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.”
During the Depression of the 1920s and 1930s many single men were forced to leave home to look for work or food. They camped wherever they could, including along the coast. One such was Jim McDonnell, who was still living in a hut on the coast between Harmers and Cape in the mid-1970s, preferring a moderate and harmonious life away from the noise, competition and trivia of town, attuned to nature’s positives.
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.”
During the Depression of the 1920s and 1930s many single men were forced to leave home to look for work or food. They camped wherever they could, including along the coast. One such was Jim McDonnell, who was still living in a hut on the coast between Harmers and Cape in the mid-1970s, preferring a moderate and harmonious life away from the noise, competition and trivia of town, attuned to nature’s positives.