Linda Cuttriss salutes the women who made Wonthaggi their home and gave the town its heart.

Scottish miners were a driving force in the militant unionism for which Wonthaggi became known. By Linda Cuttriss

If you see a yard with a vegetable garden with climbing beans and plump, red tomatoes there’s a good chance it belongs to an Italian Wonthaggian.

People crossed the oceans to work in the State Coal Mine at Wonthaggi. Linda Cuttriss’s grandfather was one of them.

Wonthaggi arrived much later than most of the towns around Bass Coast, but it grew at breakneck speed. By Linda Cuttriss

After years of watching this shift-shaper from afar, Linda Cuttriss sets out for a closer look.

The State Coal Mine came to life almost overnight. But it took more than half a century and a state of emergency for it to happen. By Linda Cuttriss

​Linda Cuttriss had always wondered about that mullock heap. It wasn’t until she was held up by roadworks that she stopped to find out more.

The bushland was destined to be cleared for housing. Thanks to a massive community effort, it’s now a wildlife refuge and Bass Coast’s newest walking trail. Linda Cuttriss reports.

Our new rural tourism strategy threatens the very landscape that attracts tourists to Phillip Island, writes Linda Cuttriss.

Linda Cuttriss explores Wreck Beach and finds a complex web of events linked by coal.

Autumn is the settled season, when everything takes a breather. But it didn’t start off that way, writes Linda Cuttriss.

Time and tide wait for no man and nowhere is the saying more apt than in the narrow channel between San Remo and Phillip Island, writes Linda Cuttriss

Wonthaggi’s State Coal Mine was once the engine room of Victoria’s economy. Linda Cuttriss envisages a future where history, community, energy and creativity come together.

It took almost 40 years to attain a sparse vegetation cover around the man-made and very saline Kitty Miller Wetlands, which is why Linda Cuttriss is sceptical about an eco-tourism proposal.

Like other descendants of Wonthaggi’s coal miners, the State Coal Mine is in Linda Cuttriss’s DNA.

Linda Cuttriss visits Scenic Estate Reserve and finds Nature has reclaimed it despite the efforts of developers, boy racers and vandals.

Not even the rocks are permanent on this constantly changing beach, writes Linda Cuttriss.

Winter has a bad reputation but Linda Cuttriss loves its many moods.

A close encounter with nature reminds Linda Cuttriss that humans aren’t the only ones enjoying the great ocean.