Laura Brearley

Life, luck and long journeys

11/11/2025

"I saw you coming from afar ..." Sabri, Jihan and Laura

By Laura Brearley

I TURNED seventy this year. A long journey of three score years and ten. This morning, I heard Paul Kelly talking about his new album called ‘Seventy’. It takes a lot of luck to get to seventy, he said.

I was a child of the 1950s, and I have indeed had my share of luck along the way to get here. There have been two close shaves with death, once when I was eight and again after the birth of my daughter. There were some rather reckless years in my early adulthood, but I’ve made it through somehow. In the mirror, I can see the tracks of the years I have lived. At some stages, I've felt much older than the reflection I see in the mirror. When the going is good, I feel about 35 inside.

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The art of change

5/6/2025

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More than a gallery, ArtSpace Wonthaggi continues to inspire new ways of seeing and being.
Photos: Terry Melvin, Ursula Theinert and Laura Brearley

By Laura Brearley

IN THE heart of Bass Coast, we find the ArtSpace Gallery in Wonthaggi. It is a place where community members gather and connect through a shared love of art and art-making. The edges of ArtSpace are expansive and it welcomes in fresh ways of experiencing the world through multiple ways of knowing.

Over the years, I have witnessed the ways in which ArtSpace brings together Art, Science and Culture, in an interweaving of creative practice, ecological awareness and First Nations’ wisdom. It hosts Bass Coast Reconciliation Network’s annual NAIDOC exhibitions and showcases the work of First Nations artists living in Gippsland. It has also hosted a number of exhibitions and activities from Phillip Island Conservation Society’s Eco Arts projects ‘For Our Future’ and ‘Across the Waters’.

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A long journey at the gathering place

4/2/2025

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Over three days, hundreds of local people joined Maree Clarke
in creating a major artwork for Berninneit.

By Laura Brearley

A RIVER flows through Maree Clarke. She is a saltwater and freshwater woman, with Boon Wurrung, Yorta Yorta, Wamba Wamba and Mutti Mutti heritage. Maree is a prolific and generous artist who brings together ancient and contemporary practice to reveal and pass on cultural knowledge.

Maree spent her formative years on the banks of Dhungala (Murray River) on Latje Latje Country near Mildura. Her work is profoundly informed by Country and culture. Maree is highly regarded across Australia and internationally and recognised as a leader in contemporary southeast Aboriginal arts. In her creative practice, she weaves together cultural knowledge, organic materials and leading-edge technology. Maree has played a significant role in strengthening cultural identity through the revival of possum-skin cloaks, her clay Kopi caps of mourning and associated rituals, and her necklaces made of kangaroo teeth, river reeds and feathers. Maree’s work references loss and is also deeply generative.

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Across the waters

15/11/2024

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From both sides of the bay, we came together as the community of Western Port/Warn Marin.

By Laura Brearley

AGAINST the backdrop of the week’s political turmoil in the USA and environmental challenges everywhere, we came together last Saturday as the community of Western Port/Warn Marin.

We were drawn together by our love of the Bay and our shared experience of this precious, powerful and vulnerable place, with a recognition that it is part of us and we are part of it.

The ‘Across the Waters’ Deep Listening Circle at Berninneit, Millowl, was a day of celebration and a day of tears, a lived experience of Eco Arts, weaving together Art, Music, Science and Culture, a secular and sacred community ceremony.

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Across the Waters

12/9/2024

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How do you feel about Western Port Bay (Warn Marin)? Photo: Terry Melvin

By Laura Brearley

YOU are invited to participate in Phillip Island Conservation Society’s Eco Arts project, Across the Waters, which has a focus on the protection of Western Port Bay (Warn Marin), the Ramsar site within it and the Woodlands adjoining it.

The project is bringing together community members around the Bay to promote ecological awareness and action through Eco Arts collaborations.

As part of these collaborations, we are looking for six-word sentences that describe how you feel about Western Port Bay (Warn Marin). The six words could describe your love for the Bay or your concern for it, your special place on or near it and what your hopes are for its future.

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Dancing into the future

15/11/2023

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A 300-person boogie proved the perfect way to celebrate Berninneit,
our new gathering place.

By Laura Brearley

‘IT’S much worse than we think, and sooner’ writes poet Ross Gay in his poem ‘Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude’. He fully celebrates the delights of life and recognises the importance of gratitude, acknowledging all the while that our joys are inseparable from our sorrows.

In the aftermath of the community concert and parade which celebrated the opening of Berninneit, our new cultural centre, I too have some big thanks to say. Here they are …

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Everyone is Welcome

18/10/2023

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The Living Circle Concert is free but tickets are precious, so you need to
book to be part of this historic occasion. The flyer contains a QR code where
you can book tickets.

By Laura Brearley

LIKE the Earth, our community is a living circle - diverse, dynamic and interconnected. We change and evolve. We encompass difference. Our experiences of loss and disappointment are intertwined with our cycles of recovery and restoration. All have their place in the life of a community.

Next month is an opportunity for the Bass Coast community to celebrate with the opening of Berninneit, the new cultural centre and gathering place in Cowes. On Sunday afternoon, 1-3.30pm on November 5, we will come together for the first community event to take place in this new space, a community activation event called The Living Circle Concert.

The concert weaves together song, dance, story, poetry, film and a parade into an intercultural and intergenerational celebration of community spirit featuring local children as well as musicians, artists, conservationists and First Nation Elders.

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Moments of inspiration

17/8/2023

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Laura Brearley leads the children of the Bass Coast Children's Centre at the opening of the Ocean Messages exhibition. Photo: Kate Harmon

By Laura Brearley

THERE was a moment last week that I suspect will stay with me forever. It was a moment of pure delight and inspiration. We were at the Bass Coast Children’s Centre singing with the kinder kids and had just finished singing Hail the Whale together …
“Love those whales waving their tails
Splishin’ and a-splash’n in the deep blue sea …”

The last chord had hardly faded when a little girl, beaming in the front row, said “Again!”
Open, direct and ready. And so we sang it again.

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Opening arts and minds

21/7/2023

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Kara Redmond is one of those who discovered unexpected talents in an art class with a difference.

By Laura Brearley

KARA Redmond, Sunny Lynch and Kate Harmon have all made unique contributions to the Bass Coast Adult Learning ’Exploring Art’ class. All three are strong visual artists and gifted wordsmiths.

Over the past term, students have been guided by guest artists as they make works of art and write poetry for local exhibitions and for sending overseas within a Creative Message Exchange taking place between artists, children and First Nation Elders.

The power and quality of the creative work that has been produced by all of the participants has been a privilege to witness. Their work is on display at BCAL over July and August.

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Creative conversations from afar

21/4/2023

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A creative message exchange sustains the artistic practice of Melanie Yazzie, left, and Susan Hall.

By Laura Brearley

FOR many years Inverloch artist and printmaker Susan Hall has enjoyed a rich creative collaboration with Melanie Yazzie, a Navajo artist and Professor of Arts Practices at the University of Colorado. The two artists exchange creative messages – by post.

"Melanie and I make conversation pieces," Susan says. "Melanie sends work to me which includes her stories and I respond to that with what is happening in my life. Melanie and I are on the same wavelength."

Their visual conversations from afar now form part of Bass Coast’s ‘For Our Future’ eco arts project, of which Susan is a lead artist. Forty of their prints, and poetic text generated from their artworks, will be on exhibition at Wonthaggi ArtSpace in August and September.

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What is calling through this art?

19/2/2023

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Daniel Church at the opening of his exhibition at ArtSpace. Photos: Laura Brearley and Terry Melvin

By Laura Brearley

DARUG artist and sculptor Daniel Church will be a special guest at a Deep Listening Circle being held to accompany his exhibition This is My Story currently showing at Wonthaggi ArtSpace.

Curated by Ursula Theinert, Susan Hall and Karin Ellis, the exhibition reveals Daniel’s creative journey of recovery through trauma and heartbreak.

The artist has lost many people he has loved and has witnessed deaths in custody first-hand. His healing has come through the making of art, drawing on a deep well of connection to culture and Country. In Daniel’s words …

Songlines
Kangaroo and Sea People
The Darug
Meeting on the land and sea
All along the coast of Country

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For Our Future

19/10/2022

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Expect the unexpected when the arts, science and culture come together
in a new program celebrating Bass Coast places and people.
Photos: Terry Melvin

By Laura Brearley

A NEW environmental program of eco arts events and activities for the Bass Coast community is about to begin. It’s called For Our Future and it brings together the arts, science and culture.

Supported by a grant from the Bass Coast Shire Council, the Phillip Island Conservation Society (PICS) will be facilitating the program and is also contributing financially.

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Environmental love-in-action

18/8/2022

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By Laura Brearley

Some people prefer to describe environmental activism as love-in-action. We’re facing these times as members of a community. We’re working together and inspiring each other. There have never been so many humans trying to serve life. Author and psychologist Tara Brach believes that when we recognise that we all belong to the natural world, we widen our sense of identity. We remember that we belong to something larger and there is huge creativity and love on which we can draw.

Featuring the Sibyl Disobedients

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itVPqkMBnNw&t=6s

In Bass Coast, we were recently visited by members of an environmental performance group from the Mornington Peninsula, known as the Western Port Sybil Disobedients. One of the Sybils, artist Hannah Lewis, had read about the Save Western Port Woodlands campaign and reached out to offer the Sybils’ support from the other side of the Bay.

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Together we can

2/6/2022

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Laura Brearley celebrates the transformative power of
collective action in Bass Coast.

By Laura Brearley

WORLD Environment Day is happening this Sunday. It’s the day the United Nations established 50 years ago and this year they have returned to their original theme, ‘Only One Earth’. The 2022 campaign is calling on us to celebrate the planet through collective environmental action.

There is a lot of collective environmental action happening right now in our Bass Coast community. People are coming together in multiple ways through different networks. Alliances are forming and critical connections are being made. People are sharing knowledge and pooling their expertise, creating collaborative communities with an ecological focus.

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What we’re learning from the woodlands

5/5/2022

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Helen Searle spreads the message to visitors to Bass Coast.
All photos by Laura Brearley who sees the woodlands campaign
as a living example of active hope.

By Laura Brearley

THE campaign to protect the Western Port Woodlands from expanding sand mines has taught us a thing or two about environmental action. It’s been a grass-roots community campaign and is a living example of what is called active hope or radical hope. We don’t know if the campaign is going to be successful, but we’re doing it anyway, because we must. Some people call this kind of action “hope in the dark”, less like hope and more akin to grit, determination and resolve.

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Why we do the work

22/4/2022

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Community gathers for the Woodlands

2/12/2021

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Locals celebrate the woodlands with wine, art and song.
Photostory by Laura Brearley; photos by Nici Cahill.

More than 200 locals showed their support for the campaign to Save the Western Port Woodlands with an afternoon of wine, art and song at the Gurdies winery last Sunday.

The weather gods smiled and two wedge-tailed eagles cruised above a great line-up of talent: Kutcha Edwards, Doc White, Laura Brearley and Friends, Rosie Westbrook, Bass Coast Pickers and the SB Bandibeats.

All musicians gave of their time and talents generously to support the campaign to preserve the woodlands from a surge in sand mining. Men at Work frontman Colin Hay and friends sent a special recording of the Oz classic Down Under in support.

The concert was followed by an art auction conducted by former Bass Coast Mayor Brett Tessari, who used his experience in real estate to extract maximum bids from the audience.

Twenty-two works were sold for a total of $7485, with $4235 to go to Save the Western Port Woodlands.

Thanks to Bass Coast Shire Council for supporting Save Western Port Woodlands with a community grant used to buy campaign t-shirts, brochures, car stickers and advertising.

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Words from the Woodlands

20/10/2021

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Walking in the Adams Creek Nature Conservation Reserve with Jackie and Dave Newman, our guides. Photo: Terry Melvin

By Laura Brearley

AS A community, we’ve been doing a lot of walking in the Western Port Woodlands lately. We’ve been in good company and have been guided by experts in birds, trees, flowers and fungi. Catherine Watson from Save Western Port Woodlands has been organising the walks and inviting us into new ways of experiencing and appreciating the Woodlands. The walks are a sensory delight and have deepened our sense of connection with each other and the more than human world.

In the last issue of the Bass Coast Post, Linda Cuttriss gifted us with an evocative description of her experience of taking part in these walks. In Of Magic, Mystery and Monsters, she seamlessly wove together stories, information and personal reflections into a lyrical form of ecological advocacy.

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A community in action

2/7/2021

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Mandy Farr’s ukulele group at the Wonthaggi Neighbourhood Centre. Photo: Terry Melvin

By Dr Laura Brearley

TERRY and I have been walking and filming in the coastal woodlands over the last couple of weeks. We’ve also been spending time with singing and ukulele groups who have been learning the song ‘Are You Listening?’ for the outro of a film we are making about the precious Western Port woodlands, currently at risk from sandmining expansion.

We have been inspired by the community’s willingness to come together and raise their voices in this way. This week, we have worked with two of Mandy Farr’s local ukulele groups, one at the Warrawee Senior Citizens Club in Inverloch and another at the Wonthaggi Neighbourhood Centre. There we were joined by members of the Bass Coast Post community and the Gippsland Singers Network.

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The Bass Coast sound

29/1/2021

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Max Richter records his Bass Hills soundtrack under the watchful eye of recording engineer and local musician Dave Prideaux.

By Laura Brearley

LOVE of place is a contagious thing. Spending time with people who love where they live is an inspiring thing to do. In the past few weeks, Terry and I have had the extra joy of hanging out with local musicians who have been composing and recording soundtracks for the series of short films we are making for the Coastal Connections project.

Just to remind you, Coastal Connections is the Council-funded community well-being project in which local people are expressing their love of blue and green places through different creative forms, including writing, photography, painting, music and film.

Just before Christmas, we finished the first cuts of six of the films and the musicians were able to start the process of composing music for the films. As they began their work, Terry and I headed down to Mallacoota for Christmas with our family. It was a year since the bushfires and it was both poignant and healing to be there. Christmas Day was spent with the extended family at the new house my daughter’s mother-in-law has bought since losing hers in last Summer’s bushfires.

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