Geoff Ellis

The comrades gather under the Wonthaggi mine whistle.

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.

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A year through the lens

22/4/2022

Sharing expertise is part of the learning experience.

By Geoff Ellis

A YEAR ago Bass Coast Adult Learning asked me to run a weekly photography and friendship session for people on the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

One person turned up for the first session. Josh didn’t bring a camera but he did have a smart phone and a tripod.

By the fourth week we had three participants signed up. They decided we needed an engaging collective name and we became ‘Thru the Lens’.

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'We’re ready.’

27/1/2022

Josh Latham: “Someone with a disability can be the best worker you have.”

By Geoff Ellis

JOSH Latham has plenty of reasons to get out of bed early these days. Now he’s inviting business leaders to join him for breakfast.

Headlined “Diverse- ability”, an early morning event at Wonthaggi Golf Club will showcase the great opportunities that arise through employment of people of all abilities.

Beau Vernon is the keynote speaker and a panel of experts will discuss the positive results when barriers to employment are removed. The statistics point to reduced absenteeism and increased productivity. Other benefits, such as loyalty and dedication, are beyond measure.

To illustrate the key messages of this breakfast, Maxima Joblink has asked Drift Media to produce a video to showcase Josh’s busy workday.

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On yer bike, 80 years on

16/12/2021

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At last Geoff Ellis finds a use for his father’s collection of mysterious
bike tools. Photos: Kate Harmon

By Geoff Ellis

A YOUNG boy once spent a hot afternoon hiding on the rusty tin roof of a two-torey terrace. He had outrun a police officer through the back lanes of Redfern and was too afraid to come down.

The officer had spotted him riding a bike that looked too good for the boy. The cop accused him of theft and demanded he hand over the bike and cop a beating as punishment. The boy sped down the nearest lane, through a gate and shoved the bike under a verandah before ascending to the roof via a drainpipe. He heard the copper cursing for what seemed like a lifetime. When the sun went down the boy climbed down, retrieved the bike and pedaled for home.

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KAPOW! The deaf experience

16/11/2021

Chelle Destefano invites her hearing audience to enter her world.

By Geoff Ellis

HALF way through an Auslan poetry recital, Chelle Destefano gestures like an erupting volcano. That's her answer to "What does Kapow look like in Auslan?"

"Like in Batman?" she is asked.

Chelle has come to Bass Coast Adult Learning’s life skills class to teach us about Auslan poetry and to share Deaf culture. Through her on-line interpreter, she explains that she saw a lot of TV when she was a kid. She did watch Batman but was intrigued by a show about the boy who could fly. She didn't understand why he flew or the full storyline as there were no subtitles, no words for Chelle.

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Pallets for beginners

4/11/2021

Geoff Ellis’s guide to the wonderful world of pallet fencing, furniture and firewood.
Above: the Great Wall of Pallets

By Geoff Ellis

EVER wondered what happens to those stacks of pallets outside Bunnings? A fair few of them have ended up at my place. There’s almost nothing you can’t do with a pallet. I use pallets for fencing, firewood and furniture.

Along the way, I’ve picked up a fair bit of experience, most of it the hard way. I thought it was time to share what I’ve learned.

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Signs of the times

22/10/2021

ArtSpace's doors are open again. You're welcome to enter, conditionally.

By Geoff Ellis

THE council refurbished the building, we rewrote our procedures and our volunteers are refreshed. The cleaners came through yesterday. We've got a great new exhibition - Paint, Print and Plinth - to show. We're ready.

The restrictions eased at 1159 pm yesterday. Party Time! Our front door opened for the public at 11am today. Arty time! (sorry, it was a late night)

A lot of businesses are displaying new signs to reflect the conditions of entry into this grave new world of living with COVID. The ink has just dried on our new greeting signs. We have worded them to be welcoming yet instructive.

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Pens’ Anzac heritage

24/9/2021

Special pens for homesick Aussie troops. Photo: Alan Hurst

By Geoff Ellis

THE Wonthaggi Woodies are turning timber into pens.

The Woodies have been entrusted with a load of timber that has great historical significance. The tree it came from is directly descended from the original Gallipoli Lone Pine which grew from a seedling planted at Inverloch Cemetery some decades ago.

'Pens for The Troops' is a nationwide community-based project that lets Australian military personnel serving overseas know that folks back home are thinking of them. The hand-made pens are presented on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day to everyone from commanders to those down the line as a morale booster for people who are far from home.

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Tales of Catwoman

16/7/2021

Joy Herring: "Cats should never be
in charge in a household."

By Geoff Ellis

REHOMING cats is a numbers game. Kittens can become mothers from four months old, then have as many as four litters a year. In 2005, when Joy Herring and her daughter Caroline became kitten foster carers for the RPSCA, pounds and shelters operated under the 28-day rule - they had four weeks to find a forever home.

Those all too short weeks covered quarantine, bringing the condition of the cat up to standard and finding a new owner. If they didn’t, cats and kittens were treated like vermin. Thousands of kittens, pregnant cats and mothers nursing babies were routinely euthanised.

Joy and Caroline were handed many sets of kittens to take home to get them up to the 750 grams they needed to be before they could be desexed. One ginger kitten was borderline in reaching the required weight. An anticipated reprieve didn’t eventuate and the kitten they had loved and cared for was euthanised. They were devastated.

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Don’t bank on it

18/6/2021

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Charlie Chaplin got his own back in The Bank.

By Geoff Ellis

LAST century I joined a credit union. It was staffed by friendly locals who taught me how to get money out of the hole in their wall. Most Fridays I popped in to pay back a few twenties from my pay packet. Everyone on both sides of the counter was happy.

Since then I have moved many times while they have expanded through multiple mergers. As the number of branches declined, online banking became the order of the day

Eventually I moved interstate. Although there were no branches in Victoria I still did my banking through that credit union. Monthly statements kept arriving in the mail box to ensure that I could keep track.

The years rolled on. The credit union became a bank. Last year weird text messages started arriving from something called Sydney Mutual Bank reminding me that my payment was due. Then overdue.

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Mystery Road

3/6/2021

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The view from the mullock heap to the desal park

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.

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Fire in the belly

8/4/2021

The invisible illness: Bright smiles and yellow flowers
belie the bravery of the participants in a recent
endometriosis forum at Corinella.

By Geoff Ellis

BACK in the eighties my then partner was often crippled for three or four days every month. Not bedridden, just lounge bound, lying on her side, wrapped around a pillow with a hot wheat bag against her stomach, with another wheat bag warming in the microwave. She’d been living this ordeal since she was 13. Under the “don’t tell, don’t ask” understanding we didn’t talk about it much, if at all. It was all women’s business back then.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Corinella Hall to listen to women who struggle against a bastard condition called endometriosis that needs more publicity. Dr Scott Pearce, a leading specialist surgeon, was centre stage, with three women beside him, talking about their battles with the condition, called endo for short.

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A labour of love

25/3/2021

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Daryl Hook: "Who would want to leave this place?"
Photos: Geoff Ellis

By Geoff Ellis

FOUR decades ago Daryl and Margaret Hook bought a "green desert" in Pound Creek.

These days there are so many trees that Daryl worries about long-neck turtles being crushed in his driveway. As he demonstrates how the turtles turn in circles to dig holes for their eggs, he talks like the coach of a team that's one point behind at three quarter time. We need to get out there and guard those damned eggs, then plant more trees and spread some compost tea. Then plant more trees.

I can’t quite believe he’s pulled off those giant boots and called full time. Sure, there’s a new house, another farm and some money in the bank but who’ll be jigging around Pound Creek to spread all that Landcare love?

Looking back, Daryl and Margaret always had a game plan. Here it is in his own words.

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A home of one’s own

12/3/2021

Cartoon: Natasha Williams-Novak

By Geoff Ellis

BASS Coast’s homeless people aren’t all living in the wetlands. Far from it. People sleep in cars. They couch surf, moving from one friend’s home to another before the burden of their presence becomes too great. Varying degrees of lockdown add an extra layer of complication to their existence.

The imminent decrease in the JobSeeker payment when the COVID supplement ends on March 31 will coincide with the removal of protective rental measures. Service providers and community organisations such as the Wonthaggi Neighbourhood Centre are worried about how many people will need help in April and beyond.

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No place like home

25/2/2021

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Many of Bass Coast’s most disadvantaged residents are
on the brink of a housing crisis.

By Geoff Ellis

MICKY has just shared a meal at Mitchell House*. He checks to see if anyone can hear him down the hallway as he steps up to the front counter. “I’m homeless,” he tells the volunteer behind that counter. “Can you help me?”

He’s the second person to ask Sue that question today. Earlier, Marg, an older woman, was looking for a place to park. She’s sleeping in her car while she gets her life back on track. But this guy doesn’t own a car. Sue rings SalvoCare.

Meanwhile, Kel gathers a few essentials from the free food stall on the front veranda. People can take what they need without having to ask. Kel really appreciates the fresh food and plans her menu around what’s available. Pasta, tomato sauce and a tin of tuna will make a good meal tonight.

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Dog versus snake

12/2/2021

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Roy likes to push his luck, but then he was born lucky.

By Geoff Ellis

HE COULDN’T quite reach the red bellied black. As it tried to disappear around the culvert into the rocks, he dug at it frantically, clawing the rocks from behind it. He didn’t notice the little snakes slithering off into the long grass, but his nose told him there was something in there somewhere. His canine brain told him to keep digging.

Roy was born lucky. Saved from death row in Albury by a hard-working animal welfare group, he was free ranged and Facebooked till his picture stole our hearts. After a long drive he became a happy little Gippslander, here on the Bunurong Coast, but the first few days were awkward.

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Picture this

29/1/2021

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Photo: Geoff Ellis

By Geoff Ellis

A BLUSTERY Saturday in January. I sit snugly in the car monitoring the darkening clouds as I tick off the mental checklist: camera, coffee, raincoat, scarf, jacket, thicker jacket, tripod, towels. I send a text message to confirm my departure so there is no turning back.

Somewhere west of Wonthaggi I max the heater to VERY HOT. The next 40 minutes are a kaleidoscope of bright sunshine and black clouds dumping the odd sheet of sleet. The only constant is the strong winds and the traffic. A few minutes after 1pm I turn into the carpark at Mussel Rocks near Cowes, where Faith Stanes directs me to an empty parking spot.

Faith is the convenor of this outing, the first of the year for the revamped Bass Coast Camera Group, part of the Bass Coast Artists Society, which, like everyone else, is emerging from hibernation.

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Fish, chips and public art

10/12/2020

Ash Keating at Grantville with his trademark fire extinguishers

By Geoff Ellis

"I SET the rules and select the colours. Paint flies. It hits the surface and gravity does the rest. Pure improvisation." Ash Keating describes his process as he grabs another fire extinguisher filled with paint.

A temporary outdoor dining area is being created in the gap between two shops in Grantville. Ash was given the task of beautifying the wall of the fish and chip shop and as the sun rose over the Waterline last Friday, a handful of people watched the creation of a landmark piece of wall art.

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The digital sabbath

14/8/2020

By Geoff Ellis

MANY of us start the day with coffee and connection. Like the majority of my circle, much of my life is lived on-line these days. Emails and Facebook have long been part of our daily routine and now we zoom into meetings across the day. Between working from home, staying alert and keeping in touch, our devices are 24/7 companions.

Mobiles have superseded newspapers at our breakfast tables while the laptop glares from the corner of the room with all its teeth bared.

The constant stream of communication can get daunting and distracting. A couple of weeks ago I actually ran out of emails. To celebrate I posted this comment on LinkedIn “Every editor’s dream – no unread emails – now, where’s the coffee and when does the sun come up?”

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Whatever it takes

31/7/2020

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Every exhibit in Ian Hitchings’ farm museum is a triumph of home-grown ingenuity

By Geoff Ellis

“MISS one payment and I will foreclose,” Mr Graham intoned as Edith Emily Hitchings signed the contract to buy his farm in 1928.

Ever since then, the Hitchings family has been working that farm, a section of the original Powlett subdivision a couple of kilometres north of Wonthaggi. Edith named the farm Avonhurst in memory of the river she had left behind in England.

When the Great Depression hit in 1929, the family had to do whatever it took to keep the farm. Rather than spend hard-earned money they were forced to make do with whatever was at hand, mostly the family’s sweat and tears.

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Ask the man who owns one

15/7/2020

Gary Griffin studies the owner's manual

By Geoff Ellis

THE opening bid was a thousand bucks. Gary Griffin offered two. The first bidder came back with three thousand. Gary looked at the young farmer. “I’ve got deep pockets, mate.” He went to four. As the auctioneer paused for breath, his opponent looked at the layer of diesel and dirt on the Jag’s metalwork. He kept his hand down.

Gary Griffin has a shed full of cars he never set out to buy; they just came his way and impulse took over. All his cars start, when the batteries are charged, and Gary has resisted the urge to restore them.

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The journey continues

2/7/2020

Cabrini Hospital, March 21, 2018: David was awake during
the operation as his responses were used to guide the
placement of the electrodes.

By Geoff Ellis

A WINTER’S day in Corinella. David Kemp steadies himself against the guard rail to point out the landmarks. The couple don’t understand the sign: “You are here.” Sure, but that arrow makes no sense. David is trying to find a common reference point. He indicates the San Remo bridge so the rest of Western Port falls into place. The couple move on. David resumes his own journey as he cautiously turns toward the cafe and studies the pathway back to the car.

Post readers shared the start of David Kemp’s journey two years ago, when David discussed his initial Parkinson’s disease diagnosis and preparations for the deep brain stimulation (DBS) operation that could stop the hand trembling, awkward gait and stilted speech. These symptoms were worsening but there were serious risks in the operation, including possible brain damage and death.

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A break from poverty

11/6/2020

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Photo: Geoff Ellis

By Geoff Ellis

JESSICA Harrison lives in Wonthaggi where it’s hard to find jobs at the best of times. She has received countless knockbacks from potential employers as she struggles along on $277 a week. She’s 65.

Jess considers herself lucky. “This is a beautiful place and I have lots of friends who take care of each other. It’s still tough at times. You get a knot in the stomach when you've spent too much on food.”

If every cent goes on essentials, common place food items become unaffordable luxuries. One time a shopper behind her at the checkout paid for an item that broke Jess’s budget.

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Last gasp for Jam Jerrup

29/5/2020