Bass Coast Post - Linda Cuttriss

On sheltered waters

19/7/2018

Words and photos by Linda Cuttriss

IT IS low tide on a crisp, clear winter’s morning in the small fishing village of Rhyll. Blinding sunlight fills the space between French Island and this quiet, sheltered shore on the north-east tip of Phillip Island. The Bass Hills are still smudged with morning mist on the other side of the bay. The receding tide has left behind a patchwork of green seagrass meadows, expanses of deep blue water, luminous sheets of pale blue and a myriad of puddles and pools.

Beaches, bays and one fatal shot

2/11/2017

Picture Elizabeth Cove, Ventnor, Phillip Island, photo by Linda Cuttriss, 2017

Linda Cuttriss visits Ventnor, where Phillip Island’s first European family once hosted members of Melbourne’s social elite.

A wild ride: Summerland scenic drive

20/9/2017

Behind the scenes of the Summerland peninsula lies a unique history of tourism, development and wildlife conservation. Linda Cuttriss reports.

Finding Ellen

8/10/2016

Ellen Cuttriss

A family gathering at Inverloch Pioneer Cemetery marked the end of a quest to find the long-lost grave of a young mother and son, buried 125 years ago. Linda Cuttriss reports

Of sand and stone

26/7/2016

By Linda Cuttriss

THE Woolamai dunes rise behind lines of rolling surf on the south-east coast of Phillip Island. These massive hills of sand stand up to 30 metres high. They sprawl from Woolamai Surf Beach to Cleeland Bight and stretch from The Colonnades to the granite upland of Cape Woolamai.

Island idyll

2/7/2016

“I scarcely know a place I would rather call mine than this little island,” Lieutenant James Grant wrote of Churchill Island in 1801.

Cut and Fill

4/6/2016

The sight of a beach freshly eroded by a storm can shock, but the sand will return in the natural order of things. At least it has till now.

Swell and spray

11/4/2016

The Blowhole

By Linda Cuttriss

I CAN hear the ocean rumbling, telling me there’s a big swell running. The sky is blue, the wind is light. It’s a perfect day to visit The Blowhole at the south-west tip of Phillip Island.

Beauty and the beast

26/3/2016

Beware the beastly easterlies, writes Linda Cuttriss, and remember they will pass.

Ode to the Post

12/12/2015

Cartoon by Natasha Williams-Novak

By Linda Cuttriss

THERE’S something very comforting about the “bing” of an incoming email on a Saturday morning, the sound that announces your arrival again. I love those few moments of anticipation, wondering who you’ll bring into my world this weekend.

The old lady of the sea

26/9/2015

By Linda Cuttriss

CAPE Woolamai is the great-great grandmother of this coast. She sits at the south-east tip of Phillip Island and is seen from far and wide. She is always there, watching over her coastal waters, keeping an eye on the cliffs and dunes and beaches, guarding the eastern entrance to Western Port Bay.

A walk on the quiet side

29/8/2015

By Linda Cuttriss

I HEAR no roar of the ocean, no sound of waves pounding the coast. I am standing on the sheltered side of Phillip Island, on the bluff above Rhyll Inlet, listening to the north-westerly wind whispering through the she-oaks.

Time and tide

18/7/2015

The wreck of the Speke

By Linda Cuttriss

I AM standing at the top of the steps overlooking an empty Kitty Miller Bay. At high tide waves lap the back of the beach but now the bay is drained. Low tide is when hooded plovers scamper along the shore and oystercatchers wander among the shallow pools that remain on the rocky floor.

Shelter from the storm

19/6/2015

Swan Lake, Phillip Island

By Linda Cuttriss

IT IS a wild and windy winter’s day and I am on my way to Swan Lake. Nestled behind high dunes at the western end of Phillip Island, Swan Lake is a sheltered place to go when the cold winds blow.

From the cliff-tops

6/6/2015

Pyramid Rock to Berry’s Beach

By Linda Cuttriss

A SLIGHTLY corrugated dirt road takes me past big old sheoaks and on through open farmland to Pyramid Rock, where the two gentle arcs of Phillip Island’s south coast meet.

The view from the other side

4/4/2015

Phillip Island Nature Parks’ Ecoboat Tour

By Linda Cuttriss

THE brand-new 47-seat ‘sea sprinter’ pushes back from Cowes Jetty and is soon speeding westward towards Australia’s largest seal colony. I’m on board Phillip Island Nature Parks’ Ecoboat Tour. The monitor at the front of the boat shows we’re travelling at 27 knots but the sea is calm and the ride is smooth.

Taste of the future

14/3/2015

A local food swap, one of several in Bass Coast

At a local food forum, Linda Cuttriss discovers that the future of healthy, affordable food may be closer than we know.

The dread before the storm

20/2/2015

December, 1974. Darwin, after Cyclone Tracy hit. Photo: Australian Emergency Management Institute

By Linda Cuttriss

NERVOUS memories of cyclones this morning as I listen to the news from Queensland and Northern Territory. My younger brother has been in Bundaberg on a camping adventure with his partner, just south of where Cyclone Marcia is predicted to hit the coast. I rang him yesterday and he'd just packed up camp and was on the road heading down to his partner's son's place on the Gold Coast. They are near the Tallebudgera River, which is prone to flooding so it won't be smooth sailing there either – but at least he'll be safe from potentially 250-plus-kilometre winds.

Pastures of plenty

13/12/2014

Forty years after she helped to harvest the hay on the family farm, Linda Cuttriss still feels a primal pleasure in seeing those fat rolls of hay and silage in the paddocks.

What a performance!

29/11/2014

Linda Cuttriss is entranced by the magpie show on her back lawn.

Wallaby fight club

15/11/2014

It's just a game for now, practice for when the prize is the prettiest doe in the paddock.

Going bush, close to home

10/10/2014

Oswin Roberts Reserve

By Linda Cuttriss

THERE is a little signpost on Rhyll Road, not far from Cowes, that for many years has attracted my eye every time I drive by. The sign says ‘Walking Tracks’ but from local knowledge I know it points to Oswin Roberts Reserve. I've been promising myself to stop one day and explore the world that’s hidden there beyond the little blue sign.

Postcard from Darwin

27/9/2014

Pandanus trees, bush chooks and paw-paw salad ... Linda Cuttriss finds herself being seduced by the charms of the tropical north all over again.

A port out of place

6/9/2014

For over 150 years, Phillip Island has been a natural haven for weary city folk, writes Linda Cuttriss, but there are dark clouds on the horizon.

My country

14/8/2014

From Phillip Island to Inverloch, from the lowlands to the hills, this is Linda Cuttriss’s country.

Linda Cuttriss

Linda Cuttriss writes about the nature of Phillip Island and Bass Coast - the wildlife, plants, rocks, coastal formations and local history – in her series of walks and drives around this stunning part of the world she calls home.

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