ESSAYS ON BASS COAST LOCAL HISTORY

Vic Benetti: Everyone remembers the smile.

By Frank Coldebella and Catherine Watson

COMMENTS about the recently departed tend to be over-generous but Vic Benetti’s epitaph was spot on: “A kind humble man who found joy in helping others.”

Everyone remembers the smile. That and the Tuscan villa he built when he was a young bachelor. In Italy it wouldn’t have attracted a second look. In Wonthaggi it was a landmark. Cars still slow as they pass.

Vic was just over a month shy of his 98th birthday when he died on August 31. He’d spent the past few years living at Rose Lodge, after his beloved Maureen died. There were always visitors: five of his seven children live locally, as well as many of his 17 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

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Rescuing the rescue station

14/8/2025

State Coal Mine rescue station. Drawing by Dennis Leversha

By Carolyn Landon

DENNIS Leversha’s final project was a small booklet published at the end of 2024 by the Wonthaggi Historical Society. Its title is History of the Rescue Station, State Coal Mine, Wonthaggi. On its cover is a beautiful and accurate drawing of the rescue station as it looked in 1975, a bit worn with sagging doors and broken windows.

That drawing was a testament to the fine lines of the old building, but also a possible acknowledgement that it, too, would go the way of the great No. 5 Brace structure that was the centre of the State Coal Mine project and still visible to this day but barely standing.

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The Nobbies jinx

23/7/2025

The Nobbies Centre, centre of mini tornadoes and multi-million dollar court battles.
Photo: Marcus Wong (Creative Commons)

By Catherine Watson

THE recent closure of the Nobbies Centre due to structural damage is the latest twist in a long saga that includes mini tornados and multi-million-dollar court battles and brings to mind the word jinx.

The site was the focus of a heroic – and ultimately futile – community battle against a proposed commercial development that has haunted successive governments.

In the late 1990s, the Kennett Liberal Government struck a deal with developer Ken Armstrong to build a major marine tourism centre at the Nobbies. Tourism on the island until then had been modest.

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Across the waters

8/6/2025

BY Pam Richmond

THE first ferryman to French Island, Les Peterson, was once required to deliver a baby on a trip to the island.

When author Christine Dineen related this story to a roomful of fascinated locals in Corinella recently, Les’s daughter happened to be in the audience and told how she was named after the ferry.

Local history doesn’t get much more immediate than that!

U3A BASS Valley combined with the Corinella District Community Centre to host Christine’s fascinating presentation about French Island’s history, people, flora and fauna.

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Crays, muttonfish and gars with tails like pick-axes

7/6/2025

Fishing yarns from the Bunurong Coast

By Rees Quilford

MY UNCLE Foxy once told me a fishing story that made me laugh. It was the 1970s, he was driving the beat-up old Holden ute he had back then. He’d finished milking for the morning, and was heading back into Wonthaggi along Wilsons Road. Back then it wasn’t much more than a goat track. It was dusty and rutted, which meant the radio constantly dropped in and out. Foxy spotted a familiar figure riding his bike up ahead. It was Jimmy Macdonnell, the bloke who lived in the huts on the edge of Foxy’s farm. Jim was making his way slowly along the road. As Foxy slowed down to say g’day, he saw the battered wooden crate lashed to the handlebars.

Catch a few to today, Jim? Yup, got a few.

As he got closer, Foxy realised how good a day it was.

That bloody box was overflowing with Gars Old Jim had caught down at The Wreck. And I’ll tell you what, the things had tails the size of bloody pickaxes! That’s how it was back then.

Foxy finishes telling the story, shakes his head, then starts yuck yuck yucking to himself (as is his way).

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Wonthaggi's war

25/3/2025

BASS Coast veterans, family and councillors have paid tribute to local servicemen with the unveiling of a plaque at the Arcade Plaza in Wonthaggi marking the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Waitavolo in New Guinea in March 1945.

The Plaza Arcade was used as a drill hall by a Company of the 14th Battalion, The Prahran Regiment, from 1937 till the end of the Second World War. There were many local enlistments from the Wonthaggi area.

Wonthaggi RSL president Kevin Walsh, who helped to organise the event, said up to 40 battalion members were from the local area.

At the start of the war, the battalion was mobilised and initially sent to guard vital installations near Geelong. On the fall of Timor in early 1942 it was rushed by rail to Geraldton in Western Australia to bolster the defences against a possible Japanese landing.

The battalion was later sent to Darwin to strengthen the defences of the top end. As the threat to Australia receded the battalion was partially demobilised and merged with the 32 Battalion to form the 14/32nd Battalion.

It was as the 14/32nd Battalion that the local enlistments from the Wonthaggi area took part in the amphibious Landing at Jaquinot Bay in New Britain and the successful attack on Bacon Hill for which the battalion was granted the Battle Honour of Waitavolo.

Mr Walsh said the battalion lost 31 killed and 46 wounded throughout the war and most of these casualties occurred during the battle of Waitavolo. The capture of Waitavolo was the last major operation against the Japanese in New Guinea.

The Battle of Waitavolo

Bacon Hill called Mount Sugi by the Japanese was the dominant feature in the south of the Gazelle Peninsula in New Britain near the Tol Plantation.
The Australian 19th Battalion captured some of the surrounding features before the 14/32nd Battalion relieved them and was tasked with capturing Bacon Hill itself.
The battle itself was fought in dense jungle and movement was by a number of at times sniper covered tracks that could only be traversed in single file.
Two Companies took part in the final assault from the South West scrambling up a steep jungle covered ridge under heavy fire.

Australian War Memorial

He said it was difficult to discern how many enlisted in Wonthaggi from the records he could access as they didn't specify place of original enlistment.

“Most were recorded as enlisting in Western Australia when the two battalions were merged.
But I found one wounded soldier who was clearly from Wonthaggi – a McAlpine who listed his place of birth as Wonthaggi.”

Cr Tim O’Brien and Cr Meg Edwards unveiled the plaque honouring the bravery and sacrifice of the soldiers.

“This humble plaque and what it commemorates is part of the Wonthaggi story,” said Cr O’Brien. “It ensures that the bravery and sacrifice of the 58/32 Battalion in the Battle of Waitavolo will not be forgotten.”

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The trail blazers

21/3/2025

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Members of the Wonthaggi Miners Women’s Auxiliary, 1967. Agnes Doig is fourth from the right in the back row. Agnes Chambers is second from the right in the front row. She died two years later, aged 86. Photo: Wonthaggi & District Historical Society

By Catherine Watson

IT WOULD be easy to mistake them for a bunch of ladies who lunch, but you are looking at a group of revolutionaries.

The photo of the Wonthaggi Miners Women’s Auxiliary (WMWA) was taken in 1967, when some of the members were past their prime. But in the preceding 33 years, these women had changed the course of union and social history around Australia.

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Big plans for this little shed

31/1/2025

The Cowes Jetty Goods Shed has worn many hats over the years. Now vacant, it awaits its
next transformation.

IF YOU walk down Thompson Avenue and cross the Esplanade, you'll find a charming little yellow shack with green doors and a distinctive red bow roof tucked behind the Cowes Jetty Triangle: the Cowes Jetty Goods Shed.

It’s hard to miss as this humble structure is the first building to greet passengers disembarking from the ferry. It has done so for more than 150 years.

Built in 1873, the Cowes Jetty Goods Shed was once the lifeblood of the island. Back when the sea was Phillip Island’s only link to the mainland, it securely housed goods, materials, and maritime gear—everything from household essentials to supplies for local industries. For the residents, it was indispensable; for mariners, it was a safe haven for their tools and equipment.

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Sun, surf … and a dash of history

13/12/2024

Valda Unthank and Hubert Opperman enjoy "the health food of a nation".

By Catherine Watson

Wonthaggi Historical Society’s mini history talks have become an unlikely highlight of summer.

The talks, which started in the summer of 2022, explore the highways and the byways of Wonthaggi’s rich history, not just the big events – the unions, the mine, the social history – but the sports clubs, the characters, the mishaps, the pubs, the myths and legends.

The title says it all. 15 Minutes of History. Every day at 11.30am, someone gives a talk about an aspect of Wonthaggi’s history. Then the audience responds. It is citizen history at its best.

More than 700 people attended last summer’s talks. Faye Quilford, who organises the talks with Irene Williams, says the popularity has grown by word of mouth.

“I think it’s because they’re quirky. Our presenters are passionate about their topic and that makes them eloquent. And it’s short and sharp. Start at 11.30am, finish at noon.”

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Avenues of honour

14/11/2024

The seven trees with their memorial cairn are dedicated to the memory of seven young men of Kongwak who lost their lives in service to their country between 1939 and 1945.

By Jillian Durance

ON 11 November, as every year, Kongwak’s school children observed one minute’s silence and laid their poppies at the memorial cairn in this Valley of Peace.

Remembrance Day commemorates the end of the Great War on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day and the eleventh month of 1918.

With so many Australian dead on the battlefields on Gallipoli, France, Belgium and the Middle East, the people at home sought to honour those who had so willingly gone to the front. Thus began the great memorial building movement throughout the nation: statues, cenotaphs, honour rolls, memorial buildings and avenues of honour in particular.

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History in the making

15/10/2024

Wonthaggi Historical Society curator Mark Robertson peruses Sir Roy Grounds’ hand-drawn plans for Wonthaggi’s Historical Park.

By Catherine Watson

THERE was to be a visitors centre, a lecture hall and a lookout. Visitors would be transported by train around the old mine site to take in the buildings and artefacts.

Wonthaggi’s historical theme park would be the real deal, “a magnificent state asset”, the architect assured the Wonthaggi Lions club when he unveiled the project. “There is no risk about its success.”

This was no two-bob tout but the famous architect Sir Roy Grounds, then at the height of his fame. He had completed the National Gallery of Victoria and was working on the Melbourne Arts Centre, incorporating Hamer Hall and the theatres.

Yet in 1973 he found time to visit Wonthaggi to map out a 60-acre park on the grounds of the old No 5 mine brace area.

“Wonthaggi’s coal mining theme will be unique and if I did not believe in its success I would not be associated with it as your honorary architect,” the Sentinel Times reports him telling the Lions.

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The line to Wonthaggi

13/7/2024

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The Red Rattler passes through Kilcunda en route to Melbourne.
The line between Woolamai and Wonthaggi was completed in
just 10 weeks, mostly by men with picks and shovels.
All photos Wonthaggi & District Historical Society.

By Carolyn Landon

SEVERAL weeks ago, Larry and I were on our way to Melbourne and found ourselves, even before we got out of Wonthaggi, behind a long line of slow-moving cars. Road works! We decided to turn off the highway and take the Loch Road, which eventually, if you know the way, turns off towards the Gurdies and soon enough puts us back on the road past Grantville, leaving us relaxed and clear-headed as we drive on to the city.

As the passenger in the car, I was able to survey the gorgeous meandering road, the valleys and steep slopes of the green hills and of clumps of tea tree and tall gums, all the time keeping an eye out for the occasional wombat or wallaby. We turned left off the Loch Road onto the Grantville-Glen Alvie road and then right towards the store at Kernot which marked the left turn onto Stewart Road that took us across the Bass Valley towards the Gurdies.

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For Rex and Freddy

8/7/2024

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A future prime minister, a dean of medicine with a dark secret and a brutal superintendent all play a role in "The Killings at Newhaven" but, for all the intrigue, author Joe Fairhurst never forgot that at its heart are two frightened young boys who died horrible deaths.

Bass Coast Post: How did you first hear about the killings at the Newhaven Boys Home?

Joe Fairhurst: Whilst directing a play at St Paul’s in the 1990s, I felt what was like a lightning bolt through my body, as if a ghost passed through me. A local said, ‘Oh, that must be Timmy’. That was the name given to the ghost of St Paul's by the locals.

Looking into the history of St Paul’s, I found a connection to the Seaside Garden Home for Boys. That connection was the superintendent William Baye and the untimely death of Rex Simpson at the home. I saw a story worth pursuing. After discovering a manslaughter charge was dropped, I had to know why the injustice occurred.

While I was researching, a relative of Freddy Smith contacted me and that opened up an enormous can of worms that expanded the research as now I had the death of two boys to bring to light, as well as the circumstances leading up to their death.

The Killings at Newhaven was published in April 2024 and is available on Amazon.

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Life of the party

14/6/2024

They worked hard in Wonthaggi’s early days and they partied just as hard.

By Carolyn Landon

BEFORE the “talkies” made their impact on social traditions at the several cinemas in Wonthaggi, young people got together at dances. Peruse the Powlett Express or the Sentinel – and even the Criterion – from 1909 until the mid-1930s and the columns are littered with advertising for dances at halls scattered round the district. Among the halls, there seemed to be a roster so there was at least one dance being held somewhere every week and, more importantly, so that the different bands – or orchestras, if you were lucky – were available to play.

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Chicory and the Island

14/5/2024

Robert Cleeland and Barry Toovey working at a Phillip Island chicory kiln, 1961. Photo: Laurie Dixon

By Pamela Rothfield

THE root vegetable chicory is synonymous with Phillip Island, with the first crops being grown on the island as far back as 1869. It is said that the famous botanist Dr Ferdinand von Mueller, who established Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Garden, advised a number of the early settlers on Phillip Island to avoid planting crops such as wheat and barley and instead grow crops of either chicory or mustard – which would be either too bitter or too hot for the destructive pests such as caterpillars.

Many took his advice and chicory, which was used as a substitute for coffee or as an addition to coffee essence, became the staple crop of the island for about 100 years.

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These precious things

16/4/2024

Arthur Constable's tenor horn ... it’s not just the objects in the Wonthaggi Museum that intrigue
but the stories that come with them

By Mark Robertson

THE Wonthaggi & District Historical Society is fortunate to be gifted a wide variety of objects to add to its extensive and diverse collection held in the Railway Station Museum. All the donations are interesting, especially if there is a story or provenance available to go with them.

Things that come to us have usually been once beloved or valued or are reminders of painful but important memories that have perhaps been forgotten Often, when they find their way to the museum, they are in less than pristine condition. They have possibly been left in cupboards and drawers or away in attics or corners of sheds waiting to be re-discovered after decades of neglect have masked their value.

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The wreck of the Speke

11/3/2024

By Pam Rothfield

IT was 22 February 1906, a wild Thursday afternoon and the 3,000-ton steel sailing ship, The Speke, was bound for Geelong to load a cargo of wheat after having completed her voyage from Peru to Sydney Heads.

The Speke was the second largest triple masted full-rigged vessel afloat, only being beaten by her sister ship The Ditton by an inch or two.

She had passed the Wilson Promontory and now faced the full force of the gale, battling the mountainous seas of Bass Strait and in the words of the first mate Mr Cooke, they were “as high as the topgallant mast”.

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Time at the Tech

16/2/2024

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Wonthaggi Technical School, 1963

By Bruce Phillips

I ONLY lived in Wonthaggi for a total of 18 years but they were years that had a profound effect on me. My parents – Jack and Agnes Phillips – had a grocery at 72 McBride Avenue where South Gippsland Photographic now is. My first recollection of the “Tech” was standing outside our shop and looking up at an imposing brick monolith. Miss (Win) Baker’s music room was located in that building – right on the corner of Watt Street and McBride. In the warmer weather the songs would drift out of that room and down McBride Avenue.

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The master muralist

9/12/2023

Dennis Leversha’s experience as a stage scenery painter stood him in good stead when he began painting the extraordinary murals that tell Wonthaggi’s history.

By Carolyn Landon

IN 2006 after renovation of the Wonthaggi Railway Station was painstakingly completed over several years, the Wonthaggi Historical Society was finally able to return to permanently inhabit where it had been located since the 1980s. It was then that Irene Williams enlisted Dennis Leversha along with his wife, Bev, to help her (and many other dedicated WHS members) organise the displays for the new museum.

When I first joined the Historical Society in that same year – 2006 – and began writing the PLOD Essays once a month, I witnessed the energy put in by the Levershas in arranging displays and also in figuring out ways to take the displays on tours.

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The toast of Phillip Island

16/11/2023

By Pam Rothfield

THE beautiful Isle of Wight hotel was a most imposing sight to greet the arriving passengers at the front door of Cowes from as early as 1870. It was known as being the premier accommodation house on the Island for many years.

This essay was first published on the Phillip Island and District Historical Society website.

Starting life as a two-bedroom wattle and daub cottage, the stately hotel was built around the original structure, developing into what was described at the time as one of the most comfortable hotels in Victoria. From its confines, the sounds of revelry often punctured the evening quiet.

Described in the press in 1889, as a “picturesque Swiss-looking house with its peaked gables and galleries and verandas”, the original Isle of Wight hotel was the toast of Phillip Island.

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From Caridà to Wonthaggi

10/10/2023

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SAM (Sebastian) Gatto is well known for his works about the rich history of Wonthaggi, including books about the hospital and local contribution in the two world wars.

His latest book is a lot more personal. A Sort of History of Me, My Family… And a Cow Named Gina tells the story of the Gatto family’s migration in 1951 from the village of Caridà, in the south of Italy, to the coal town of Wonthaggi. Much of the story is seen through the eyes of eight-year-old Sam, who, as the eldest child, is invested with great responsibilities to help his parents and siblings along the journey.

A Sort of History was shortlisted for the 2022 Victorian Community History Awards.

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The homing instinct

22/9/2023