes.' Bass Coast Post is YOUR creation and has been a very big part of your life and the life of many of your subscribers/writers.

So if any 'young brightish thing' is eager to take on the role of Editor then the name should be changed.

Why don't you go ahead and write The Great Australian Novel or better still- a history of politics, journalism, major issues and writers in this region.
Accolades and Orchids to you and to Bass Coast Post.
You thrive on challenges. This is definitely it.

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Jillian Verhardt
18/6/2022 08:54:09 am

Happy 10th Anniversary Catherine and Bass Coast Post. A truly local edition of local news and people. Floating quietly around the wetlands/estuary at Kilcunda sounds good, publishing every two weeks along with your 'day-job' and the time you give to local Advocacy for the Region amounts to a significant work-load. Best wishes in finding one or two new Editors able to continue the intention and independant journalism. I had to chuckle when you wrote about some one telling you that you needed to have weekly meetings.

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Anne Bevis
18/6/2022 09:10:10 am

Happy 10th. Anniversary. I feel you would be bored floating down the Powlett. Thank you for a wonderful 10 years of supplying us with some very interesting articles.

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Joy Button
18/6/2022 10:18:53 am

Congratulations Catherine on producing a fabulous fortnightly paper with some fabulous stories of personalities that live in our townships and giving people the opportunity to read and to learn more and understand fully the issues that we face whether they be political, environmental or historical.
I look forward so much to each edition of the Bass Coast Post and recollect the first edition I read which contained a story written by the incredible man, Bob Middleton, and I was hooked.
Thank you for encouraging an old lady with very little formal education, to discover the joy of writing.
You are an absolute legend and to thank you seems miserably inadequate for all that you do.

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Felicia Di Stefanp
18/6/2022 10:31:25 am

Dear Catherine,

I love being benevolently dictated to by you through the Post. I love the Post with your and other articles which often make me lough aloud and sometimes weep quietly and sometimes both at the same time.

The Post is entertaining as well as informative as well as ethical and well written and presented. Often, I learn local news or about local identities through the post. I congratulate you on your courage to press send ten years ago.

You can still float down the Powlett and learn the names of birds and find a helper(s) as long as you returned in time to press the ‘send’ button.

With love and gratitude.

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Robyn Arianrhod
18/6/2022 11:11:46 am

A thousand thankyous, Catherine - congratulations on the Post's tenth anniversary! You are a legend, and we are a better community thanks to you - and to all the local writers you've encouraged. xxx

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Meryl Tobin link
18/6/2022 11:38:42 am

Congrats on Bass Coast Post’s 10th Birthday, Catherine - a pretty incredible achievement. Long may your mag continue. Bass Coast would be a different place without it. Without it, where could I refer people to for important information. For instance, last night at a Grantville Business and Community meeting at the Grantville Hall I met new residents who knew nothing about the fight to save the Western Port Woodlands. After giving them a quick rundown, I told them to pull up your mag and then google Sand. Within seconds the husband was reading about the proposed massive expansion of the sand industry in Grantville.

Another time someone mentioned the involvement of a current high profile politician in the Cadogan Land scandal at Ventnor. For background, I referred him to the Bass Coast Post and told him to google ‘Cadogan Land’.

Where would I send people to for ready info about Bass Coast if Bass Coast Post had never existed or if it ceased to exist? Apart from supporting all manner of the arts, you are providing a public service that, among other services, is reminding politicians, local, state and federal that they are accountable. And it is empowering ordinary people to have a voice. Thank you.

Once when I mentioned your mag to a young male journalist with a local paper, his eyes lit up and he said something like, “I’d love to be able to write like Catherine. She knows just what to say and how to say it succinctly and hits the nail on the head every time.”

Reply
TIM OBRIEN
18/6/2022 12:49:39 pm

Ten years! Wow, what a great contribution to this community Catherine, and what an achievement. And so important in the way it has given voice to so many 'citizen journalists' reporting on the things that bind us, that enrich us, that make our Bass Coast region such a wonderful corner of this State and country. Long indeed may it continue!

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Brian Carr link
18/6/2022 01:01:33 pm

Thank you Catherine, a terrific achievement...as one who lived in Wonthaggi in the '60's and returned here during lockdown, I've found the The Bass Coast Post an absolute mine of information and a thoroughly enjoyable read. I wouldn't worry about it being 'leftish', most publications that care about people and environmental issues are.

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Mark Robertson
18/6/2022 01:12:16 pm

Congratulations Catherine on this milestone.Thanks for your gentle shepherding of a bunch of neophyte scrawlers- me included. And thanks for giving voice to the many other species which call the Bass coast home. I hope the board of directors give you a massive pay rise - at least 100%!

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Lorrie Read
18/6/2022 02:31:30 pm

Congratulations, a great effort. Like many people I was nervous when the Brown Team arrived on the scene, and aghast at the lack of scrutiny by the local papers. The ‘Post’ saved my sanity. Many thanks.

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Anne Heath Mennell
18/6/2022 03:16:33 pm

Another article with a worrying title! I read Post Mortem and thought you were going to call it a day! PLEASE don't do that!
The comments above show that the Post is fundamental to civilised life in Bass Coast. As Robyn says, we are a better community because of it.
I was in the UK when you published the first edition, dealing with the aftermath of my brother's sudden death so I don't think I read it. I can't remember when I first became aware of it but life without is now unthinkable.
Like Brian, I've found it a mine of information and always an enjoyable read on such a wide variety of topics.
Congratulations and I hope you can find a way that works for you and the Post to continue for another ten years at least. Oh, and qualify for a 100% pay rise.

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Anne and Bob Davie
18/6/2022 04:07:56 pm

Dear Catherine,
Congratulations and thank you for giving birth to the Bass Coast Post. It enriches our lives and every edition enables us to appreciate and value the environment and the people of Bass Coast.

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Robin Dzedins
18/6/2022 04:50:22 pm

Congratulations Catherine, what a great community service you have provided! I've been with you since the beginning, recommeneded The Bass Coast Post often, and even though I don't live in the Bass Coast I still find many articles of interest.

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Margaret Lee
18/6/2022 09:23:48 pm

Thank you Catherine for the amazing and informative Bass Coast Post. I guess I have subscribed for years but was overwhelmingly touched when you contacted me about a short eulogy I had sent to you about "My Quiet Acheiver of The Gurdies"my dear husband Ron just over three years ago. You encouraged me to tell you more about him and I found myself sharing his story.
That simple gesture and interest consolidated respect for your journalism.
Then of course there is the critical work of Saving Western Port Woodlands. It is a pleasure to be able to work with you and be inspired.
Well done for 10 years of ethical journalism

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Geoff Ellis link
19/6/2022 12:00:01 am

Dear Editor,
Congratulations and thank you.
Future generations will google Bass Coast Post to know who we really were.
Onwards!

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Doris Tate
19/6/2022 08:40:16 am

Well then young Catherine. For ten years you have taken in the opinions, musings, memories and histories of Bass Coast life from a wonderful mixture of talented people. With great skill you fashion all that into a reading delight. Your own writing stands out too for me. The dry wit of the Covid diaries is one example. With my heartfelt thanks, Doris

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Tim Shannon
19/6/2022 10:02:05 am

Dear Catherine,
I am one of many who are very grateful for and indebted to the wonderful life of your Bass Coast Post. What a great idea you had, and how well you have nurtured it.

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Thelma Dowson
19/6/2022 05:00:20 pm

Hi Catherine,Congratulations on 10 years writing the Bass Coast Post.
I look forward to reading all the articles when the email arrives with your new edition. So many interesting writers with wonderful history of Bass coast. Well done to you and everyone who have contributed their amazing stories

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Warren M Nichols
19/6/2022 10:28:52 pm

Nah, not possible Catherine! Floating down the Powlett you'll find too boring. Write on I say!
Congratulations!

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natasha williams
20/6/2022 12:42:24 pm

Dear Catherine it was great joy for me to supply cartoons for Bass Coast Post for 8 years out of the 10 years that Post was running. Thank you for having me , and HAPPY TENTHS ANIVERSARY !

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Carolyn Goldberg link
20/6/2022 09:36:34 pm

Dear Catherine
Well done and congratulations! I am not a good writer so I will just say ditto to everything said above. An excellent publication much enjoyed. Carolyn

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Laura Brearley
21/6/2022 03:25:05 pm

The Bass Coast Post is a labour of love from you to be sure.
You enable us to see who we are and what we care about as a community. You connect us and we are all the stronger for it.
Deep thanks to you Catherine and all who sail with you.

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Richard Kemp
21/6/2022 05:11:09 pm

Congratulations Catherine well done. Thanks for giving all of us a platform to express our stories and thoughts. I hope to contribute as long as you can fix my grammar and spelling. Cheers Richard.

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Linda Cuttriss
22/6/2022 08:16:09 am

Ten years of dedication to our wonderful Bass Coast Post. You are astounding, amazing Catherine! You do the hard yards yet make it feel that the Post is ours. The Post is such a gift to the people of Bass Coast - to all those who care about its community, it’s environment, it’s heart and soul. And thanks for the opportunity to write and have my writing published. Thank you Catherine! Hooray! Happy Birthday!

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Max Richter
23/6/2022 09:25:10 am

Big thanks for all your creative, interesting and socially important work Catherine, including in this article, as usual a good length and with goodies such as this one: “..the Post is 10 years old. This is edition 329. At an average of eight stories an issue, that’s over 2500 stories..” -Wow! Shall read the other comments now..

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Miriam Strickland
24/6/2022 01:18:04 pm

A very boring "ditto to all of the above" from me. Happy birthday to the Post, and brava to you.

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Tim Herring
28/6/2022 08:39:40 am

Catherine the Great - Phyllis's post got that right!

I am only a recent BC resident of four years, but I got right into the Bass Coast Post and consider it just what Catherine wanted it to be - a magazine covering local affairs in a reasoned, and sometimes light-hearted manner. A place to read and share similar and differing views in a rational way.
Well done!

Reply



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