Meryl Brown Tobin

Big cat sighting adds to mystery

10/2/2022

Black leopard shot with infrared camera. Photo: Rimba Research Malaysia. A witness says the
body shape is similar to a big cat she saw in the Grantville area last month.

By Meryl Brown Tobin

THE Grantville area has long been a hot spot for big cat sightings. In the latest incident, a woman was mowing a track on a small hobby farm at about 11.15am on January 26 when she saw a strange big cat slink across the track about 20 metres in front of her.

Despite the motor of the mower still running, the big cat did not even look in her direction. Because of this, she felt no fear.

"I stopped immediately,” said the witness, who did not want to be named, “and sat in awe watching it. It was very beautiful and I wanted to take in every single part of it."

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Thank you, Dr Mangrove

11/11/2020

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After he moved to Coronet Bay, Dr Tim Ealey threw himself into the
task of regenerating mangroves and seagrass.

By Meryl Brown Tobin

TIM Ealey loved Coronet Bay, where he lived for some years after retirement.

Though an internationally acclaimed scientist, Tim was a simple man who spoke in simple terms and acted in simple ways to demonstrate his convictions. The environment was his passion and, if he didn’t know how best to protect it, he taught himself how.

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Saving the magic forest

30/6/2020

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By Meryl Brown Tobin

LAST spring hundreds of magnificent creamy-white flower spikes shot up out of grass skirts at the Grantville Nature Conservation Reserve (GNCR) and the adjoining sand and gravel reserve.

Nature-lovers were rapt to see this botanical phenomenon, which followed the February 2019 bushfires. On seeing a photo of Grantville’s grass tree forest, Dr Mary Cole, an honorary senior fellow at the University of Melbourne, wrote: “This is a wonderful picture because it shows healthy grass trees … There are few areas with such healthy grass trees around.”

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It's time for our own national park

2/4/2020

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Walkers enjoying the tree fern grove in The Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve. Photo: Meryl Brown Tobin

By Meryl Brown Tobin

THE imminent closure of the GMH Proving Ground at Lang Lang could be the catalyst for major conservation and eco-tourism initiatives with economic spin-offs for our shire.

The proving ground site could become the entrance to Bass Coast Shire as well the entrance to a new national park, possibly called the Western Port National Park or the Bass Coast National Park, depending on its breadth and scope.

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The magic forest

10/12/2019

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In February Grantville’s grass trees were ablaze. Today they’re
putting on a spectacular show. Photos: Hartley Tobin

By Meryl Brown Tobin

Along a fence between the Grantville Nature Conservation Reserve and the adjoining sand mine, scores of tall white vertical posts have appeared. For a moment visitors might be unsure what they are looking at. Surely it can’t be some enormous building going up with the white posts being uprights to support the roof?

A closer look shows the white uprights are growing out of grass tree bases, some with new green “skirts”.

Like children stepping into an alien land at the top of Enid Blyton’s Magic Faraway Tree, visitors stare at the spectacle of a forest of grass tree spear-like spikes up to 4.5 metres tall, some as thick as an arm and covered in tiny white to yellow blooms.

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A work in progress

17/10/2017

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Photo: Hartley Tobin

We should be careful what we wish for Grantville’s future, writes Meryl Brown Tobin, if we don't want to lose what we have.

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Time and tide

24/6/2017

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Mike Cleeland points out the dramatic rock formation of the infilled stream valley at Corinella. Photo: Meryl Brown Tobin

Volcanoes, gold, ‘pudding’ stones and more … last weekend’s information day on the Corinella foreshore was full of surprises.

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Grantville Fire

6/2/2016

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Meryl Brown Tobin pays tribute to CFA volunteers who selflessly protect lives and property, as they did at The Gurdies and Grantville on January 13 and 14, 2016

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Questions remain over Kernot dairy plan

1/2/2015

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By Meryl Tobin

Last Thursday week, around 100 Kernot residents and others crowded into the Kernot Hall to find out more about the application of the Yoyou Dairy, a subsidiary of the Chinese Ningbo Dairy Group, to set up a free-stall feeding barn, bottling plant, cool store and parking areas at the Glenview Farm, 1010 Loch-Kernot Road, Kernot.

Also present were Bass Coast Mayor Kimberley Brown, councillors Clare Le Serve, Bradley Drew, Neil Rankine and Phil Wright, and Jodie Kennedy, the acting general manager of Bass Coast Shire.

On tables lay plans of the big changes proposed. These raised more questions, as did an information sheet explaining the project. Bass Coast Shire’s developmental services manager, Rebecca Mouy, ran the meeting and laid down ground rules for the evening: we would not discuss foreign ownership or nationality; we show respect.

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