FEATURE ARTICLES 2012 |
A view from the past
December 15, 2012 - Members of the Phillip Island Historical Society helped fill in some missing links for a blockbuster exhibition that opens at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery this weekend.
My hoodies
December 8, 2012 - After watching a pair of hoodies fail to raise a single chick from four clutches of eggs last summer, the Cape Paterson hoodies have their fingers crossed, writes Graeme Henry.
Playing for keeps
November 24, 2012 - Something like steel string fever
happens to Rob Wilson when he picks up a guitar. Bob Middleton talks to an electrician who transforms on stage into a full-on performer. Suffer the little children
November 24, 2012 - The use of cruel and unusual punishments in Catholic schools should be added to the list of sorrowful mysteries, writes Frank Coldebella in his memoir of life at Joseph’s Primary School from 1959-64.
The charm of the temporary masterpiece
November 11, 2012 - Art and wealth have always been good friends, but Gill Heal enjoys meeting Ricardo Alves-Ferreira,
who creates masterpieces that money can’t buy. The end of the line
November 3, 2012 - One hundred years ago, work began on a railway station in the home of the State Coal Mine. Carolyn Landon reports
Two’s company, three million’s a crowd
October 21, 2012 - Phillip Island had more than 3.5 million
visitors last year. Phyllis Papps questions whether local residents pay too high a price for living in a tourist mecca. 
Man of many parts
October 13, 2013 - Born in Belfast, trained in a British drama school, actor Stanley McGeagh is a fair dinkum Gippslander, reports Gill Heal Easier said than done
October 12, 2012 - When Veronica Dowman stood for the
council in 2005, she wanted to protect the local environment and keep rates low. It seemed simple. It was only after she was elected that she realised how complicated it was. An open mind goes with the territory
September 22, 2012 - Former full-time political activist Moragh McKay has found common ground with Bass Coast farmers through her work with Landcare. Gill Heal meets a woman who worked out her own way to make a difference.
Candidates keep their heads down
September 23, 2012 - Members of the Reform team
appear oddly shy in the lead-up to the Bass Coast Council elections. No back pedalling on testing ride
September 15, 2012 - It’s too far and too hard, John Henry was told when he contemplating riding around the bay. The year he turned 70, he decided to ignore the naysayers.
Master of the passing parade
September 1, 2013 - For almost 20 years, Dennis Leversha’s South Gippsland murals have educated, tricked and charmed. Bob Middleton picks some of his favourites.
Passengers left out in the cold
August 8, 2012 - Stand near the Wonthaggi bus stop on a cold, wet winter’s day and you see a strange sight: the shelter is empty and the passengers are all huddled behind it.
Wonder of Kilcunda
Where do surfers find the courage to plunge into our shark-infested water – and why? Bob Middleton quizzed his surfie mate and heard a story that’s become the stuff of legend for surfers all over Australia. 
Friends and neighbours
June 28, 2012 - Frank Coldebella looks back on a Wonthaggi childhood where neighbours taught by example how a good society operates. |
Fallen by the wayside
December 31, 2012 - A Christmas card made Bob Middleton
wonder why animals are so often collateral damage in our pursuit of profit and pleasure. Black is beautiful
December 15, 2012 - A fan of the common blackbird, Bob Middleton wonders why we only value what is rare or in
short supply. The show must go on
December 8, 2012 - When a regional show official intimated that the Wonthaggi Show couldn't survive, Rosemary Loughnan decided to prove him wrong. Thirty-five years later, it goes from strength to strength
Case not closed
November 24, 2012 - There were 121 cases of homicide in
Victoria in 1985 and 1986. Only one of these cases supposedly involved a woman killing her husband’s lover. It happened on Phillip Island. Phyllis Papps tells the story. Like a living wind
November 14, 2012 - When Laura Brearley went for a walk to see the shearwaters return at dusk, she had no idea it would change her life and lead to Phillip Island’s first Shearwater Festival.
Here be monsters, maybe
November 18, 2012 - The Tasmanian tiger was officially
declared extinct in 1986, 50 years after the last known specimen died in the Hobart Zoo. But is it possible a colony has survived in south-west Gippsland? The leading lady
November 4, 2012 - Stella Axarlis has always been a commanding presence, first on the opera stage, then on the factory floor and then in community service. When Phyllis Papps interviewed her, she saw the very private person behind the diva.
How Alan Brown changed our livesNovember 3, 2012 - Alan Brown's Reform team didn’t win get enough votes to control the Bass Coast Council but the re-appearance of the former Kennett government minister on the local scene had several unexpected consequences.
Pommy Town burns
As a two-mile fire front races from Wonthaggi towards Cape Paterson, a constable gallops across town taking a four-year-old boy to safety ... Carolyn Landon reports on the great fire of February 14, 1944
On a wing and a prayer
October 13, 2012 - Slowly but surely, the Boy matured and took his rightful place in Maggie's life
... then a human came blundering onto the scene. Leader of the pack
September 29, 2012 - Bob Middleton knew what he wanted
when he went looking for a dog. In Charlie he met a dog with equally firm ideas. Sam Scimonello’s sewing machine
September 22, 2012 - Coffee pots, polenta pans, accordions and tools of trade were in the luggage of Italian migrants who arrived in Wonthaggi in the 1950s. Carolyn Landon reports.
Vern Rickman's folly
September 15, 2012 - Things aren't quite the same since Archies on the Creek closed. It wasn't just the posh food and wine but everything that went with it, including a rakish millionaire with a dream.
Raise the curtain and let the magic begin
August 15, 2012 - Six musicals in seven years and every one a triumph. Gill Heal finds out how Wonthaggi Theatre Group director Karen Milkins Hendry does it. Wonthaggi's was bigger
August 4, 2012 - A 22-metre whale washed onto Wreck Beach (at Harmers Haven) in 1923 was one of the biggest ever seen in Victoria. Carolyn Landon looks back on a century of whale-watching on the Bass Coast.
Land of hope and toil
July 20, 2012 - Retired Krowera farmer Les Kirk, 89, has always been a practical man. At school, books never stood a chance against the allure of a Fergie tractor. 
Talking 'bout a revolution
June 28, 2012 - In 1968, Frank Coldebella was in year 9 and selling The Herald after school. He watched the spark of revolution reach Wonthaggi. |