READERS' COMMENTS
The heart of our town
April 9, 2021
I absolutely agree with Frank Coldebella in regards to the piazza idea. It would be great to have less cars and more foot traffic. I also don't think the pubs should get to dictate what is best for our town.
Jacqui Paulson
I completely endorse Frank's views on the future use of McBride Avenue. The CBD is already often choked with vehicles looking for somewhere to park and surely we can create more parking options elsewhere.
Graeme Charles
Having pedestrian friendly wider paths & seating would be fantastic. Creating a community friendly space combining with Apex Park.
As for the Wonthaggi Club, I've never understood how they got away without creating their own parking spaces. Let them walk.
Peter Mckenzie
Go for it Frank. We may never have the wonderful public squares of Europe ........ But this is a good start.
Neville Drummond
Several years ago the BCSC trialled closure of the lower end of McBride Street to gauge public opinion. It was a cold, wet day, and not many were out and about. The trial was to run for a Saturday morning through to mid-afternoon, but was closed by midday due to representations from the Wonthaggi Club. Wonthaggi is destined to become degraded unless action is taken to make the CBD more 'liveable' ... and this means more pedestrian-friendly. A mall or public area would be a start, as would be plantings of strees (potted?) along the street fronts and, most importantly, a pedestrian crossing on Graham,Street between McBride Avenue and Billson Street. We have the potential for a lovely town at very low cost, but it will take courage to fight against vested self-interest. Good on you, Frank.
David Butcher
About 10 years ago the council in my home town in NZ proposed to close a block to traffic and make an outdoor dining area, “Eat Street”. I remember the dire predictions from traders and landlords. Today it is the busiest part of town with a waiting list of businesses wanting to rent there and the busyness spilling over into the surrounding streets.
Regarding the transformation of a pretty barren Wonthaggi CBD, the planners have consulted widely, listened to our views and used their imagination to offer an alternative. Let’s trust them on this and take the opportunity to transform our town centre into a place where visitors and locals alike will enjoy spending time. If it doesn’t work, we can always
undo it.
Catherine Watson
Totally agree, the 2/3 of a block of black windows that the Club now owns has just about killed this part of town. Surely by reinvigorating the area the Club could do nothing but benefit, as we all would.
Neil Rankine
Hear hear to Frank and all of the other positive comments here: now is our chance to make Wonthaggi really special, creating a vibrant, people-friendly centre in our town that will be great for locals, visitors and traders alike.
Robyn Arianrhod
Great idea. I'm all for it. And, of course Wonthaggi has high car use. There is no other option. May I suggest a shuttle bus (a 12-seater would cut it, I think), that could run a regular route continuously around town, picking up and dropping off pedestrians. Just a thought.
Aleida Jansen
Ample parking?? Where ? At the old Coles building? That is full of Councel workers cars! Or in Woolworths car park ? We have an aging population that is going to be force to walk for thier need in the bitter cold wind and rain that we have for nine months of the year!
Jack Dent
With all due respect, the area they are proposing the removal of car parking is mainly just overflow parking for businesses people wish to access on Graham Street. In order to better accommodate accessible parking for the elderly population, the council should be looking at having more disabled parking spots on Graham street, not just 1 or 2 outside the chemists, supermarkets and banks. Losing around 15 carparks on the least busy end of McBride Avenue isn't going to make a world of difference, but imagine if the council added 15 disabled carparks around the shopping precinct for our aging population.
Billie Emmett
I also fully agree on the need for better Commons spaces in the CBD, all-the-more w Wonthaggi’s growth projections, ie more greenery & pedestrian friendly, & I like Frank’s idea for moveable planters & seats reinforcing the town’s co-operative ethos. Let’s hope the clash b/w WClub & others doesn’t stall action yet longer - one way or other, please let’s have more greenery & spaces to help us love to visit and spend solid time in the centre of town.
Max Richter
Improving the lower McBride/Apex Park area would be an important way to begin counteracting some past bad planning, eg Bass Coast Plaza & its parking set-up & the old Coles sitting dormant on Watt St. We desperately need a more vibrant town centre; most of us zip in & out as there’s nowhere to congregate.
Tina Kalivas
I entirely agree that improving pedestrian and outdoor amenity will be of huge value to our town. It would be like our town square. .... somewhere to meet, like under the clocks at Flinders Street Station. I run the Wonthaggi Market at 17 korumburra Rd and we have very little parking. Before Medipharm was built many people parked on the vacant lot. When this land was developed we had so many people predicting that the loss of adjacent parking would result in loss of business. I can absolutely say now that it has made no difference at all to our business. My feeling and experience is that if a business is offering something that interests people.... Then they will come.
Antoinette Russo
Given the town’s growth predictions, a ‘gathering place’ in McBride Street can’t come soon enough. Small towns offer identity, places to connect and belong to. How long before it’s too late for Wonthaggi and there’s not a single street in which it would be natural to gather?
Wonthaggi must grow but it can grow kindly. Re-activating an honoured Wonthaggi tradition – meeting informally in the streets – is one of many important ways residents can come together. Whether we’re present as individuals or one of a tribe, street life offers us the same town benefits: freedom to come and go safely, a destination to walk to or through, the pleasure of affiliation.
Gill Heal
Hands off our bay
April 9, 2021
Congratulations Jeff to PICS for its untiring work to preserve Western Port. Hoping your new focus on a permanent protection plan for Western Port will be heeded by those intent on undermining its fragile and vulnerable environment.
Neil Daly
Thanks for publishing the "bay under threat" timeline, which shows just how constant the stress, cost and efforts to protect Western Port have been for more than fifty years. Missing from this timeline is the San Remo marina proposal that was subject to an EES in 1988. The intertidal and subtidal "San Remo Marine Community" at this site was subsequently listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. It's described here: https://www.environment.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/32455/San_Remo_Marine_Community.pdf
Jane Jobe
Well done everyone, it seems like the fight is never over, but we are not going away either. Such a relief that the State Government rejected the proposal, but we need to be vigilant.
Lorrie Read
Wonderful wonderful results. Congratulations to all involved and especially leadership team. However your article reveals how sustained sophisticated and professional the effort to protect the environment has to be, and how little quality of life of people is valued in legal vs
commercial arguments.
Jeannie Haughton
Ecological losses “a balancing act”: QC
April 9, 2021
Looking at the map of the area the sand miners covert, it's clear, this IS the last woodland corridor in Bass Coast Shire!
Neil Rankine
This is horrifying. Compare the human impact of this area with that of the thousands of animal and plant species that require this specific habitat and have as much right to be there. There is no BALANCE here.
It's preposterous and incorrect to generalise about the qualifications of community members. There is no such thing as 'temporary' extinction of species in an area. Loss of genetic diversity by killing off small populations has the same permanent effect. It's just slower. 'The commmunity' is not the ignorant ones here Mr Gobbo.
Julie Thomas
Yes, the plundering of regional Victoria for the convenience of Melbourne with little regard to the community and environmental impacts, much less the 'collateral damage' on vulnerable species (in fact risking regional extinctions), looks set to continue. We simply have to win this battle...
Tim O’Brien
Whilst the proponents of the mining scheme have an arsenal of money which allows dominance of “certified” expert opinion and advice. Governed by greed a commercial arrangement is as biased as you can get.
A small hamlet is unable to muster a corresponding budget. Many are fighting many battles. The role of government is to provide a balance whereby long-term effects are the governing decision, not a short-term financial gain of one proponent. Government
History shows the greater good or greater need is not the appropriate defence where financial or personal gain is the leading attribute to one’s position.
The dominance of the professional opinion must, if their diplomas have credibility, show the devastation the open cut quarrying will have on the local community, environment and other landholders.
In Australia previous poor decisions have created lasting problems which have only started. A country rich in assets, as the national anthem describes, is not just there for plundering. This only highlights how such a well-qualified person such as a Q.C., governed by a pay packet, appears tongue tied to provide a direct defence of a poor defendant and it’s incorporated plunder packaged as a mining upgrade.
The state and Fed governments have a new moment whereby a person’s home is his castle and the eviction of ones morals is not to be at the expense of another’s, now or in the environments future.
Time to step up politicians.
Peter Abraham
Well said, Catherine, Tim, Anne, Neil and Julie.
Allowing DPQ’s proposed Amendment to pass, with conditions, will only slow down the gradual death of our beautiful shire and bay, not save it. All of us need to call a halt to further incremental destruction as David Attenborough urged in 'Extinction and Climate Change with David Attenborough' (https://iview.abc.net.au/show/extinction-with-david-attenborough).
Our shire is a microcosm, part of the macrocosm that is the planet Earth. To excuse lack of action to save our small area because of current laws and regulations will not save our shire nor our planet. If currently such laws and regulations allow sand miners to remove part of an important biolink, mine below the water table and risk polluting Western Port Bay only 300 metres away with virtual impunity, call on lawmakers and authorities to change the laws and regulations.
As David Attenborough said, "We can safeguard our planet's diversity but ... what happens next is up to every one of us.” David Attenborough urged us to look at our current lifestyles and said we have to educate our children on the way Nature works. We have to realise plants are an integral part of our existence. "[Future generations] will look back on our generation with absolute horror," he said. "We are walking a tragic road of extinction."
Meryl Tobin
Added to all of this is the huge financial burden involved if Shires were to plan pro active amendments to the Planning Scheme. Years of work and huge cost I’m always told. Yet the inadequate State and Commonwealth protections for environment mean there are scarce laws to back up legal challenges. Yes it is stacked against the environment.
Jeannie Haughton
How Labor’s women saved their party
April 9, 2021
Thank you Kay for your tireless work championing women.
Clare Le Serve
Kudos to Kay Setches. It will be good for the nation to see other parties follow Labor’s lead in affirmative action to ensure parity with men in politics. Many women have proven themselves over and over again in this sphere. They include Joan Child, Susan Ryan, Jean Melzer, Carmen Lawrence, Joan Kirner, Jenny Macklin, Julia Gillard, Penny Wong, Anna Bligh, Tanya Plibersek, Linda Burney, Kay Setches, and Kristina Keneally on the Left, and Margaret Guilfoyle, Julie Bishop, Amanda Vanstone, Sarah Henderson, Gladys Berejiklian, Julie Banks, Kelly O’Dwyer and Marise Payne on the Right. Australian Democrats include Janine Haines and Natasha Stott-Despoja; Greens Christine Milne, Sarah Hanson-Young and Lidia Thorpe, and independents Jacqui Lambie, Kerryn Phelps and Zali Steggall.
Overseas Corazon Aquino, Indira Gandhi, Theresa May, Angela Merkel, Condoleezza Rice, Madeleine Albright, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Jacinda Ardern have contributed much to their countries.
Meryl Tobin
And the Better we all are for it, Thanks Kay.
Neil Rankine
You're a legend! Thanks Kay!
Marian Quigley
Kay’s story is a reminder that the road to equality is long and arduous. While the rallies and conferences (and these days the hashtags) give the illusion of social change, the real work is carried out in backrooms by small groups of people who dedicate hours, weeks, months and even years to achieve equality and who don’t give up despite the setbacks. When was the last time they made a feature film about a committee?
Catherine Watson
Thanks Catherine for this essential story; essential salute to the strategies, the women warriors and the enlightened men who fought for them. Political gender balance is the only way to genuinely approach the work of balanced policy and government.
Karen Sandon
Caution – slow ahead
April 9, 2021
Some pertinent arguments here, particularly the importance of separating cyclists (and the occasional runner/walker) from other road vehicles along narrow and heavily used Coghlan Road. Investing in a bike path may well prove good value, increasing safety without delaying industry, while also encouraging outdoor activity.
Miriam Strickland
Interesting how he said “Our experience is that a wildlife incident can happen at speeds as low as 40km/h. If we were serious about reducing road kill, a multi-pronged approach is required. Newhaven College has dynamic speed limits at school times, reducing the road speed from 80km/h to 40 km/h. Why can’t we slow speed limits when needed to reduce road kill, such as dawn and dusk?”
Deborah
I agree with most of Michael's article. I would support 60km on Harbison Road and the entrance to Newhaven College to be moved there. Win win. The school gets a safe pick up and drop off zone and business can get on with it, rather than having to crawl past there for most of the day.
Neroli
For ease of arithmetic, if Island is 20km long, at 80kmh travel time is 15mins, alternatively at 60kmh, travel time is 20mins. Newhaven to COWES is 14km so only 3.5mins saved travel time. Does it really matter? So isn’t it a fuss about nothing, striving to keep 80kmh?
Grandkids were down recently. Bike ride to boat ramp then Ventnor on dirt was Ok. Ride back along main road was not pleasant. Next day ride to Newhaven and back, no pleasure on tracks alongside 80kmh, unlikely to bother next time. For family cycling, need paths not alongside roads.
Bernie Mccomb
A touch of magic
April 9, 2021
I heard on the grapevine that there was no best in show to be included for consideration for the YAC Award. Surely that can't be right?
Liane Arno
Congratulations to Stephen Jansen and Karen Murphy Ellis. I would like to also compliment Josephine Allen, the judge. The judge's comments are thoughtful and pertinent, and add another dimension to an intriguing work. I know that artists value the feedback from the judge as do the other participants at an exhibition. Well done.
Miranda Sage
Well done, Steve! That's what retirement is all about ...........
Annie Chisholm
Fire in the belly
April 9, 2021
Ania - my heart goes out to you and all the other women with this dreadful condition. Congratulations in raising our awareness and I hope the connections you have facilitated will provide some support for those struggling on a daily basis.
I have to ask the eternal question - if this condition only affected men, would we be in this situation or would research have found some effective treatments or a cure by now?
Anne Heath Mennell
Congratulations on your successful meeting to all the women involved. Being together and talking always helps. Thank you for bringing this story to us Geoff. I feel myself so fortunate to have escaped this relentless illness. Good on you for making your suffering known. Since there does not seem to be a cure currently, the illness probably needs more research dollars to help overcome it.
Felicia Di Stefano
Tales of Tent Town
April 9, 2021
Thank you Catherine. Now I must search for the book.
Felicia Di Stefano
Wynne blocks Crib Point gas plan
March 30, 2021
Huge congratulations to everyone involved! Now to move towards making Western Port a national Reserve to keep industry out of it forever.
Christine Grayden
What brilliant news!!! Perhaps Richard Wynne is not the environmental Luddite many of us have feared. This perhaps may give us cause for hope over the butchering by sand miners of the bush corridor running through Grantville.
Tim O'Brien
Fantastic News. Congratulations to us all.
Elizabeth Mary Lambert
Great result. Congratulations to all involved
Ronnie Bauer
Laura Brearley
It’s been an incredible couple of hours with messages from people who are crying with relief and others cracking open the champagne.
Here are two ways of thinking about what has happened …
1) Pat McCabe, a Lakota woman talking about the idea that water is alive and that water is listening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeeAMNxuqio
2) Here is the link to Richard Wynne's Assessment and Report. https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/environment-assessment/browse-projects/projects/crib-point.
Here’s an excerpt from his conclusion …‘My overall conclusion is that the project will result in unacceptable environmental effects. Those unacceptable effects would result from the operation of the FSRU. The FSRU’s marine discharge will cause an ongoing impact to the environment over the 20 year life of the project. The adverse direct and indirect effects of that discharge on environmental values, fundamental to the Ramsar status of Western Port, are not compatible with the level of protection required to be afforded to a wetland of recognised international significance. The project’s other environmental impacts are likely to be acceptable subject to my recommended mitigation and management measures outlined in Section 5 and Appendix B. That said, I am conscious that, for the purposes of the Environment Effects Act, the Crib Point Gas Import Jetty and the Crib Point Pakenham Gas Pipeline were presented in a single EES and are subject to a single assessment. Accordingly, and in the context of the interdependency of the gas import jetty works and the pipeline works, I can only conclude that if one part of the project has unacceptable environmental effects, the project in its entirety, has unacceptable environmental effects.’ P.56
It's a happy day. I hope you are able to go out in it and celebrate.
Happy days indeed. Hard to ignore 6000 people, especially when councils back their communities. Anything is possible, Tim.
Catherine Watson
Wow, wow, wow! Great to know the Govt is listening some times! Many thanks for sharing this superb news. Those who care about our environment need a lift, especially after what some of us are going through sitting day after day in Zoom meetings for the Panel Hearing considering the proposed expansion of the Dandy Premix Quarries’ site along Bass Highway 1.1 km north of Grantville and only 300 metres from Western Port Bay. May the Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne, continue to listen to those trying to protect our precious environment in perpetuity from exploitation for unsustainable development and short term gain.
Meryl Tobin
Given everything that has been thrown at Westernport: removal of mangroves in the 19th century, channeling of water that used to move slowly through Koo Wee Rup Swamp, straight to the bay, death of sea grass in the last 50 years, it is amazing it is as vibrant an area for migrating birds and other sea life as it is. But we need to protect this precious resource from further destruction and hopefully regeneration.
James Glover
Back in my working days when running our family business, if someone did the wrong thing we had a saying.
"Once is an accident" aka Hastings Container Terminal
"Twice is careless" aka the AGL gas plant proposal
"Three times is down right stupidity" aka Kawasiki proposal to ship Hydrogen out of Western Port
We can only hope the "powers that be" adhere to this mantra.
What is also striking is that the above 3 projects that would have/still would stuff Western Port have only been proposed within the last ten years.Never mind all the other stuff EG Esse/BHP etc from the past
Someone needs to tell these clowns who put up these projects to, just... leave... us... alone...
Plus instead of spending so much time and money putting them up, just go read the "fish school" or "seabird flock" of environment reports and studies, viz The Western Port Ramsar Plan, that in plain English says, "leave the b....y joint alone..
Kevin Chambers
That is fabulous news! Thanks to everyone fighting for our Westernport. Now we need to hang on to our remnant forest and stop further destruction from sandmining.
Margaret Lee
Whoopee! Great news. Thanks to everyone for all the hard work, with appreciation from us, the whales and all the little fishes.
Sandra Peeters
Great news. Well done those who objected.
Valerie Heath Levey
Yes, isn’t this a Marvellous win for People Power – and the difference some vehement committed mob voices can make to swell the dissent… what a relief!
Lee Tierney
Congratulations. It is an exceptional results and to the thousands of hours spent by the warriors getting the information out to the general public - THANK YOU
Barbara Oates
This decision restores faith in our ability to voice public opinions and arguments based on researched facts. The support of all Councils is a landmark that has influenced Govt decision making and must be congratulated.
Well done to all, and thank you Minister Wynne for listening to your constituents
ian Samuel
Well done it is such a relief to know my favourite place is saved. I know it has been a long and stressful process, thank you all.
Robyn Smith
Fabulous news! So heartening that it's still possible for a politician to make the right decision. A day to smile and say well done to the 6,000+ people who cared enough to make a submission. Hooray!!
Linda Cuttriss
What a relief! Well done to everyone who fought this battle so gallantly - just goes to show - you just never ever ever give up! Thank you Minister Wynne, thank you Bass Coast Council for listening and supporting your community.
Pamela Rothfield
THE BEST NEWS FOR LONG TIME !!!
Well done to us !!!
Natasha Williams
Great news. A leading Scientist in the area of gas power once told me that if a full tanker exploded off Cowes , the whole town and surrounding area would be flattened.
A safe outcome for everyone and the beautiful environment.
Congratulations to all concerned.
Julie Box.
Our home-grown university
March 23, 2021
Well written Bon, great speech yesterday. What a fantastic occasion for the whole of the region not just Bass Coast. People can study here rather than travel to the city, amazing opportunity. We all need to support this centre, it will open so many doors for all aged students, Game Changer
Brett Tessari
Hi Bonnie, Like you, I was the first in my family to go to uni - very many years ago.
There was no internet and I had to leave my small town in the UK. The only way I could do it financially was because I qualified for a grant (provided by the local government area!). As a girl, I was very lucky to be supported by my parents to leave home.
It is so exciting that local people will now find it easier to continue their education, gain qualifications and go on to fulfill their potential.
I am so grateful for my education, which opened up the world to me.
I wish you, and all the foundation and future students, all the very best in your studies.
Good luck to you all
Anne Heath Mennell
A strong team can tale any crazy vision and turn it into reality said John Carmack. Congratulations to the strong team who worked to make this dream a reality. May you grow to make this The Wonthaggi Regional University.
Felicia Di Stefano
This is a really fantastic and timely idea and I wish you every success.
John Whiteoak
This is a wonderful initiative, and well expressed Bonnie. Congratulations to all involved in getting it established.
Miriam Strickland
A labour of love
March 23, 2021
Well done Daryl & Margaret
Brian Enbom
Well done Daryl and Margaret, you have created a wonderful farm for your animals and nature in general. You have shown just what can be achieved with care, thought and planning. Daryl I always remember your enthusiasm at school and it obviously shows in what you have created at Pound Creek. Best of luck to you both with your next adventure.
Sandra Thorley
The more trees, native grasses and understory we plant the more native birds and animals we save from the 'clearing extinction'. Daryl, your and Margaret's farm has increased the local population of native flora and fauna and we are very grateful to you. Hopefully the new people on the farm will carry on the tradition. Best of luck with whatever you choose to do next.
Felicia Di Stefano
Daryl and Margaret you have been an inspiration for so many over decades. Thank you and go well. Bob and Anne
Anne Davie
What an inspiration and what an amazing legacy!
I'm so glad to hear that the trees are under covenant so will live on safely to nurture all the other life-forms which have found refuges in, on and under them.
I do hope you are not going to be far from Wonthaggi in this next adventure.
Anne Heath Mennell
From Burma to Wonthaggi
March 23, 2021
Thank-you for sharing your story.
Jenny Bramich
Great story Mue Hsay, thank you for sharing your story.
Iain Ritchie
good on you, Sylvia!!
annie Chisholm
Congratulations to you all. X
Sharon
Mining onslaught affects us all
March 23, 2021
How can we help ?
Brydie Standfield
Could we not recycle glass rather than this atrocity?
Em Pea
This is truly horrific!
Judy Green
Such an enormous structure being expanded so close to waterways and a town/area that is really starting to boom.. Safety and preservation of our beautiful people and country. should be TOP priority. Not money.
Angela Bromley
The sand mining operators should have to demonstrate successful rehabilitation of previously mined areas, rehab plans for active areas and responsible environmental practices before any consideration is given to them expanding existing operations.
Brian O'Farrell
Brian you should see the paltry efforts at rehabilitation at the Gurdies Site, now used for sand washing only
Margaret Lee
Human intervention and destruction into nature really needs to stop if humans actually want a future surviving on this planet.
Janet Metcalf
This is truly an abomination. And the destruction hides behind a thin line of trees. How do we show this desecration to the whole world? The next phase will be a record of the species lost due to this mass. Destruction and they are irreplaceable.
Lorrie Read
Truly horrendous. Had no idea this existed as am sure not many other people did either. Why are we always kept in the dark? Digging away, destroying habitat and poisoning the environment. Ministers wake up to yourselves and do your job.
Linden
I’ve been wondering whether this sand could be used..
https://watersource.awa.asn.au/environment/natural-environment/gold-rush-sand-slug-choking-murray-darling/
Mike Cleeland
The winds of change
March 25, 2021
I'm one of those submitting to and questioning at the Planning Panel set up by the government to advise the Minister on how he should decide the fate of a large chunk of the woodland corridor from Lang Lang to Grantville (our last woodland forest corridor). You have correctly stated that our Council has said what is proposed is unacceptable, we are not allowed to decide however, the Minister called it in. The state government have assured us that the Distinctive Areas and Landscape designation for Bass Coast will protect what's important here, however, at the Panel hearings the DAL as it's called cannot influence this area of sand recently added to a priority list of sand resource to build roads, bridges and overhead train lines for Melbourne. The Planning system is broken or our population policy is broken, maybe it's both.
Neil Rankine
The absolute neglect of Parks and Council and State government to preserve and promote the areas of the coal mining sites here is stunning. I am born and bred in Hicksborough and come from black coal mining here (both sides of my family) yet even though lives were lost and humans and animals worked under the most atrocious conditions I dont see the respect that they deserve...............Before we take off to be another suburb or the broader urban spread we need to rethink how it all began. PRESERVE WHAT IS LEFT, RESPECT AND EDUCATE
Rosemary Loughnan
Robyn You have your chance now to influence how Wonthaggi develops. Council deferred a decision on the Wonthaggi Activity Centre Plan at its last meeting it also sought further consultation. If I recall correctly the officers comments responded to just 39 submissions The attachments to the meeting agenda also include a report from Dr Elliot Fishman on active transport the discussion will be around how well the Activity Centre Plan picks up that work. The ball and the opportunity is in your court.
Michael Whelan
Great article Robyn and so timely. Gill’s latest, Looking for Wonthaggi, was one of her best and would love to see it again!
I am also concerned at the rapid advancement of development in recent years and understand we need population growth to gain infrastructure, particularly library services in the Waterline townships, which have actually been reduced in 2020.
Libraries and librarians are a vital and necessary tool to encourage and develop reading and writing skills for future generations. Mental health and well being is important at present in our current generation.
A lot to weigh up but can we stop the rapid development …. I don’t think so but I dare to dream.
Joy Button
Great article Robyn. I don’t think Wonthaggi’s unique history and amazing human story is as widely known and appreciated as it could be. Thanks to Gill Heal for bringing those human stories to life on stage. I also left the theatre with a tear in my eye and a hope that the spirit of Wonthaggi will not be lost in a sea of suburban sprawl. I wonder what it takes for a place to grow yet still retain its character.
Linda Cuttriss
Commitment from its citizens I think Linda, and a determination to let the planners and decision makers know that commitment.
Neil Rankine
Here be dragons – and cows
March 23, 2021
Thanks Mark for your delightful and informative piece about these fascinating creatures - and the stunning pictures. Most of all I love your message of not needing to know their purpose - the joy comes from knowing they exist.
Linda Cuttriss
Thanks for your kind words Linda, I was at my granddaughters first birthday party today, and am looking forward to one day explaining the pointless wonderfulness of a sea dragon or starfish to her. Provided that the industrialisation of our marine world is kept in check. AGL and sandminers come to mind here, along with those good corporate citizens at Aquasure.
Mark Robertson
I saw my first ornate cowfish this morning in a pool at Harmers. I would never have recognised it if I hadn't just read about it in the Post. Thanks to Mark for his invaluable natural history series.
Catherine Watson
Some have heard the call
March 23, 2021
What we'll have to watch, Neil, if such a plan comes to fruition, is the exemptions! Governments seem good at introducing them, and creating them at the drop of a hat.
Neil Rankine
Well done Neil but its obviously still needing more questions to Govt and along the lines of what Meryl Tobin is saying how can this information be sent in and with good evidence supporting it, to convince our leaders and government authorities to avoid their conflict with a financial argument as against environmental, which is important and at best sustainable in our world of climate change.
Keep it up and thanks George
George Varigos
Thank you for your continuing efforts Neil.
The recommendation about the AGL proposal could be made public anytime now due, making Clifford Hayes’ speech in the legislative Council extremely timely.
An appreciation of Westernport and its unique ecology has been a positive outcome of recent efforts to expose the threats that Westernport faces from inappropriate industry .
It was shocking to hear the Port of Hastings claiming at the recent EES hearing that there is no limit to the increase in shipping operations and industrial activity that they envisage in Westernport. Expert witnesses on behalf of the council, Drs Blount and Lincoln Smith detailed Westernport’s shorebirds and marine life, and described the compounding devastation of these ecosystems when cumulative impacts of poorly considered industrial activity are allowed to go unchecked.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H4F46YjqA_KOAi_p-DL_XciXHOwdlrnM/view?usp=drivesdk
Julia
A timely piece indeed, Neil. Currently the Victorian Government is considering Dandy Premix Quarries Pty Ltd's proposed amendment to expand its pit at its Grantville site. Situated on the Bass Highway only 1.1 km north of the Grantville shops, it is less than 500 metres from Western Port Bay, a Ramsar site.
The expansion involves the removal of remnant native vegetation from part of a priceless biolink stretching east of the highway from Nyora-Lang Lang to Grantville. Most of this biolink lies on top of sand. We have already seen what happens to mature forest when sand mines are allowed to be created and when they expand. For instance, have a look at what happened late last year to the ancient Grass Tree forest located on Crown Land held by a work authority by Sand Supplies Pty Ltd at their Grantville site.
DPQ is also requesting to go below the water table and that involves issues with Deep Creek which drains into Western Port Bay.
Spring St needs to hear what is at stake here, Neil, and what you propose is worthy of our politicians’ attention.
All who love Bass Coast and Western Port Bay should contact their politicians and urge they support such a plan – and without the exemptions to which Neil Rankine refers.
Meryl Tobin
Thank You, Neil, for all your efforts over the years. We can only keep plugging away in the hope that someone, somewhere, sometime will be listening.
As one of the people opposing the Grantville quarry expansion I was pinning my hopes on the DAL listing until I read the detail and realised that sand quarrying was exempted!!! It makes no sense and is a conflict between the environment and the supposed 'economy' which appears to have no resolution other than trashing the environment every time. The planning system is broken: opaque, complex, riddled with exemptions and stacked against local councils and communities. I despair.
Anne Heath Mennell
Destination nearby
March 12, 2021
Miriam, loved your article and enjoyed the photos. All that was missing is the directions. Coming from the south, where do we approach from?
Christine Hammond
thank you Miriam for enlightening me. You've whet my appetite, loving the Tarra Bulga tracts of rainforest as I do... shall definitely incorporate Mt Worth in the near future, as Warragul is an 8 weekly destination for me anyway. I hope your group exercise program is really blossoming for you. Regards. Lee
Lee Tierney
Thanks Miriam. Wonderful place but I found the path very slippery and fell once on the way round. Personally, I would only go there in the dry months and even then...
Mary Allitt
Great article, thank you for the inspiration to enjoy nature, going there soon.
https://www.visitbawbaw.com.au/discover/explore/natural-attractions/mount-worth-state-park/
Sunny
When I visited the Park last in 2019 I was amazed with how well kept the visitor area and tracks were. By comparison tidal River at the Prom was tired and run down. The difference I believe is due to Mt Worth's energetic and committed Friends Gp. The Prom is too large for its friends Gp to achieve as much.
Arnis Heislers
‘There was a storm in me’
March 11, 2021
Thank you Carolyn. These brave, compassionate people who fought and succeeded in improving lives need to be remembered. Sounds as if communism had its place in society as well.
Felicia Di Stefano
I read this story looking for a word I knew I wouldn't see. That word is Stalin.
As a "a true believer, a Communist through and through" in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, Agnes Doig was a spruiker for Stalin and his totalitarian regime, ignoring the murder of Ukrainian peasantry in the early 1930s (the Holodomor or Ukrainian genocide), having no problem with the massive purges in the mid-1930s which saw millions arrested, tortured, then (those not executed) packed into cattle cars and barges and sent to the Siberian slave labour camps; championed Stalin and Hitler's invasion and dismemberment of Poland in September 1939 and the Red Army's march into Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Finland and Iran; supported the post-WWII imposition of Stalinist puppet dictatorships in Eastern Europe (such as the murderous Ceausescu and Hoxha) and the arrest, torture and deportation of millions from this region to the Siberian concentration camps; was untroubled by Khrushchev denunciation of Stalin and his crimes against the Party; and, overall, was comfortable with the thousands of artists, scientists, intellectuals and academics arrested, tortured, deported or killed during Stalin's dictatorship, along with millions of the working and peasant classes.
It is a pity her "strong sense of social justice that drove her to political activism" didn't extend past her local environment; that she thought totalitarianism was the answer.
“Walter and I talked mostly about politics,” said Agnes. “We used to discuss conditions and all the ways we would beat the boss.”
Maybe it would have been better if you had broadened the conversation to include, say, what Hitler and Stalin were jointly doing to Poland in 1939 instead of blinding accepting what the party told you to believe.
It is such a shame there wasn't a political party, advocating democracy, trade unionism, and freedom of speech and eschewing dictatorship, who also represented the working class you could have joined, something like an Australia-wide labour party, a party in which even a former coal miner, say, someone who we'll call Fisher, or train driver, say, a man named, um, let's go with Chifley, could rise through the ranks to the position of Prime Minister. But, unfortunately, no such party like this has ever existed in this country.
Geoff Guilfoyle
Geoff, A longwinded rebuttal to the life of a good woman.
I am sure at the time, News Ltd and the IPA were (not) highlighting the weaknesses of the Soviet Union.
History is always clearer with hindsight.
Our current federal governing politicians will also not look good with hindsight.
Ian Teese
The day my mother said ‘Enough!’
March 11, 2021
Such a beautifully written account of the devastation and impact of words and racist attitudes that sadly permeates still through our communities. Aunty your words were without anger, abuse or venom, and demonstrate the power and wisdom that you hold, thanks obviously to such a wonderful Mother. Thank you for sharing and caring enough to educate the wider community.
Jim Barritt
Congratulations and well said
Diversity is our strength division is not
Ian Samuel
Nothing We Liked Better
March 12, 2021
Dear Jillian. What a fantastic memoir and look forward to seeing the final and complete version published.
These are brief comments made by the judges (Catherine Watson, Geoff Ellis and Anne Heath-Mennell) for the Bass Coast Prize for Non-fiction 2021:
The story of a house and its inhabitants, anchored by two old trees: a pine and a pear. It weaves memoir, local history and natural history. A great feat of imagination and beautifully written. It was a pleasure meeting you and all the other prize winners. (despite COVID restrictions at the time)
Phyllis Papps
A world apart
March 11, 2021
A beautiful reflection Ellen, thank you!
Maddy Harford
No place like home
Feb 26, 2021 –
My heart bleeds for these poor people. All I can do to help is put a few non-perishable groceries in the Mitchell house box. The Salvation Army is one I donate to as they do have a heart. Australia the 'Lucky Country" has thousands in these dire straights and with the miserable Job Seeker (plus $25 a week - Come on!!!) how can anyone afford rents these days. I hope Geoff Ellis can tell us what the Bass Coast Shire is doing in a positive way to help people in desperate need. Yvonne
Yvonne McRae
Hi Yvonne - thanks for supporting the free food box !
Jessica Harrison
Yes, exactly Yvonne. Nationally we need to do more.
Wendy Davis
Like Yvonne, I was quite distressed to read the article and that homelessness exists in Bass Coast. Mitchell House is doing a fabulous job in having an access point for food for those having such a difficult time.
Is it possible for donations to be gathered from some of the townships in Bass Coast to help make life a little easier for people who are enduring such terrible hardship?
I am always grateful for the roof over my head, the food on my table and my bed and blanket at night.
How can I do more to help ........
Joy Button
Hi Joy, Thanks for your sympathetic words. If you would like to help more, I'd be happy to meet you, maybe at Mitchell House ?jessicaharrison1@bigpond.com
Jessica Harrison
Cape Connection
Feb 26, 2021 –
Congratulations Lauren, a wonderful piece of non-fiction that was awarded a High Commendation by the judges of The Bass Coast Prize for Non Fiction 2020 (Catherine Watson, Geoff Ellis and Anne Heath-Mennell).
This is just a brief exerpt of what the judges said: "Impressive memoir interweaving a personal journey of discovery with a 'coming home' to Bass Coast. Lovely use of language: “I pat the pockets of my vocabulary but can't turn out anything that seems appropriate. I began to frequent the beach for a daily lesson in change.”
The writing is fresh, with no cliches, struggling successfully to describe a very unusual situation and to answer important and novel questions...
Please keep on writing Lauren because you are a great writer,
Phyllis Papps
Wonderful writing, Lauren. I had read of your finding your biological family some years ago, but didn't recall your name. I have since been reading of the young activist who has emerged in Bass Coast as a spokesperson and warrior for nature. And now you have put them together in a beautiful piece that traces your search for a meaningful life in the expanded context of family (that you can never have enough of). As a self-indulgent aside, I went to University with a cousin of Ben's so I had a particular interest in your story.
Marg Lynn
Enthralling story thanks Lauren.
My family lived at Cape Woolamai when your grandfather Manning was growing up in Cowes. There is an interesting story that has come down through my family about the day the Clarks came to visit the Cleelands for Sunday lunch.
After the meal Manning and some other kids, including Dad and my uncle Jack, asked to be excused, and were allowed to leave the table to play outside.
Presently the adults also left the table for a stroll through the grounds.
Coming upon the vegetable garden, they were horrified to observe that numbers of tomato seedlings had been pulled out and left lying neatly on the ground.
After much consternation it was established that the culprit was none other than Manning. When pressed by my grandfather to explain his destructive actions, Manning simply replied
“I was examining their root systems”
Mike Cleeland
Beautifully written Lauren. Such wonderful discoveries for you! I love your descriptive and emotive style.
Jackie Moss
On centre stage
Feb 26, 2021 –
Neil, and Catherine thank you for writing and publishing this article.
In particular, thank you for bringing Auntie Tasma Walton's words to those of us who wouldn't otherwise have the space to hear them. I too dream of a day in the future that Traditional ceremony is reclaimed and those who are respectful, open and humble from any cultural background are able to take part and support contemporary leaders and elders in these essential inter-species rituals in appropriate ways. Thank you.
Karen Sandon
We need to preserve this beautiful area for the traditional owners and for future generations to enjoy. Let’s embrace this land with the care that the Bunwurrang people have and share in the connection to the land.
Vanessa Shipway
Coloured by COVID
Feb 26, 2021 –
Love these. Ken leaves me applying the same imagination that sat muse-like upon his shoulder. Susan may have done a bit of a J.M.W. Turner, her cloud-layering giving ethereal substance to filtered light, and creating a sense of wonder at nature’s infinite beauty. Thank you for your curator’s touch, Catherine.
John Gascoigne
A generous community
Feb 26, 2021 –
The concert was a beautiful and wonderful culmination Laura of your vision and commitment to the project and to the immense creativity, talent and generosity of spirit within our community. Congratulations to everyone involved and especially to videographer Terry Melvin for capturing so well all those beautiful and special places near where we live. It was such a pleasure to be part of it all.
Jan Bourne
I had such a connective, heartwarming day meeting wonderful people and loved capturing the days special emotions on the day.
Thanks Laura, and mention for Robin Lowe for making the call so l could be involved in this Coastal Connections Concert 1st event back at The Arts Centre . 🙏📷
Nici Cahill
The next chapter
Feb 26, 2021 –
Thank you to all that made this competition a repeat. It will be welcomed by all writers of this area and those who have once lived here either for short times or longer residencies. It is held in high esteem as is Phyllis who inaugurated it.
Joan Woods
My sincere thanks and congratulations to all the wonderful writers who entered the Bass Coast Prize for Non-fiction: 2019 (42 entries), 2020 (44 entries).
It takes a lot of courage, passion and creativity to 'put pen to paper' then submit the written piece in time for the deadline.
Accolades and orchids to all writers who submitted entries in the past and hopefully more writers will submit their written works for the Bass Coast Prize for Non-fiction 2021.
Phyllis Papps
Council pans Dandy Premix plan
February 17, 2021
There has to come a point in time when remnant vegetation and fauna habitat is considered for its importance. Once lost will never be recovered. Australia has an appalling reputation for species loss. Here is an opportunity to show that we do value our habitats ahead of ever ongoing expansion. There are alternative and proven technologies waiting to be exploited to replace sand and concrete that will not impact on our environment. Planners - open your minds to the future. It is not the exploitation of diminishing natural resources.
Dr Mary Cole
I absolutely support the position of the objectors, and particularly those comments of Dr Mary Cole. We owe it to future generations, and the native fauna and flora environment to start to develop alternative materials and strategies.
Andrew Troedel
Congratulations to the Councillors and the Community for standing up to fight to protect our precious last remaining coastal forest.
Lauren Burns
Good news! I truly hope those who continue planning for Victoria take note of our finely balance and diminishing ecosystems. Another council win has been Mitchell Shire stopping building a Basalt Quarry near Wallan
Margaret Lee
Congratulations to council and the wider community for adopting this position.
We are transient custodians of this planet and should plan and act accordingly.
Shane Ellis
Ditto to the comments above. Thanks to our Bass Coast Councillors for holding the line and standing up for our last patch of remnant coastal forest and the wildlife that depend on it! And thanks to Councillors for listening to your community. Now let’s hope the Planning Panel members and Planning Minister listen to Council’s arguments as well as to the State Government’s Climate Change Act (which claims to position Victoria as a leader in climate change action) AND to its recognition of Bass Coast as a Distinctive Area and Landscape.
Linda Cuttriss
Amen to all of the above comments and heartfelt thanks to all the Councillors who worked so hard as a team to get the alternative motion passed unanimously.
The Minister was always going to approve the application but at least now we have raised ways that he can approve it but with very strong conditions and ongoing monitoring of compliance so we are never in this position again.
Anne Heath Mennell
Looking for Wonthaggi
Feb 13, 2021
Thank you Gill 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 Gilll's Over The Bridge in 2006.
Anne Davie
Dear Gill, another wonderful production 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.
Phyllis Papps
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.
Joy Button
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
Jan Bourne
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.
Imelda Daly
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
‘Councillors must hold their nerve’
February 13, 2021 –
Brilliant and balanced summation, Neil. I hope all readers will contact their councillors asap!
Anne Heath Mennell
I do hope that all residents in Bass Coast rally behind you Neil and contact Councillors regarding the lack of adherence to existing policies.
We do need to retain our precious green spaces and mindful of the effects involved.
Joy Button
Great summary article Neil. Very helpful to lay out the situation so we can all contact our local Councillors to express our outrage and demand they vote to reject this weak Officers report that ignores our policies and community concerns
Lauren Burns
Must we keep digging, dragging and extracting the treasures out of our Earth and leave it naked? We are already losing insects, birds, precious animals as we destroy their homes. Can humans stop, take stock and begin to replace the plundered vegetation; to invite the birds, insects and animals back?
Felicia Di Stefano
On the Shore of the Wide World
February 13, 2021 –
Fiona, that was another wonderful long- form article for the Bass Coast Prize for Non- Fiction 2020. Yours was superb. Please keep on writing !!!
Phyllis Papps
Thank-you, a great story..... I loved to read the Bass history.
Jenny Bramich
Great piece of writing Fiona (as always from you). You bring Bass alive. I recall visiting your parent’s farm the night before your sister’s wedding to drop something important off.
Edward Buckingham
Thank you for your wonderful story re the family history of your time living at Bass. As I drive towards Bass from San Remo and look down to the left I will try to visualise what the area would have looked like all those years ago. You certainly did bring Bass alive for us all.
Sandra Thorley
Thanks for reading and commenting, Sandra. I experienced that stunning view you describe between San Remo and Bass daily during my secondary schooling and I loved it then as I do now; it is never the same and even better since the Anderson bypass.
Fiona Power
Congratulations on writing a fine piece on not only your early life but a social history of an important but little known area in Bass Coast, Fiona. Few people would be aware that a thriving port and township once existed at Bass Landing.
Meryl Tobin
Thanks Meryl. You are right about Bass Landing. Some of the oral history was still circulating when I was a child and fortunately Bass Valley historians captured quite a bit. I understand some houses were moved to Wonthaggi.
Your comment means a great deal as I recall reading and responding to your contributions to education publications when I was a student, then being stunned to meet you and realise that authors were real people - who could live locally - and not just names.
Fiona Power
Thank you Fiona, a terrific piece about a very special place.
Chris Buckingham
Well done, Fiona, what’s next? I am sure you will continue to write!
Mikaela Power
Shame on YOU!
Feb 13 2021 –
YES. Shame indeed on everyone (including people with privileged positions of power in politics)
Being an elder of the LGBTIQI+ community- I need to re-iterate: it is NOT a shame to be an integral member of society and the community we all live in.
The Marriage Equality Act was passed in late 2019.
Shame on everyone who is still bigoted, biased, the religious fanatics and those who are racist, sexist, and have total disregard for equality irrespective of race, gender, sex, nationality etc.
SHAME. It's time to move on. You are no longer in the majority.
Phyllis Papps
Well done Harriet to highlight those who chose to abstain. Their salaries are paid by the tax payer... what a cop out
Nola Smith
From what I've read about this subject, one of the problems with the bill is that it will prevent parents from discussing the issue with their children if/when they come out as gay. Unfortunately, a lot of Labor bills, etc. go for the sledgehammer to crack a walnut option. Tone it down and let families make their own decisions. There are certain "conversions" that should be made illegal, so do the work to single them out.
Pamela Jacka
Thank you, Harriet for championing difference and minorities in our society. I agree with Alexander Solzhenitsyn that we are here to help each other. To abstain is to walk past the potential harm such a law can cause and walking past is as good as an approval of that harm.
Felicia Di Stefano
Yes! Thanks Harriet, for so many years of tireless leadership and implementing real change. Keep at it.
Geoff Ellis
Dog versus snake
Feb 13, 2021
A happy story Geoff and thanks for sharing. My dear border collie died in July mid lockdown and it has taken 7 months to consider a "replacement" a mini foxie more suited to my strength. May our dogs happily reign over our lives never aware of how much we worry about them when they are away from our protective laps.
James Glover
What a lovely story, thanks for sharing. And yes one lucky dog, who is living the life.
Sunny
Roy sounds like a handful and also a heartfull! Nice little story Geoff.
Tim Herring
I enjoyed reading your story and find Roy very lovable. He found the right home.
Verena
The best of company
February 13, 2021 –
I love reading your stories Etsuko. They transport me to another world, your world, which is always a thoughtful and meaningful place to hang out in. Thanks for sharing your wonderful words once again. They continue to inspire me.
Anne Tindall
Hi Etsuko, I love your expression of the importance of friendship. I do enjoy the same and specially those people, who are so accepting that one can discuss any subject. I remember the time when we had a plum tree in our garden in Ferntree Gully. Hans made wine and after a while we tasted it. Oh it was so potent, that after a couple of little glasses I felt like I could fly. Enough said, I enjoy your words. Verena
Oz Day blues
Jan 30, 2021
Thank you Marg, I totally agree!
Susan Fowler
The reasons 26 January is not a good day for us to celebrate our National Day are manifold and have little directly to do with indigenous people. It is certainly not "Invasion Day" – the First Fleet landed on in Australia on 18 January so that's when the "invasion" started. What happened on 26 January was that the British founded a penal colony at Sydney Cove. Most countries – including the USA and India and many others – celebrate their National Day on the day they stopped being a colony, We are the only country on the planet that celebrates on the day we started being a colony! This is pretty sick! What happened on 26 January was something the British did, not something Australians did, so what are Australians celebrating it for? Indeed there was no Australia then and until about forty years later. Why are we celebrating an event that took place before we even existed? A valid Australia Day must of course be inclusive of and recognise the long custodianship of our Indigenous people, but it must also be meaningful for other Australians too. A rabble of sad convicts huddling on an alien shore is not an event worth a National Celebration!
Ian Robinson
Well said Marg. Sadly the comments by John Cobbledick reflect that same old paternalistic diatribe more fitting for centuries of old. Why is it that some people ignore history that doesn’t interest them, discounting other peoples’ past and legacy, yet find it absolutely valid to reflect upon ANZAC day, Christmas, Easter and the myriad of other important historic events? There is so much that White Australian’s enjoy that has been built upon First Nation Peoples backs and land. Education nurtures understanding and empathy, I encourage Mr Cobbledick to dabble in the both heart wrenching history of the frontier wars and the incredible humanity that Aboriginal people continue to bring to the table despite the impacts of colonists and their ilk.
Jim Barritt
Out of respect for our First People and our shame the date of Australia Day must and will change
Anne Davie
Forget all the squabbling about which date to celebrate our nations rich heritage. I feel that we will only truly become on when there is an aboriginal auntie as our leader. They seem to display a far greater sense of reality than the old white blokes who historically and currently hold the power.
Mark Robertson
"It is time for Australians to decide that the Majority rules, so we can became a Democracy again."
Again? Though sometimes a great nation, Australia has never been a great democracy. Before 1788 it was a collection of nations, from 1788 to 1901 a collection of colonies and since 1901 a federalized Commonwealth with all that gerrymandering and control by special interests. Remember when Senator Harradine had the final say? Or Fred Nile in NSW and Bjelke Peterson in QLD?
Who actually wanted us to go to war in Iraq or Afghanistan?
Commonwealth refers to "public welfare, general good or advantage" and I see little evidence to disprove the old adage that "the rich get richer". As for the poor, does history have to repeat?
Geoff Ellis
Thank you, Marg Lynn for your excellent piece. As for John Cobbledick, I was looking for something in what you wrote that I could agree with, and I found it. It is, 'How can there be TOTAL EQUALITY if only one side gives and keeps giving and the other keeps taking?' Just think about it, John, Europeans took the land from the First People and pretended that they didn't exist, by calling it Terra Nullius, empty land. And the Aboriginal people are still having so much taken from them, including freedom. But so many First Nations people give and would give much more if only we would let them, for example, it is now being recognised the fire reduction burning is not effective because of the way it is carried out. When Aborginal people have been allowed to share their knowledge of the correct burning techniques, land and lives are saved.
Yes, John, there is no equality when people such as you want to take and expect others to give their heritage away.
Bron Dahlstrom
Go Marg! Lucid and persuasive.
Lynda Campbell
There is no date this criminal occupation can celebrate, not while it remains a continuing monumental crime scene, unresolved it demeans and diminishes everyone, everything we do a as a people, community, nation is tainted, no human rights recognition for the first peoples means no human rights recognition for all the people here. Stop the lies, genocide, ecocide.
"Lets make the date" one we can be all proud of.
Les Patterson
No Place Like Home
January 28, 2021
Karen, a beautifully written non-fiction piece that was Highly Commended by the judges of the Bass Coast Prize for Non-fiction 2020 (Catherine Watson, Geoff Ellis and Anne Heath-Mennell)
This is just a brief extract of their comments:
"An exploration of home. Can we ever know a place that we didn’t grow up in, or do we need the stories and traditions we grow up with? The author wrestles with a sense of alienation and the conundrum of knowing that to her children this IS home. She broadens it by including other people’s experiences, a friend who is a third generation Bass Coaster and a Bunurong elder who gives her some sage advice. Amusing at times and also thought-provoking."
Congratulations for entering the competition twice and for receiving Special Commendations twice. Next time- first Prize. !!!!
Phyllis Papps
Many thanks to Editor Watson for this great opportunity to reread a delightful consideration of "home'. A beautiful piece that grows. More please.
Geoff Ellis
Love, thank you Karen
Tricia Hogan
Karen, I love this. Such a beautiful essay about home, belonging and our complicated relationships with place. Thank you.
Julie Constable
Wonderful to re-read this, Karen. I am one of the 14.4% of Bass Coasters born overseas, like you, from the North of England. (I'm from Yorkshire - you?) I share so many of your thoughts and experiences but you have expressed them so lyrically, much better than I could. This is a heartfelt exploration and a wonderful read. Congratulations.
Anne Heath Mennell
Thank you for visiting!
Jan 30, 2021 –
As one of the Hoodie volunteers he has no sympathy from me. We have lost all the chicks so far this year. And I have been abused beyond belief for trying to do what I can to help their survival.
Susan Fowler
That point also highlights a message that isn't getting through to locals like this gentleman - the noisy, abundant birds on our lawns are NOT Hooded Plovers. They are now called Masked Lapwings. For many years, they were known as Spur-Winged Plovers, hence the confusion.
Hooded Plovers are tiny, shy and live on the beach. We need to keep publicising the difference. (Sorry, slightly off-topic, but important. )
Julie Thomas
Thank you Catherine for an absolutely priceless, well written and funny article. Made my day and feel so much better that others feel the same.
When we walk Bobby during these visiting times, and say good morning to fellow walkers and when they do not , Richard says .... City People.
Your article sums it all up. Thank you for making my day and creating a burst of sunshine on an overcast day. We all need to laugh at ourselves.
Joy Button
YES !! Glad they have gone. They might contribute to the economy, to tourism etc. etc. BUT they don't give anything back to the community, to the environment, AND to our special place. Totally destroyed by selfish people who don't even live here.
Another observation is: that many visitors become very aggressive if confronted regarding their disregard of Local Laws etc. etc.
For an elderly person (or any other person) I find this behaviour very upsetting.
Phyllis Papps
As a fellow kiwi i am just so proud of you that you managed a 12 point turn, well done😀
Lynne
Bass Coast is now officially a peri-urban area and Wonthaggi a designated regional growth centre. Council is embarking on a campaign to attract even more visitors and development and Wonthaggi's population is expected to double in the next few years. Without proper planning for improved roads and other infrastructure, the current 'holiday' congestion will last all year. I suspect we are living in the 'good old days' right now, so enjoy it while we can.
Anne Heath Mennell
The Bass Coast sound
Jan 30, 2021
Sounds wonderful and will be happy to attend. Keep up with song making.
Joan Woods
an a amazing project, so looking forward to the launch, it looks a very powerful acknowledgement of place
Nerida Melsmith
Picture this
Jan 30, 2021
Geoff, another wonderful, superb and descriptive article that is matched with fantastic photos. Love from all of us at Rhyll.
Phyllis Papps
When I first moved t Inverloch there were so many things to do and groups to join in the area that I joined too many. It was crazy, I was enjoying it, but I needed to rationalise. Camera club was one of the groups I gave up. Geoff's article is enticing. Maybe I need to return. Thank you Geoff
Bron Dahlstrom
Thanks Bron, The BCAS camera group is all about enjoying photography in interesting places, sharing the adventure and learning a bit along the way. Maybe you can suggest some places to visit ?
Geoff Ellis
Megabits empower the people
Jan 30, 2021
Great article. Thank you for the read.
Vanessa Shipway
Another brilliant article, Neil. Always informative, factually based and spot on with your comments. I'm keeping everything crossed for the decision to go the right way.and we can put down our pens, at least for a little while ...
Anne Heath Mennell
Our dearly departed
Jan 30, 2021
Wow - that's a lot of close-acquaintance deaths.
And it reminds me that I too could "eff off" any time, any place.
Sue P
My day in court
Jan 30, 2021
Surely a case of the penknife being mightier than the sword.......
Mark Robertson
A good story well told.
Dad
Remo revisited
Jan 30, 2021
Thanks to Catherine for publishing these "memoirs". All throughout I have neglected to mention that my four "water conveyances" (aka a rubber dinghy and 3 ever longer "tinnies" were named after my two lovely daughters Sara and Narelle. A continuation of a family tradition in that our plastics moulding business was Kevron.. (Keytags to the world!!)
Kevin Chambers
Thanks Kevin for another fascinating write up about my favourite place in Victoria which we visited all the time when we bought block on Cape Woolamai Estate. Unmade roads, dunny in a box with pan collection and our kids grew up loving every minute of their holidays there. 21 years ago we finally bought in San Remo for our planned retirement years and loved living there, you soon become part of the community and now our sons and grand children come whenever they can escape the city. It's their holiday home they tell me. Haven't offered to pay the rates yet!! For medical reasons we now spend some time in Melb but back to SR every time we are able to. To just sit in our lounge watching the world go bye as we enjoy the view across Weston Port Bay and the bridge lit up at night is not a bad way to enjoy life. Time goes so quickly if you live there enjoy it. I'm always amazed how few people walk on San Remo beach it's fabulous to walk it whether summer or winter yet we usually only share it with handful of dog walkers.
Chris Day
History draws a crowd
Jan 30, 2021
Congratulations to all at WDHS! What a huge year you have had with your extension, moving everything around and then kickstarting such a great talks program during the summer. I am only sorry I am not able to get there atm, but very much looking forward to doing so once I have the right gear. I am very curious to see how the bigger museum space is working for your wonderful collection.
Christine Grayden
April 9, 2021
I absolutely agree with Frank Coldebella in regards to the piazza idea. It would be great to have less cars and more foot traffic. I also don't think the pubs should get to dictate what is best for our town.
Jacqui Paulson
I completely endorse Frank's views on the future use of McBride Avenue. The CBD is already often choked with vehicles looking for somewhere to park and surely we can create more parking options elsewhere.
Graeme Charles
Having pedestrian friendly wider paths & seating would be fantastic. Creating a community friendly space combining with Apex Park.
As for the Wonthaggi Club, I've never understood how they got away without creating their own parking spaces. Let them walk.
Peter Mckenzie
Go for it Frank. We may never have the wonderful public squares of Europe ........ But this is a good start.
Neville Drummond
Several years ago the BCSC trialled closure of the lower end of McBride Street to gauge public opinion. It was a cold, wet day, and not many were out and about. The trial was to run for a Saturday morning through to mid-afternoon, but was closed by midday due to representations from the Wonthaggi Club. Wonthaggi is destined to become degraded unless action is taken to make the CBD more 'liveable' ... and this means more pedestrian-friendly. A mall or public area would be a start, as would be plantings of strees (potted?) along the street fronts and, most importantly, a pedestrian crossing on Graham,Street between McBride Avenue and Billson Street. We have the potential for a lovely town at very low cost, but it will take courage to fight against vested self-interest. Good on you, Frank.
David Butcher
About 10 years ago the council in my home town in NZ proposed to close a block to traffic and make an outdoor dining area, “Eat Street”. I remember the dire predictions from traders and landlords. Today it is the busiest part of town with a waiting list of businesses wanting to rent there and the busyness spilling over into the surrounding streets.
Regarding the transformation of a pretty barren Wonthaggi CBD, the planners have consulted widely, listened to our views and used their imagination to offer an alternative. Let’s trust them on this and take the opportunity to transform our town centre into a place where visitors and locals alike will enjoy spending time. If it doesn’t work, we can always
undo it.
Catherine Watson
Totally agree, the 2/3 of a block of black windows that the Club now owns has just about killed this part of town. Surely by reinvigorating the area the Club could do nothing but benefit, as we all would.
Neil Rankine
Hear hear to Frank and all of the other positive comments here: now is our chance to make Wonthaggi really special, creating a vibrant, people-friendly centre in our town that will be great for locals, visitors and traders alike.
Robyn Arianrhod
Great idea. I'm all for it. And, of course Wonthaggi has high car use. There is no other option. May I suggest a shuttle bus (a 12-seater would cut it, I think), that could run a regular route continuously around town, picking up and dropping off pedestrians. Just a thought.
Aleida Jansen
Ample parking?? Where ? At the old Coles building? That is full of Councel workers cars! Or in Woolworths car park ? We have an aging population that is going to be force to walk for thier need in the bitter cold wind and rain that we have for nine months of the year!
Jack Dent
With all due respect, the area they are proposing the removal of car parking is mainly just overflow parking for businesses people wish to access on Graham Street. In order to better accommodate accessible parking for the elderly population, the council should be looking at having more disabled parking spots on Graham street, not just 1 or 2 outside the chemists, supermarkets and banks. Losing around 15 carparks on the least busy end of McBride Avenue isn't going to make a world of difference, but imagine if the council added 15 disabled carparks around the shopping precinct for our aging population.
Billie Emmett
I also fully agree on the need for better Commons spaces in the CBD, all-the-more w Wonthaggi’s growth projections, ie more greenery & pedestrian friendly, & I like Frank’s idea for moveable planters & seats reinforcing the town’s co-operative ethos. Let’s hope the clash b/w WClub & others doesn’t stall action yet longer - one way or other, please let’s have more greenery & spaces to help us love to visit and spend solid time in the centre of town.
Max Richter
Improving the lower McBride/Apex Park area would be an important way to begin counteracting some past bad planning, eg Bass Coast Plaza & its parking set-up & the old Coles sitting dormant on Watt St. We desperately need a more vibrant town centre; most of us zip in & out as there’s nowhere to congregate.
Tina Kalivas
I entirely agree that improving pedestrian and outdoor amenity will be of huge value to our town. It would be like our town square. .... somewhere to meet, like under the clocks at Flinders Street Station. I run the Wonthaggi Market at 17 korumburra Rd and we have very little parking. Before Medipharm was built many people parked on the vacant lot. When this land was developed we had so many people predicting that the loss of adjacent parking would result in loss of business. I can absolutely say now that it has made no difference at all to our business. My feeling and experience is that if a business is offering something that interests people.... Then they will come.
Antoinette Russo
Given the town’s growth predictions, a ‘gathering place’ in McBride Street can’t come soon enough. Small towns offer identity, places to connect and belong to. How long before it’s too late for Wonthaggi and there’s not a single street in which it would be natural to gather?
Wonthaggi must grow but it can grow kindly. Re-activating an honoured Wonthaggi tradition – meeting informally in the streets – is one of many important ways residents can come together. Whether we’re present as individuals or one of a tribe, street life offers us the same town benefits: freedom to come and go safely, a destination to walk to or through, the pleasure of affiliation.
Gill Heal
Hands off our bay
April 9, 2021
Congratulations Jeff to PICS for its untiring work to preserve Western Port. Hoping your new focus on a permanent protection plan for Western Port will be heeded by those intent on undermining its fragile and vulnerable environment.
Neil Daly
Thanks for publishing the "bay under threat" timeline, which shows just how constant the stress, cost and efforts to protect Western Port have been for more than fifty years. Missing from this timeline is the San Remo marina proposal that was subject to an EES in 1988. The intertidal and subtidal "San Remo Marine Community" at this site was subsequently listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. It's described here: https://www.environment.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/32455/San_Remo_Marine_Community.pdf
Jane Jobe
Well done everyone, it seems like the fight is never over, but we are not going away either. Such a relief that the State Government rejected the proposal, but we need to be vigilant.
Lorrie Read
Wonderful wonderful results. Congratulations to all involved and especially leadership team. However your article reveals how sustained sophisticated and professional the effort to protect the environment has to be, and how little quality of life of people is valued in legal vs
commercial arguments.
Jeannie Haughton
Ecological losses “a balancing act”: QC
April 9, 2021
Looking at the map of the area the sand miners covert, it's clear, this IS the last woodland corridor in Bass Coast Shire!
Neil Rankine
This is horrifying. Compare the human impact of this area with that of the thousands of animal and plant species that require this specific habitat and have as much right to be there. There is no BALANCE here.
It's preposterous and incorrect to generalise about the qualifications of community members. There is no such thing as 'temporary' extinction of species in an area. Loss of genetic diversity by killing off small populations has the same permanent effect. It's just slower. 'The commmunity' is not the ignorant ones here Mr Gobbo.
Julie Thomas
Yes, the plundering of regional Victoria for the convenience of Melbourne with little regard to the community and environmental impacts, much less the 'collateral damage' on vulnerable species (in fact risking regional extinctions), looks set to continue. We simply have to win this battle...
Tim O’Brien
Whilst the proponents of the mining scheme have an arsenal of money which allows dominance of “certified” expert opinion and advice. Governed by greed a commercial arrangement is as biased as you can get.
A small hamlet is unable to muster a corresponding budget. Many are fighting many battles. The role of government is to provide a balance whereby long-term effects are the governing decision, not a short-term financial gain of one proponent. Government
History shows the greater good or greater need is not the appropriate defence where financial or personal gain is the leading attribute to one’s position.
The dominance of the professional opinion must, if their diplomas have credibility, show the devastation the open cut quarrying will have on the local community, environment and other landholders.
In Australia previous poor decisions have created lasting problems which have only started. A country rich in assets, as the national anthem describes, is not just there for plundering. This only highlights how such a well-qualified person such as a Q.C., governed by a pay packet, appears tongue tied to provide a direct defence of a poor defendant and it’s incorporated plunder packaged as a mining upgrade.
The state and Fed governments have a new moment whereby a person’s home is his castle and the eviction of ones morals is not to be at the expense of another’s, now or in the environments future.
Time to step up politicians.
Peter Abraham
Well said, Catherine, Tim, Anne, Neil and Julie.
Allowing DPQ’s proposed Amendment to pass, with conditions, will only slow down the gradual death of our beautiful shire and bay, not save it. All of us need to call a halt to further incremental destruction as David Attenborough urged in 'Extinction and Climate Change with David Attenborough' (https://iview.abc.net.au/show/extinction-with-david-attenborough).
Our shire is a microcosm, part of the macrocosm that is the planet Earth. To excuse lack of action to save our small area because of current laws and regulations will not save our shire nor our planet. If currently such laws and regulations allow sand miners to remove part of an important biolink, mine below the water table and risk polluting Western Port Bay only 300 metres away with virtual impunity, call on lawmakers and authorities to change the laws and regulations.
As David Attenborough said, "We can safeguard our planet's diversity but ... what happens next is up to every one of us.” David Attenborough urged us to look at our current lifestyles and said we have to educate our children on the way Nature works. We have to realise plants are an integral part of our existence. "[Future generations] will look back on our generation with absolute horror," he said. "We are walking a tragic road of extinction."
Meryl Tobin
Added to all of this is the huge financial burden involved if Shires were to plan pro active amendments to the Planning Scheme. Years of work and huge cost I’m always told. Yet the inadequate State and Commonwealth protections for environment mean there are scarce laws to back up legal challenges. Yes it is stacked against the environment.
Jeannie Haughton
How Labor’s women saved their party
April 9, 2021
Thank you Kay for your tireless work championing women.
Clare Le Serve
Kudos to Kay Setches. It will be good for the nation to see other parties follow Labor’s lead in affirmative action to ensure parity with men in politics. Many women have proven themselves over and over again in this sphere. They include Joan Child, Susan Ryan, Jean Melzer, Carmen Lawrence, Joan Kirner, Jenny Macklin, Julia Gillard, Penny Wong, Anna Bligh, Tanya Plibersek, Linda Burney, Kay Setches, and Kristina Keneally on the Left, and Margaret Guilfoyle, Julie Bishop, Amanda Vanstone, Sarah Henderson, Gladys Berejiklian, Julie Banks, Kelly O’Dwyer and Marise Payne on the Right. Australian Democrats include Janine Haines and Natasha Stott-Despoja; Greens Christine Milne, Sarah Hanson-Young and Lidia Thorpe, and independents Jacqui Lambie, Kerryn Phelps and Zali Steggall.
Overseas Corazon Aquino, Indira Gandhi, Theresa May, Angela Merkel, Condoleezza Rice, Madeleine Albright, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Jacinda Ardern have contributed much to their countries.
Meryl Tobin
And the Better we all are for it, Thanks Kay.
Neil Rankine
You're a legend! Thanks Kay!
Marian Quigley
Kay’s story is a reminder that the road to equality is long and arduous. While the rallies and conferences (and these days the hashtags) give the illusion of social change, the real work is carried out in backrooms by small groups of people who dedicate hours, weeks, months and even years to achieve equality and who don’t give up despite the setbacks. When was the last time they made a feature film about a committee?
Catherine Watson
Thanks Catherine for this essential story; essential salute to the strategies, the women warriors and the enlightened men who fought for them. Political gender balance is the only way to genuinely approach the work of balanced policy and government.
Karen Sandon
Caution – slow ahead
April 9, 2021
Some pertinent arguments here, particularly the importance of separating cyclists (and the occasional runner/walker) from other road vehicles along narrow and heavily used Coghlan Road. Investing in a bike path may well prove good value, increasing safety without delaying industry, while also encouraging outdoor activity.
Miriam Strickland
Interesting how he said “Our experience is that a wildlife incident can happen at speeds as low as 40km/h. If we were serious about reducing road kill, a multi-pronged approach is required. Newhaven College has dynamic speed limits at school times, reducing the road speed from 80km/h to 40 km/h. Why can’t we slow speed limits when needed to reduce road kill, such as dawn and dusk?”
Deborah
I agree with most of Michael's article. I would support 60km on Harbison Road and the entrance to Newhaven College to be moved there. Win win. The school gets a safe pick up and drop off zone and business can get on with it, rather than having to crawl past there for most of the day.
Neroli
For ease of arithmetic, if Island is 20km long, at 80kmh travel time is 15mins, alternatively at 60kmh, travel time is 20mins. Newhaven to COWES is 14km so only 3.5mins saved travel time. Does it really matter? So isn’t it a fuss about nothing, striving to keep 80kmh?
Grandkids were down recently. Bike ride to boat ramp then Ventnor on dirt was Ok. Ride back along main road was not pleasant. Next day ride to Newhaven and back, no pleasure on tracks alongside 80kmh, unlikely to bother next time. For family cycling, need paths not alongside roads.
Bernie Mccomb
A touch of magic
April 9, 2021
I heard on the grapevine that there was no best in show to be included for consideration for the YAC Award. Surely that can't be right?
Liane Arno
Congratulations to Stephen Jansen and Karen Murphy Ellis. I would like to also compliment Josephine Allen, the judge. The judge's comments are thoughtful and pertinent, and add another dimension to an intriguing work. I know that artists value the feedback from the judge as do the other participants at an exhibition. Well done.
Miranda Sage
Well done, Steve! That's what retirement is all about ...........
Annie Chisholm
Fire in the belly
April 9, 2021
Ania - my heart goes out to you and all the other women with this dreadful condition. Congratulations in raising our awareness and I hope the connections you have facilitated will provide some support for those struggling on a daily basis.
I have to ask the eternal question - if this condition only affected men, would we be in this situation or would research have found some effective treatments or a cure by now?
Anne Heath Mennell
Congratulations on your successful meeting to all the women involved. Being together and talking always helps. Thank you for bringing this story to us Geoff. I feel myself so fortunate to have escaped this relentless illness. Good on you for making your suffering known. Since there does not seem to be a cure currently, the illness probably needs more research dollars to help overcome it.
Felicia Di Stefano
Tales of Tent Town
April 9, 2021
Thank you Catherine. Now I must search for the book.
Felicia Di Stefano
Wynne blocks Crib Point gas plan
March 30, 2021
Huge congratulations to everyone involved! Now to move towards making Western Port a national Reserve to keep industry out of it forever.
Christine Grayden
What brilliant news!!! Perhaps Richard Wynne is not the environmental Luddite many of us have feared. This perhaps may give us cause for hope over the butchering by sand miners of the bush corridor running through Grantville.
Tim O'Brien
Fantastic News. Congratulations to us all.
Elizabeth Mary Lambert
Great result. Congratulations to all involved
Ronnie Bauer
Laura Brearley
It’s been an incredible couple of hours with messages from people who are crying with relief and others cracking open the champagne.
Here are two ways of thinking about what has happened …
1) Pat McCabe, a Lakota woman talking about the idea that water is alive and that water is listening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeeAMNxuqio
2) Here is the link to Richard Wynne's Assessment and Report. https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/environment-assessment/browse-projects/projects/crib-point.
Here’s an excerpt from his conclusion …‘My overall conclusion is that the project will result in unacceptable environmental effects. Those unacceptable effects would result from the operation of the FSRU. The FSRU’s marine discharge will cause an ongoing impact to the environment over the 20 year life of the project. The adverse direct and indirect effects of that discharge on environmental values, fundamental to the Ramsar status of Western Port, are not compatible with the level of protection required to be afforded to a wetland of recognised international significance. The project’s other environmental impacts are likely to be acceptable subject to my recommended mitigation and management measures outlined in Section 5 and Appendix B. That said, I am conscious that, for the purposes of the Environment Effects Act, the Crib Point Gas Import Jetty and the Crib Point Pakenham Gas Pipeline were presented in a single EES and are subject to a single assessment. Accordingly, and in the context of the interdependency of the gas import jetty works and the pipeline works, I can only conclude that if one part of the project has unacceptable environmental effects, the project in its entirety, has unacceptable environmental effects.’ P.56
It's a happy day. I hope you are able to go out in it and celebrate.
Happy days indeed. Hard to ignore 6000 people, especially when councils back their communities. Anything is possible, Tim.
Catherine Watson
Wow, wow, wow! Great to know the Govt is listening some times! Many thanks for sharing this superb news. Those who care about our environment need a lift, especially after what some of us are going through sitting day after day in Zoom meetings for the Panel Hearing considering the proposed expansion of the Dandy Premix Quarries’ site along Bass Highway 1.1 km north of Grantville and only 300 metres from Western Port Bay. May the Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne, continue to listen to those trying to protect our precious environment in perpetuity from exploitation for unsustainable development and short term gain.
Meryl Tobin
Given everything that has been thrown at Westernport: removal of mangroves in the 19th century, channeling of water that used to move slowly through Koo Wee Rup Swamp, straight to the bay, death of sea grass in the last 50 years, it is amazing it is as vibrant an area for migrating birds and other sea life as it is. But we need to protect this precious resource from further destruction and hopefully regeneration.
James Glover
Back in my working days when running our family business, if someone did the wrong thing we had a saying.
"Once is an accident" aka Hastings Container Terminal
"Twice is careless" aka the AGL gas plant proposal
"Three times is down right stupidity" aka Kawasiki proposal to ship Hydrogen out of Western Port
We can only hope the "powers that be" adhere to this mantra.
What is also striking is that the above 3 projects that would have/still would stuff Western Port have only been proposed within the last ten years.Never mind all the other stuff EG Esse/BHP etc from the past
Someone needs to tell these clowns who put up these projects to, just... leave... us... alone...
Plus instead of spending so much time and money putting them up, just go read the "fish school" or "seabird flock" of environment reports and studies, viz The Western Port Ramsar Plan, that in plain English says, "leave the b....y joint alone..
Kevin Chambers
That is fabulous news! Thanks to everyone fighting for our Westernport. Now we need to hang on to our remnant forest and stop further destruction from sandmining.
Margaret Lee
Whoopee! Great news. Thanks to everyone for all the hard work, with appreciation from us, the whales and all the little fishes.
Sandra Peeters
Great news. Well done those who objected.
Valerie Heath Levey
Yes, isn’t this a Marvellous win for People Power – and the difference some vehement committed mob voices can make to swell the dissent… what a relief!
Lee Tierney
Congratulations. It is an exceptional results and to the thousands of hours spent by the warriors getting the information out to the general public - THANK YOU
Barbara Oates
This decision restores faith in our ability to voice public opinions and arguments based on researched facts. The support of all Councils is a landmark that has influenced Govt decision making and must be congratulated.
Well done to all, and thank you Minister Wynne for listening to your constituents
ian Samuel
Well done it is such a relief to know my favourite place is saved. I know it has been a long and stressful process, thank you all.
Robyn Smith
Fabulous news! So heartening that it's still possible for a politician to make the right decision. A day to smile and say well done to the 6,000+ people who cared enough to make a submission. Hooray!!
Linda Cuttriss
What a relief! Well done to everyone who fought this battle so gallantly - just goes to show - you just never ever ever give up! Thank you Minister Wynne, thank you Bass Coast Council for listening and supporting your community.
Pamela Rothfield
THE BEST NEWS FOR LONG TIME !!!
Well done to us !!!
Natasha Williams
Great news. A leading Scientist in the area of gas power once told me that if a full tanker exploded off Cowes , the whole town and surrounding area would be flattened.
A safe outcome for everyone and the beautiful environment.
Congratulations to all concerned.
Julie Box.
Our home-grown university
March 23, 2021
Well written Bon, great speech yesterday. What a fantastic occasion for the whole of the region not just Bass Coast. People can study here rather than travel to the city, amazing opportunity. We all need to support this centre, it will open so many doors for all aged students, Game Changer
Brett Tessari
Hi Bonnie, Like you, I was the first in my family to go to uni - very many years ago.
There was no internet and I had to leave my small town in the UK. The only way I could do it financially was because I qualified for a grant (provided by the local government area!). As a girl, I was very lucky to be supported by my parents to leave home.
It is so exciting that local people will now find it easier to continue their education, gain qualifications and go on to fulfill their potential.
I am so grateful for my education, which opened up the world to me.
I wish you, and all the foundation and future students, all the very best in your studies.
Good luck to you all
Anne Heath Mennell
A strong team can tale any crazy vision and turn it into reality said John Carmack. Congratulations to the strong team who worked to make this dream a reality. May you grow to make this The Wonthaggi Regional University.
Felicia Di Stefano
This is a really fantastic and timely idea and I wish you every success.
John Whiteoak
This is a wonderful initiative, and well expressed Bonnie. Congratulations to all involved in getting it established.
Miriam Strickland
A labour of love
March 23, 2021
Well done Daryl & Margaret
Brian Enbom
Well done Daryl and Margaret, you have created a wonderful farm for your animals and nature in general. You have shown just what can be achieved with care, thought and planning. Daryl I always remember your enthusiasm at school and it obviously shows in what you have created at Pound Creek. Best of luck to you both with your next adventure.
Sandra Thorley
The more trees, native grasses and understory we plant the more native birds and animals we save from the 'clearing extinction'. Daryl, your and Margaret's farm has increased the local population of native flora and fauna and we are very grateful to you. Hopefully the new people on the farm will carry on the tradition. Best of luck with whatever you choose to do next.
Felicia Di Stefano
Daryl and Margaret you have been an inspiration for so many over decades. Thank you and go well. Bob and Anne
Anne Davie
What an inspiration and what an amazing legacy!
I'm so glad to hear that the trees are under covenant so will live on safely to nurture all the other life-forms which have found refuges in, on and under them.
I do hope you are not going to be far from Wonthaggi in this next adventure.
Anne Heath Mennell
From Burma to Wonthaggi
March 23, 2021
Thank-you for sharing your story.
Jenny Bramich
Great story Mue Hsay, thank you for sharing your story.
Iain Ritchie
good on you, Sylvia!!
annie Chisholm
Congratulations to you all. X
Sharon
Mining onslaught affects us all
March 23, 2021
How can we help ?
Brydie Standfield
Could we not recycle glass rather than this atrocity?
Em Pea
This is truly horrific!
Judy Green
Such an enormous structure being expanded so close to waterways and a town/area that is really starting to boom.. Safety and preservation of our beautiful people and country. should be TOP priority. Not money.
Angela Bromley
The sand mining operators should have to demonstrate successful rehabilitation of previously mined areas, rehab plans for active areas and responsible environmental practices before any consideration is given to them expanding existing operations.
Brian O'Farrell
Brian you should see the paltry efforts at rehabilitation at the Gurdies Site, now used for sand washing only
Margaret Lee
Human intervention and destruction into nature really needs to stop if humans actually want a future surviving on this planet.
Janet Metcalf
This is truly an abomination. And the destruction hides behind a thin line of trees. How do we show this desecration to the whole world? The next phase will be a record of the species lost due to this mass. Destruction and they are irreplaceable.
Lorrie Read
Truly horrendous. Had no idea this existed as am sure not many other people did either. Why are we always kept in the dark? Digging away, destroying habitat and poisoning the environment. Ministers wake up to yourselves and do your job.
Linden
I’ve been wondering whether this sand could be used..
https://watersource.awa.asn.au/environment/natural-environment/gold-rush-sand-slug-choking-murray-darling/
Mike Cleeland
The winds of change
March 25, 2021
I'm one of those submitting to and questioning at the Planning Panel set up by the government to advise the Minister on how he should decide the fate of a large chunk of the woodland corridor from Lang Lang to Grantville (our last woodland forest corridor). You have correctly stated that our Council has said what is proposed is unacceptable, we are not allowed to decide however, the Minister called it in. The state government have assured us that the Distinctive Areas and Landscape designation for Bass Coast will protect what's important here, however, at the Panel hearings the DAL as it's called cannot influence this area of sand recently added to a priority list of sand resource to build roads, bridges and overhead train lines for Melbourne. The Planning system is broken or our population policy is broken, maybe it's both.
Neil Rankine
The absolute neglect of Parks and Council and State government to preserve and promote the areas of the coal mining sites here is stunning. I am born and bred in Hicksborough and come from black coal mining here (both sides of my family) yet even though lives were lost and humans and animals worked under the most atrocious conditions I dont see the respect that they deserve...............Before we take off to be another suburb or the broader urban spread we need to rethink how it all began. PRESERVE WHAT IS LEFT, RESPECT AND EDUCATE
Rosemary Loughnan
Robyn You have your chance now to influence how Wonthaggi develops. Council deferred a decision on the Wonthaggi Activity Centre Plan at its last meeting it also sought further consultation. If I recall correctly the officers comments responded to just 39 submissions The attachments to the meeting agenda also include a report from Dr Elliot Fishman on active transport the discussion will be around how well the Activity Centre Plan picks up that work. The ball and the opportunity is in your court.
Michael Whelan
Great article Robyn and so timely. Gill’s latest, Looking for Wonthaggi, was one of her best and would love to see it again!
I am also concerned at the rapid advancement of development in recent years and understand we need population growth to gain infrastructure, particularly library services in the Waterline townships, which have actually been reduced in 2020.
Libraries and librarians are a vital and necessary tool to encourage and develop reading and writing skills for future generations. Mental health and well being is important at present in our current generation.
A lot to weigh up but can we stop the rapid development …. I don’t think so but I dare to dream.
Joy Button
Great article Robyn. I don’t think Wonthaggi’s unique history and amazing human story is as widely known and appreciated as it could be. Thanks to Gill Heal for bringing those human stories to life on stage. I also left the theatre with a tear in my eye and a hope that the spirit of Wonthaggi will not be lost in a sea of suburban sprawl. I wonder what it takes for a place to grow yet still retain its character.
Linda Cuttriss
Commitment from its citizens I think Linda, and a determination to let the planners and decision makers know that commitment.
Neil Rankine
Here be dragons – and cows
March 23, 2021
Thanks Mark for your delightful and informative piece about these fascinating creatures - and the stunning pictures. Most of all I love your message of not needing to know their purpose - the joy comes from knowing they exist.
Linda Cuttriss
Thanks for your kind words Linda, I was at my granddaughters first birthday party today, and am looking forward to one day explaining the pointless wonderfulness of a sea dragon or starfish to her. Provided that the industrialisation of our marine world is kept in check. AGL and sandminers come to mind here, along with those good corporate citizens at Aquasure.
Mark Robertson
I saw my first ornate cowfish this morning in a pool at Harmers. I would never have recognised it if I hadn't just read about it in the Post. Thanks to Mark for his invaluable natural history series.
Catherine Watson
Some have heard the call
March 23, 2021
What we'll have to watch, Neil, if such a plan comes to fruition, is the exemptions! Governments seem good at introducing them, and creating them at the drop of a hat.
Neil Rankine
Well done Neil but its obviously still needing more questions to Govt and along the lines of what Meryl Tobin is saying how can this information be sent in and with good evidence supporting it, to convince our leaders and government authorities to avoid their conflict with a financial argument as against environmental, which is important and at best sustainable in our world of climate change.
Keep it up and thanks George
George Varigos
Thank you for your continuing efforts Neil.
The recommendation about the AGL proposal could be made public anytime now due, making Clifford Hayes’ speech in the legislative Council extremely timely.
An appreciation of Westernport and its unique ecology has been a positive outcome of recent efforts to expose the threats that Westernport faces from inappropriate industry .
It was shocking to hear the Port of Hastings claiming at the recent EES hearing that there is no limit to the increase in shipping operations and industrial activity that they envisage in Westernport. Expert witnesses on behalf of the council, Drs Blount and Lincoln Smith detailed Westernport’s shorebirds and marine life, and described the compounding devastation of these ecosystems when cumulative impacts of poorly considered industrial activity are allowed to go unchecked.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H4F46YjqA_KOAi_p-DL_XciXHOwdlrnM/view?usp=drivesdk
Julia
A timely piece indeed, Neil. Currently the Victorian Government is considering Dandy Premix Quarries Pty Ltd's proposed amendment to expand its pit at its Grantville site. Situated on the Bass Highway only 1.1 km north of the Grantville shops, it is less than 500 metres from Western Port Bay, a Ramsar site.
The expansion involves the removal of remnant native vegetation from part of a priceless biolink stretching east of the highway from Nyora-Lang Lang to Grantville. Most of this biolink lies on top of sand. We have already seen what happens to mature forest when sand mines are allowed to be created and when they expand. For instance, have a look at what happened late last year to the ancient Grass Tree forest located on Crown Land held by a work authority by Sand Supplies Pty Ltd at their Grantville site.
DPQ is also requesting to go below the water table and that involves issues with Deep Creek which drains into Western Port Bay.
Spring St needs to hear what is at stake here, Neil, and what you propose is worthy of our politicians’ attention.
All who love Bass Coast and Western Port Bay should contact their politicians and urge they support such a plan – and without the exemptions to which Neil Rankine refers.
Meryl Tobin
Thank You, Neil, for all your efforts over the years. We can only keep plugging away in the hope that someone, somewhere, sometime will be listening.
As one of the people opposing the Grantville quarry expansion I was pinning my hopes on the DAL listing until I read the detail and realised that sand quarrying was exempted!!! It makes no sense and is a conflict between the environment and the supposed 'economy' which appears to have no resolution other than trashing the environment every time. The planning system is broken: opaque, complex, riddled with exemptions and stacked against local councils and communities. I despair.
Anne Heath Mennell
Destination nearby
March 12, 2021
Miriam, loved your article and enjoyed the photos. All that was missing is the directions. Coming from the south, where do we approach from?
Christine Hammond
thank you Miriam for enlightening me. You've whet my appetite, loving the Tarra Bulga tracts of rainforest as I do... shall definitely incorporate Mt Worth in the near future, as Warragul is an 8 weekly destination for me anyway. I hope your group exercise program is really blossoming for you. Regards. Lee
Lee Tierney
Thanks Miriam. Wonderful place but I found the path very slippery and fell once on the way round. Personally, I would only go there in the dry months and even then...
Mary Allitt
Great article, thank you for the inspiration to enjoy nature, going there soon.
https://www.visitbawbaw.com.au/discover/explore/natural-attractions/mount-worth-state-park/
Sunny
When I visited the Park last in 2019 I was amazed with how well kept the visitor area and tracks were. By comparison tidal River at the Prom was tired and run down. The difference I believe is due to Mt Worth's energetic and committed Friends Gp. The Prom is too large for its friends Gp to achieve as much.
Arnis Heislers
‘There was a storm in me’
March 11, 2021
Thank you Carolyn. These brave, compassionate people who fought and succeeded in improving lives need to be remembered. Sounds as if communism had its place in society as well.
Felicia Di Stefano
I read this story looking for a word I knew I wouldn't see. That word is Stalin.
As a "a true believer, a Communist through and through" in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, Agnes Doig was a spruiker for Stalin and his totalitarian regime, ignoring the murder of Ukrainian peasantry in the early 1930s (the Holodomor or Ukrainian genocide), having no problem with the massive purges in the mid-1930s which saw millions arrested, tortured, then (those not executed) packed into cattle cars and barges and sent to the Siberian slave labour camps; championed Stalin and Hitler's invasion and dismemberment of Poland in September 1939 and the Red Army's march into Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, Finland and Iran; supported the post-WWII imposition of Stalinist puppet dictatorships in Eastern Europe (such as the murderous Ceausescu and Hoxha) and the arrest, torture and deportation of millions from this region to the Siberian concentration camps; was untroubled by Khrushchev denunciation of Stalin and his crimes against the Party; and, overall, was comfortable with the thousands of artists, scientists, intellectuals and academics arrested, tortured, deported or killed during Stalin's dictatorship, along with millions of the working and peasant classes.
It is a pity her "strong sense of social justice that drove her to political activism" didn't extend past her local environment; that she thought totalitarianism was the answer.
“Walter and I talked mostly about politics,” said Agnes. “We used to discuss conditions and all the ways we would beat the boss.”
Maybe it would have been better if you had broadened the conversation to include, say, what Hitler and Stalin were jointly doing to Poland in 1939 instead of blinding accepting what the party told you to believe.
It is such a shame there wasn't a political party, advocating democracy, trade unionism, and freedom of speech and eschewing dictatorship, who also represented the working class you could have joined, something like an Australia-wide labour party, a party in which even a former coal miner, say, someone who we'll call Fisher, or train driver, say, a man named, um, let's go with Chifley, could rise through the ranks to the position of Prime Minister. But, unfortunately, no such party like this has ever existed in this country.
Geoff Guilfoyle
Geoff, A longwinded rebuttal to the life of a good woman.
I am sure at the time, News Ltd and the IPA were (not) highlighting the weaknesses of the Soviet Union.
History is always clearer with hindsight.
Our current federal governing politicians will also not look good with hindsight.
Ian Teese
The day my mother said ‘Enough!’
March 11, 2021
Such a beautifully written account of the devastation and impact of words and racist attitudes that sadly permeates still through our communities. Aunty your words were without anger, abuse or venom, and demonstrate the power and wisdom that you hold, thanks obviously to such a wonderful Mother. Thank you for sharing and caring enough to educate the wider community.
Jim Barritt
Congratulations and well said
Diversity is our strength division is not
Ian Samuel
Nothing We Liked Better
March 12, 2021
Dear Jillian. What a fantastic memoir and look forward to seeing the final and complete version published.
These are brief comments made by the judges (Catherine Watson, Geoff Ellis and Anne Heath-Mennell) for the Bass Coast Prize for Non-fiction 2021:
The story of a house and its inhabitants, anchored by two old trees: a pine and a pear. It weaves memoir, local history and natural history. A great feat of imagination and beautifully written. It was a pleasure meeting you and all the other prize winners. (despite COVID restrictions at the time)
Phyllis Papps
A world apart
March 11, 2021
A beautiful reflection Ellen, thank you!
Maddy Harford
No place like home
Feb 26, 2021 –
My heart bleeds for these poor people. All I can do to help is put a few non-perishable groceries in the Mitchell house box. The Salvation Army is one I donate to as they do have a heart. Australia the 'Lucky Country" has thousands in these dire straights and with the miserable Job Seeker (plus $25 a week - Come on!!!) how can anyone afford rents these days. I hope Geoff Ellis can tell us what the Bass Coast Shire is doing in a positive way to help people in desperate need. Yvonne
Yvonne McRae
Hi Yvonne - thanks for supporting the free food box !
Jessica Harrison
Yes, exactly Yvonne. Nationally we need to do more.
Wendy Davis
Like Yvonne, I was quite distressed to read the article and that homelessness exists in Bass Coast. Mitchell House is doing a fabulous job in having an access point for food for those having such a difficult time.
Is it possible for donations to be gathered from some of the townships in Bass Coast to help make life a little easier for people who are enduring such terrible hardship?
I am always grateful for the roof over my head, the food on my table and my bed and blanket at night.
How can I do more to help ........
Joy Button
Hi Joy, Thanks for your sympathetic words. If you would like to help more, I'd be happy to meet you, maybe at Mitchell House ?jessicaharrison1@bigpond.com
Jessica Harrison
Cape Connection
Feb 26, 2021 –
Congratulations Lauren, a wonderful piece of non-fiction that was awarded a High Commendation by the judges of The Bass Coast Prize for Non Fiction 2020 (Catherine Watson, Geoff Ellis and Anne Heath-Mennell).
This is just a brief exerpt of what the judges said: "Impressive memoir interweaving a personal journey of discovery with a 'coming home' to Bass Coast. Lovely use of language: “I pat the pockets of my vocabulary but can't turn out anything that seems appropriate. I began to frequent the beach for a daily lesson in change.”
The writing is fresh, with no cliches, struggling successfully to describe a very unusual situation and to answer important and novel questions...
Please keep on writing Lauren because you are a great writer,
Phyllis Papps
Wonderful writing, Lauren. I had read of your finding your biological family some years ago, but didn't recall your name. I have since been reading of the young activist who has emerged in Bass Coast as a spokesperson and warrior for nature. And now you have put them together in a beautiful piece that traces your search for a meaningful life in the expanded context of family (that you can never have enough of). As a self-indulgent aside, I went to University with a cousin of Ben's so I had a particular interest in your story.
Marg Lynn
Enthralling story thanks Lauren.
My family lived at Cape Woolamai when your grandfather Manning was growing up in Cowes. There is an interesting story that has come down through my family about the day the Clarks came to visit the Cleelands for Sunday lunch.
After the meal Manning and some other kids, including Dad and my uncle Jack, asked to be excused, and were allowed to leave the table to play outside.
Presently the adults also left the table for a stroll through the grounds.
Coming upon the vegetable garden, they were horrified to observe that numbers of tomato seedlings had been pulled out and left lying neatly on the ground.
After much consternation it was established that the culprit was none other than Manning. When pressed by my grandfather to explain his destructive actions, Manning simply replied
“I was examining their root systems”
Mike Cleeland
Beautifully written Lauren. Such wonderful discoveries for you! I love your descriptive and emotive style.
Jackie Moss
On centre stage
Feb 26, 2021 –
Neil, and Catherine thank you for writing and publishing this article.
In particular, thank you for bringing Auntie Tasma Walton's words to those of us who wouldn't otherwise have the space to hear them. I too dream of a day in the future that Traditional ceremony is reclaimed and those who are respectful, open and humble from any cultural background are able to take part and support contemporary leaders and elders in these essential inter-species rituals in appropriate ways. Thank you.
Karen Sandon
We need to preserve this beautiful area for the traditional owners and for future generations to enjoy. Let’s embrace this land with the care that the Bunwurrang people have and share in the connection to the land.
Vanessa Shipway
Coloured by COVID
Feb 26, 2021 –
Love these. Ken leaves me applying the same imagination that sat muse-like upon his shoulder. Susan may have done a bit of a J.M.W. Turner, her cloud-layering giving ethereal substance to filtered light, and creating a sense of wonder at nature’s infinite beauty. Thank you for your curator’s touch, Catherine.
John Gascoigne
A generous community
Feb 26, 2021 –
The concert was a beautiful and wonderful culmination Laura of your vision and commitment to the project and to the immense creativity, talent and generosity of spirit within our community. Congratulations to everyone involved and especially to videographer Terry Melvin for capturing so well all those beautiful and special places near where we live. It was such a pleasure to be part of it all.
Jan Bourne
I had such a connective, heartwarming day meeting wonderful people and loved capturing the days special emotions on the day.
Thanks Laura, and mention for Robin Lowe for making the call so l could be involved in this Coastal Connections Concert 1st event back at The Arts Centre . 🙏📷
Nici Cahill
The next chapter
Feb 26, 2021 –
Thank you to all that made this competition a repeat. It will be welcomed by all writers of this area and those who have once lived here either for short times or longer residencies. It is held in high esteem as is Phyllis who inaugurated it.
Joan Woods
My sincere thanks and congratulations to all the wonderful writers who entered the Bass Coast Prize for Non-fiction: 2019 (42 entries), 2020 (44 entries).
It takes a lot of courage, passion and creativity to 'put pen to paper' then submit the written piece in time for the deadline.
Accolades and orchids to all writers who submitted entries in the past and hopefully more writers will submit their written works for the Bass Coast Prize for Non-fiction 2021.
Phyllis Papps
Council pans Dandy Premix plan
February 17, 2021
There has to come a point in time when remnant vegetation and fauna habitat is considered for its importance. Once lost will never be recovered. Australia has an appalling reputation for species loss. Here is an opportunity to show that we do value our habitats ahead of ever ongoing expansion. There are alternative and proven technologies waiting to be exploited to replace sand and concrete that will not impact on our environment. Planners - open your minds to the future. It is not the exploitation of diminishing natural resources.
Dr Mary Cole
I absolutely support the position of the objectors, and particularly those comments of Dr Mary Cole. We owe it to future generations, and the native fauna and flora environment to start to develop alternative materials and strategies.
Andrew Troedel
Congratulations to the Councillors and the Community for standing up to fight to protect our precious last remaining coastal forest.
Lauren Burns
Good news! I truly hope those who continue planning for Victoria take note of our finely balance and diminishing ecosystems. Another council win has been Mitchell Shire stopping building a Basalt Quarry near Wallan
Margaret Lee
Congratulations to council and the wider community for adopting this position.
We are transient custodians of this planet and should plan and act accordingly.
Shane Ellis
Ditto to the comments above. Thanks to our Bass Coast Councillors for holding the line and standing up for our last patch of remnant coastal forest and the wildlife that depend on it! And thanks to Councillors for listening to your community. Now let’s hope the Planning Panel members and Planning Minister listen to Council’s arguments as well as to the State Government’s Climate Change Act (which claims to position Victoria as a leader in climate change action) AND to its recognition of Bass Coast as a Distinctive Area and Landscape.
Linda Cuttriss
Amen to all of the above comments and heartfelt thanks to all the Councillors who worked so hard as a team to get the alternative motion passed unanimously.
The Minister was always going to approve the application but at least now we have raised ways that he can approve it but with very strong conditions and ongoing monitoring of compliance so we are never in this position again.
Anne Heath Mennell
Looking for Wonthaggi
Feb 13, 2021
Thank you Gill 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 Gilll's Over The Bridge in 2006.
Anne Davie
Dear Gill, another wonderful production 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.
Phyllis Papps
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.
Joy Button
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
Jan Bourne
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.
Imelda Daly
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
‘Councillors must hold their nerve’
February 13, 2021 –
Brilliant and balanced summation, Neil. I hope all readers will contact their councillors asap!
Anne Heath Mennell
I do hope that all residents in Bass Coast rally behind you Neil and contact Councillors regarding the lack of adherence to existing policies.
We do need to retain our precious green spaces and mindful of the effects involved.
Joy Button
Great summary article Neil. Very helpful to lay out the situation so we can all contact our local Councillors to express our outrage and demand they vote to reject this weak Officers report that ignores our policies and community concerns
Lauren Burns
Must we keep digging, dragging and extracting the treasures out of our Earth and leave it naked? We are already losing insects, birds, precious animals as we destroy their homes. Can humans stop, take stock and begin to replace the plundered vegetation; to invite the birds, insects and animals back?
Felicia Di Stefano
On the Shore of the Wide World
February 13, 2021 –
Fiona, that was another wonderful long- form article for the Bass Coast Prize for Non- Fiction 2020. Yours was superb. Please keep on writing !!!
Phyllis Papps
Thank-you, a great story..... I loved to read the Bass history.
Jenny Bramich
Great piece of writing Fiona (as always from you). You bring Bass alive. I recall visiting your parent’s farm the night before your sister’s wedding to drop something important off.
Edward Buckingham
Thank you for your wonderful story re the family history of your time living at Bass. As I drive towards Bass from San Remo and look down to the left I will try to visualise what the area would have looked like all those years ago. You certainly did bring Bass alive for us all.
Sandra Thorley
Thanks for reading and commenting, Sandra. I experienced that stunning view you describe between San Remo and Bass daily during my secondary schooling and I loved it then as I do now; it is never the same and even better since the Anderson bypass.
Fiona Power
Congratulations on writing a fine piece on not only your early life but a social history of an important but little known area in Bass Coast, Fiona. Few people would be aware that a thriving port and township once existed at Bass Landing.
Meryl Tobin
Thanks Meryl. You are right about Bass Landing. Some of the oral history was still circulating when I was a child and fortunately Bass Valley historians captured quite a bit. I understand some houses were moved to Wonthaggi.
Your comment means a great deal as I recall reading and responding to your contributions to education publications when I was a student, then being stunned to meet you and realise that authors were real people - who could live locally - and not just names.
Fiona Power
Thank you Fiona, a terrific piece about a very special place.
Chris Buckingham
Well done, Fiona, what’s next? I am sure you will continue to write!
Mikaela Power
Shame on YOU!
Feb 13 2021 –
YES. Shame indeed on everyone (including people with privileged positions of power in politics)
Being an elder of the LGBTIQI+ community- I need to re-iterate: it is NOT a shame to be an integral member of society and the community we all live in.
The Marriage Equality Act was passed in late 2019.
Shame on everyone who is still bigoted, biased, the religious fanatics and those who are racist, sexist, and have total disregard for equality irrespective of race, gender, sex, nationality etc.
SHAME. It's time to move on. You are no longer in the majority.
Phyllis Papps
Well done Harriet to highlight those who chose to abstain. Their salaries are paid by the tax payer... what a cop out
Nola Smith
From what I've read about this subject, one of the problems with the bill is that it will prevent parents from discussing the issue with their children if/when they come out as gay. Unfortunately, a lot of Labor bills, etc. go for the sledgehammer to crack a walnut option. Tone it down and let families make their own decisions. There are certain "conversions" that should be made illegal, so do the work to single them out.
Pamela Jacka
Thank you, Harriet for championing difference and minorities in our society. I agree with Alexander Solzhenitsyn that we are here to help each other. To abstain is to walk past the potential harm such a law can cause and walking past is as good as an approval of that harm.
Felicia Di Stefano
Yes! Thanks Harriet, for so many years of tireless leadership and implementing real change. Keep at it.
Geoff Ellis
Dog versus snake
Feb 13, 2021
A happy story Geoff and thanks for sharing. My dear border collie died in July mid lockdown and it has taken 7 months to consider a "replacement" a mini foxie more suited to my strength. May our dogs happily reign over our lives never aware of how much we worry about them when they are away from our protective laps.
James Glover
What a lovely story, thanks for sharing. And yes one lucky dog, who is living the life.
Sunny
Roy sounds like a handful and also a heartfull! Nice little story Geoff.
Tim Herring
I enjoyed reading your story and find Roy very lovable. He found the right home.
Verena
The best of company
February 13, 2021 –
I love reading your stories Etsuko. They transport me to another world, your world, which is always a thoughtful and meaningful place to hang out in. Thanks for sharing your wonderful words once again. They continue to inspire me.
Anne Tindall
Hi Etsuko, I love your expression of the importance of friendship. I do enjoy the same and specially those people, who are so accepting that one can discuss any subject. I remember the time when we had a plum tree in our garden in Ferntree Gully. Hans made wine and after a while we tasted it. Oh it was so potent, that after a couple of little glasses I felt like I could fly. Enough said, I enjoy your words. Verena
Oz Day blues
Jan 30, 2021
Thank you Marg, I totally agree!
Susan Fowler
The reasons 26 January is not a good day for us to celebrate our National Day are manifold and have little directly to do with indigenous people. It is certainly not "Invasion Day" – the First Fleet landed on in Australia on 18 January so that's when the "invasion" started. What happened on 26 January was that the British founded a penal colony at Sydney Cove. Most countries – including the USA and India and many others – celebrate their National Day on the day they stopped being a colony, We are the only country on the planet that celebrates on the day we started being a colony! This is pretty sick! What happened on 26 January was something the British did, not something Australians did, so what are Australians celebrating it for? Indeed there was no Australia then and until about forty years later. Why are we celebrating an event that took place before we even existed? A valid Australia Day must of course be inclusive of and recognise the long custodianship of our Indigenous people, but it must also be meaningful for other Australians too. A rabble of sad convicts huddling on an alien shore is not an event worth a National Celebration!
Ian Robinson
Well said Marg. Sadly the comments by John Cobbledick reflect that same old paternalistic diatribe more fitting for centuries of old. Why is it that some people ignore history that doesn’t interest them, discounting other peoples’ past and legacy, yet find it absolutely valid to reflect upon ANZAC day, Christmas, Easter and the myriad of other important historic events? There is so much that White Australian’s enjoy that has been built upon First Nation Peoples backs and land. Education nurtures understanding and empathy, I encourage Mr Cobbledick to dabble in the both heart wrenching history of the frontier wars and the incredible humanity that Aboriginal people continue to bring to the table despite the impacts of colonists and their ilk.
Jim Barritt
Out of respect for our First People and our shame the date of Australia Day must and will change
Anne Davie
Forget all the squabbling about which date to celebrate our nations rich heritage. I feel that we will only truly become on when there is an aboriginal auntie as our leader. They seem to display a far greater sense of reality than the old white blokes who historically and currently hold the power.
Mark Robertson
"It is time for Australians to decide that the Majority rules, so we can became a Democracy again."
Again? Though sometimes a great nation, Australia has never been a great democracy. Before 1788 it was a collection of nations, from 1788 to 1901 a collection of colonies and since 1901 a federalized Commonwealth with all that gerrymandering and control by special interests. Remember when Senator Harradine had the final say? Or Fred Nile in NSW and Bjelke Peterson in QLD?
Who actually wanted us to go to war in Iraq or Afghanistan?
Commonwealth refers to "public welfare, general good or advantage" and I see little evidence to disprove the old adage that "the rich get richer". As for the poor, does history have to repeat?
Geoff Ellis
Thank you, Marg Lynn for your excellent piece. As for John Cobbledick, I was looking for something in what you wrote that I could agree with, and I found it. It is, 'How can there be TOTAL EQUALITY if only one side gives and keeps giving and the other keeps taking?' Just think about it, John, Europeans took the land from the First People and pretended that they didn't exist, by calling it Terra Nullius, empty land. And the Aboriginal people are still having so much taken from them, including freedom. But so many First Nations people give and would give much more if only we would let them, for example, it is now being recognised the fire reduction burning is not effective because of the way it is carried out. When Aborginal people have been allowed to share their knowledge of the correct burning techniques, land and lives are saved.
Yes, John, there is no equality when people such as you want to take and expect others to give their heritage away.
Bron Dahlstrom
Go Marg! Lucid and persuasive.
Lynda Campbell
There is no date this criminal occupation can celebrate, not while it remains a continuing monumental crime scene, unresolved it demeans and diminishes everyone, everything we do a as a people, community, nation is tainted, no human rights recognition for the first peoples means no human rights recognition for all the people here. Stop the lies, genocide, ecocide.
"Lets make the date" one we can be all proud of.
Les Patterson
No Place Like Home
January 28, 2021
Karen, a beautifully written non-fiction piece that was Highly Commended by the judges of the Bass Coast Prize for Non-fiction 2020 (Catherine Watson, Geoff Ellis and Anne Heath-Mennell)
This is just a brief extract of their comments:
"An exploration of home. Can we ever know a place that we didn’t grow up in, or do we need the stories and traditions we grow up with? The author wrestles with a sense of alienation and the conundrum of knowing that to her children this IS home. She broadens it by including other people’s experiences, a friend who is a third generation Bass Coaster and a Bunurong elder who gives her some sage advice. Amusing at times and also thought-provoking."
Congratulations for entering the competition twice and for receiving Special Commendations twice. Next time- first Prize. !!!!
Phyllis Papps
Many thanks to Editor Watson for this great opportunity to reread a delightful consideration of "home'. A beautiful piece that grows. More please.
Geoff Ellis
Love, thank you Karen
Tricia Hogan
Karen, I love this. Such a beautiful essay about home, belonging and our complicated relationships with place. Thank you.
Julie Constable
Wonderful to re-read this, Karen. I am one of the 14.4% of Bass Coasters born overseas, like you, from the North of England. (I'm from Yorkshire - you?) I share so many of your thoughts and experiences but you have expressed them so lyrically, much better than I could. This is a heartfelt exploration and a wonderful read. Congratulations.
Anne Heath Mennell
Thank you for visiting!
Jan 30, 2021 –
As one of the Hoodie volunteers he has no sympathy from me. We have lost all the chicks so far this year. And I have been abused beyond belief for trying to do what I can to help their survival.
Susan Fowler
That point also highlights a message that isn't getting through to locals like this gentleman - the noisy, abundant birds on our lawns are NOT Hooded Plovers. They are now called Masked Lapwings. For many years, they were known as Spur-Winged Plovers, hence the confusion.
Hooded Plovers are tiny, shy and live on the beach. We need to keep publicising the difference. (Sorry, slightly off-topic, but important. )
Julie Thomas
Thank you Catherine for an absolutely priceless, well written and funny article. Made my day and feel so much better that others feel the same.
When we walk Bobby during these visiting times, and say good morning to fellow walkers and when they do not , Richard says .... City People.
Your article sums it all up. Thank you for making my day and creating a burst of sunshine on an overcast day. We all need to laugh at ourselves.
Joy Button
YES !! Glad they have gone. They might contribute to the economy, to tourism etc. etc. BUT they don't give anything back to the community, to the environment, AND to our special place. Totally destroyed by selfish people who don't even live here.
Another observation is: that many visitors become very aggressive if confronted regarding their disregard of Local Laws etc. etc.
For an elderly person (or any other person) I find this behaviour very upsetting.
Phyllis Papps
As a fellow kiwi i am just so proud of you that you managed a 12 point turn, well done😀
Lynne
Bass Coast is now officially a peri-urban area and Wonthaggi a designated regional growth centre. Council is embarking on a campaign to attract even more visitors and development and Wonthaggi's population is expected to double in the next few years. Without proper planning for improved roads and other infrastructure, the current 'holiday' congestion will last all year. I suspect we are living in the 'good old days' right now, so enjoy it while we can.
Anne Heath Mennell
The Bass Coast sound
Jan 30, 2021
Sounds wonderful and will be happy to attend. Keep up with song making.
Joan Woods
an a amazing project, so looking forward to the launch, it looks a very powerful acknowledgement of place
Nerida Melsmith
Picture this
Jan 30, 2021
Geoff, another wonderful, superb and descriptive article that is matched with fantastic photos. Love from all of us at Rhyll.
Phyllis Papps
When I first moved t Inverloch there were so many things to do and groups to join in the area that I joined too many. It was crazy, I was enjoying it, but I needed to rationalise. Camera club was one of the groups I gave up. Geoff's article is enticing. Maybe I need to return. Thank you Geoff
Bron Dahlstrom
Thanks Bron, The BCAS camera group is all about enjoying photography in interesting places, sharing the adventure and learning a bit along the way. Maybe you can suggest some places to visit ?
Geoff Ellis
Megabits empower the people
Jan 30, 2021
Great article. Thank you for the read.
Vanessa Shipway
Another brilliant article, Neil. Always informative, factually based and spot on with your comments. I'm keeping everything crossed for the decision to go the right way.and we can put down our pens, at least for a little while ...
Anne Heath Mennell
Our dearly departed
Jan 30, 2021
Wow - that's a lot of close-acquaintance deaths.
And it reminds me that I too could "eff off" any time, any place.
Sue P
My day in court
Jan 30, 2021
Surely a case of the penknife being mightier than the sword.......
Mark Robertson
A good story well told.
Dad
Remo revisited
Jan 30, 2021
Thanks to Catherine for publishing these "memoirs". All throughout I have neglected to mention that my four "water conveyances" (aka a rubber dinghy and 3 ever longer "tinnies" were named after my two lovely daughters Sara and Narelle. A continuation of a family tradition in that our plastics moulding business was Kevron.. (Keytags to the world!!)
Kevin Chambers
Thanks Kevin for another fascinating write up about my favourite place in Victoria which we visited all the time when we bought block on Cape Woolamai Estate. Unmade roads, dunny in a box with pan collection and our kids grew up loving every minute of their holidays there. 21 years ago we finally bought in San Remo for our planned retirement years and loved living there, you soon become part of the community and now our sons and grand children come whenever they can escape the city. It's their holiday home they tell me. Haven't offered to pay the rates yet!! For medical reasons we now spend some time in Melb but back to SR every time we are able to. To just sit in our lounge watching the world go bye as we enjoy the view across Weston Port Bay and the bridge lit up at night is not a bad way to enjoy life. Time goes so quickly if you live there enjoy it. I'm always amazed how few people walk on San Remo beach it's fabulous to walk it whether summer or winter yet we usually only share it with handful of dog walkers.
Chris Day
History draws a crowd
Jan 30, 2021
Congratulations to all at WDHS! What a huge year you have had with your extension, moving everything around and then kickstarting such a great talks program during the summer. I am only sorry I am not able to get there atm, but very much looking forward to doing so once I have the right gear. I am very curious to see how the bigger museum space is working for your wonderful collection.
Christine Grayden