In our daily travels throughout Bass Coast, we are never far from thousands of years of human history. By Geoff Ellis THERE aren’t any signs and the walkway just ends. Seagulls hover above us. We are...

A nervous Geoff Ellis sets out to track down the creature digging up his lawn. SINCE we moved up the hill to Col de Krowera, life has been punctuated by critters both great and gruesome. The snakes...

A Korinne farming family turned their backs on Big Milk and found a brighter new future. Geoff Ellis reports. By Geoff Ellis "If we had stayed with Murray Goulburn we wouldn't be milking now." In 2015...

Once upon Geoff Ellis knew exactly what the council should do. And then he became a councillor. By Geoff Ellis THE council minutes show how we voted but they can’t note the tears and cheers. It’s a...

By Geoff Ellis NOTE to self: Next time – removalists. A white ute dashes along Sheepways dragging a dust cloaked trailer. Back in Wattle Bank another trailer waits as the next load grows around it....

By Geoff Ellis FRANKENSTEIN wasn't the first scientist to have the next best thing become the exact opposite. He won’t be the last. Glyphosate-based products have long been the standard for weed control....

​By Geoff Ellis THERE are two memorial cairns in Corinella. One reminds us of the failed attempt at British settlement in 1826. The other informs us of Count Paul Strzelecki’s 1840 journey through an...

By Geoff Ellis “It’s NOT the wrong button. Here!” The old remote still worked, if you pressed hard enough. June tossed it back into his lap. “And turn the volume down BEFORE you switch over.” She...

Geoff Ellis looks back fondly to the days when employment services found jobs for people. AT MY last job service network provider interview in Wonthaggi, it was suggested to me that I should apply at...

By Geoff Ellis RECENTLY I drove to Cranbourne and back in a morning. At Wonthaggi unleaded petrol was 115.9 cents (Brand A, Brand B and Brand C). At Bass, 34 kilometres away, unleaded petrol was 96.9...

Cartoon by Natasha Williams-Novak By Geoff Ellis April 9, 2016 "ANY customer can have a car painted any colour they like ... so long as it is black," Henry Ford (inventing the mandatory option) in...

Put Ricky Muir first and a politician second, urges Geoff Ellis. March 26, 2016 THERE are so many reasons to get angry. Water security, marriage equality, coal seam gas mining, public transport, employment,...

After 10 years of talk and planning, The Cape estate is starting to take shape. Developer Brendan Condon sells Geoff Ellis on the benefits of eco-houses. ​ “IT’S clear to me that we’re building as if...

Cartoon: Natasha Williams-Novak The passionate local people who staff Wonthaggi’s visitor information centre are the best possible advertisement for the area. By Geoff Ellis AFTER spending a day...

Geoff Ellis’s tree change has thrown up surprising challenges. Some of them have ​eight legs. WHO hasn’t moved a picture or opened a drawer to be confronted by a Big Hairy Spider lurking in the shadows?...

A month of relentless eating leads to a month of remorseful sweating for Geoff Ellis, who finds his mind wandering in strange places. THERE’S an unfamiliar space in our lounge room. Presents given and...

Pam Rothfield tells Geoff Ellis the stories behind some of the graves in the historic Phillip Island cemetery. CHRISTMAS Morning, 1949. Just after 5am a guest at the Continental Guest House, near Cowes...

A Wonthaggi-based organisation is leading a citizen science project aimed at cleaning up sewage outfalls around Australia. ​ ​By Geoff Ellis “Our oceans know no borders.” John Gemmill, from the Clean...

The prospect of the State Government placing the first order for water from the Wonthaggi desalination plant has opened some old wounds, reports Geoff Ellis. Neil Rankine (back row, left), Vilya Congreave...

By Geoff Ellis LAST year, while cleaning out his Grantville shed, Allan George found something that doesn’t belong to him. In the bottom of a box was a Dead Man’s Penny that commemorated the death of...