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​Seventy years of smash and spin

16/9/2025

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Picture
From church halls and living rooms to a second-hand clubhouse, Wonthaggi’s table tennis club has stood the test of time. Photos: Wonthaggi Table Tennis Association.
By Julie Paterson
 
IN THE late 1800s it was known as whiff-whaff, pom-pom, pim-pam, flim-flam, ping pong and parlour tennis until the early 1900s when an English patent cemented the name as table tennis. The origins of the game apparently began in the upper classes in England who had room inside their lavish houses to play it as an after-dinner game.

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Mouth of the Powlett

17/8/2025

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Picture
By Julie Paterson
 
THE Mouth of the Powlett’s estuarine wetlands, salt marsh and coast has enamoured me since the mid nineties. That serpentine river and the entirety of the place coalesce into a unique ecology and ambience. It teems with layers of life, visual textures, a multitude of species and a restorative force … and let’s not forget the times of blasting salt winds which reshape not only dunes but also your face.

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June 2025

27/6/2025

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Rest in peace, but stay in line

5/6/2025

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Picture
Wonthaggi cemetery: "Honouring and celebrating life”. Photos: Julie Paterson
By Catherine Watson

I'VE always loved the Wonthaggi cemetery, with footy flags adorning headstones, concrete angels, and roos grazing between the graves in the last rays of the day. A homely and cheerful place to contemplate mortality. 

But things are changing since Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust took over the cemetery in February.

The council has paid the trust (a public entity) $4 million to maintain Wonthaggi and San Remo cemeteries in perpetuity. The understanding is that the council will save money and the community will get a more professional service. 

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Growing together

12/5/2025

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PictureFriendship and learning flourish alongside the plants at the
Wonthaggi Seed Bank and Nursery.
Text: Catherine Watson
​Photos: Julie Paterson
 
TO VISIT the Wonthaggi Seed Bank and Nursery on a Wednesday morning is to enter a busy, happy space. Most of the volunteer crew are approaching their twilight years, but any aches and pains are soon forgotten as they focus on the tasks at hand.
 
They come from Wonthaggi, Inverloch and Cape Paterson but they also come from Bena, Venus Bay, Kilcunda, Korumburra, Leongatha and further afield.
 
By the time they arrive at the nursery there’s a list of tasks on the board: shelling seeds, sorting, storing, sowing, pricking out, planting cuttings, pruning, watering and collating orders that will be used by Landcare and others to replant the hills and valleys of Bass Coast and South Gippsland that our industrious predecessors cleared so thoroughly.

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Introductions

24/3/2025

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By Julie Paterson

I MOVED to Wonthaggi in August 2023, but I am no stranger to the Bass Coast.

With a background in art, I've been invited to contribute monthly photo essays to the Post. These are not series of works, but rather a collection of photos as I explore the region taking photos and observing contrasts.
​
The photos will be predominately landscapes but will also include local events, local people and odds and sods. I hope you’ll enjoy my monthly offerings and the evolution of this new inclusion to The Post.
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