By Geoff Ellis
 
THE road to Wonthaggi is signposted by a series of competing service stations. Stop in the right turn lane opposite the car accessory place and you've arrived.

​While you wait for the green light, look around and consider what that vision says about us. 
 
On the corner of McKenzie St and Korumburra Road, three buildings, containing at least five dwellings, are being demolished to make way for a fourth petrol station in Wonthaggi, three of them within a 500m radius. In the middle of a housing crisis.
 
There were 17 objections to this development. Bass Coast Shire Council rejected it in August 2024, with councillors arguing that Wonthaggi did not need another petrol station. 

By Geoff Ellis
 
JANET Budge can be found in the Wonthaggi Goods Shed on Monday mornings, sharing her love of materials amidst the whirr of sewing machines and the laughter of friends. She started this sewing group a couple years ago so people could learn while sharing ideas and experience. They’re coming along in leaps and bounds, crafting quilts and bags and all sorts of clothing, each one a unique work of art. ​

By Geoff Ellis
 
THAT tricycle next to the door? It's a Cyclops #17, the childhood treasure of a farmer who taught me how to work with the land and 400 cows. Even with that handful of damned jerseys. During his farm clearing, he went to toss the relic on the pile of scrap metal that commemorated five generations of dairy farmers. I argued so vehemently for its retention that he gave it to me as my farewell present. Better than a carton of stubbies, Stewie's original paddock basher turns 80 this year.

By Geoff Ellis
 
MY NUMBER is good today, less than 10. As the coffee draws, two slices of toast await a smear of avocado. The dogs are at the front gate, watching rabbits dodge speeding tradies. As the dust cloud settles I dial up four units.
 
Haemochromatosis! It needs a catchy name – “rusty blood” or “the Irish condition", perhaps – and a marketing campaign. (In the blood, May 9, 2015) The accumulation of dietary iron in my body is easily controlled through therapeutic blood donation. It’s the damage done before diagnosis that has recently reached the tipping point. 

​“Recently” is a delusional description in my case. It was 2020. As the lockdowns and fear kept people inside, it was easy to postpone, then cancel, those pesky blood tests and check-ups. Life online enabled me to feed the cravings for sweet treats.  Zoom meetings became a smorgasbord of chips, lollies and soft drinks. And there were lots of Zoom meetings. My PB was 11 spread across one very long day. Next morning I woke with a massive sugar hangover.​

By Geoff Ellis
 
"WHAT if you were the only one here?" John Carson asks as he ponders the possibility of life without unions or collective action. "We need each other to be strong."
 
May Day – otherwise known as Labour Day – commemorates the granting of the eight-hour working day for Australians. Wonthaggi has a proud tradition of May Day rallies and marches, since the mining days when the miners fought for fair wages and safe working conditions. In 1937, 200 miners and their families travelled in convoy to the Melbourne May Day march with their union banners.

By Geoff Ellis
 
WEST Area Road shouldn’t be a mystery. It starts at the hospital roundabout and leads past Donmix, the rescue station, the motocross track and Townsend's Nursery, only to come to a sudden halt at a locked steel gate. What lies beyond?
 
Early this week I took a stroll with Neil Rankine along the track that starts at that locked gate. It heads for the desal park (AKA the Victorian Desalination Plant Ecological Reserve) but can't quite get you there due to a strip of farmland that is the missing link in a trail that should be Wonthaggi’s version of The Tan.