Frank Coldebella

May Day in Wonthaggi

19/4/2019

The Wonthaggi contingent of the annual May Day march in Melbourne, late 1960s.

By Frank Coldebella

THIS is some of the history I absorbed from the union men and women of Wonthaggi.

The imperfect democracy and good life most of us enjoy today were not handed down to us by royal decree or divine intervention. None of the progressive social movements in this country were started or led by our parliaments.

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A place to call our own

1/11/2018

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Bonds corner, looking south on McBride Avenue, Wonthaggi, on a Saturday morning in the early 1970s. The Wonthaggi Citizens Band has been performing. Photo: Frank Coldebella

By Frank Coldebella

FOR thousands of years, the north-facing slope of what we now call McBride Avenue would have been an ideal meeting place for local Aboriginal people, with a wetland at the bottom and an abundance of plant and animal food within in easy walking distance.

For most of the 1900s, McBride Avenue was still a meeting place, particularly on Friday night (late night shopping) and Saturday morning (when the shops closed at noon at the sound of the hooter). In a pre-digital version of FaceTime, two people would stop to chat; others would join in, some would leave, more would join.

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The hills are alive

29/8/2017

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Photos: Geoff Ellis

At a clearing sale in the hills, an old piano sings to Frank Coldebella of other days.

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The coast dwellers

27/8/2016

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Jim McDonnell had a succession of dogs called Pluto. Photo taken near Jim’s hut, 1980s.

By Frank Coldebella

THE mounds of shells dotted along the Bass Coast are evidence that these have been relaxing and bountiful gathering places for millennia. On meeting Australia’s original coast campers, Captain Cook noted “They live in a tranquillity … and are far more happier than we Europeans … They think themselves provided with all the necessarys of life … they seemed to set no value upon anything we gave them.”

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Welcome to country

12/3/2016