Point of view from Bass Coast

Try again on trail: planning expert

5/5/2021

Is a track on the inland side of Bunurong Coast Road feasible?
Image: Google Earth

By Nicholas Low

AT LAST month’s public consultation in Inverloch for the Yallock-Bulluk walking and cycling trail, it appeared that Parks Victoria had already decided that a section of the trail between Cape Paterson and Inverloch had been ruled out.

This annoyed many residents of Cape Paterson and Inverloch who believed they were being consulted about options for this section of the trail.

I advocate an off-road section of bike-walking path following the line of the road but on the inland side, mostly using small slices of land now in private ownership.

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Our day of days

4/5/2021

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Tim O’Brien’s relative, Sgt Willam O'Brien, closest to camera, finds something to grin about, despite
the grim smoke of battle in the background. This photo was taken on August 8, 1918, the day before William was killed in the battle for Vauvillers, one of the last battles of WWI.

By Tim O’Brien

THE celebration of Anzac Day has changed. When I was growing up, while the giving of a minute’s silence and a brief period of reflection on bravery and loss was part of the school year – and was a welcome day off – many questioned what “this day of days” was all about.

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United we stand

20/4/2021

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Councillors and special guests at the opening of the new
Waterline Library in Grantville.

By Joy Button

The formal opening of the new Waterline library in Grantville early this month was a very exclusive event, attended only by Bass Coast councillors and library service bureaucrats, with no community participation or even prior awareness of the event.

Strangely enough, it wasn’t even held in the library but outside the Grantville Transaction Centre.

Cynics might say this was because the library was too small to accommodate even the dignitaries who attended that day, let alone members of the community.

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Caution – slow ahead

8/4/2021

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Michael Wright: We need more than a speed sign swap
to untangle Phillip Island’s traffic.

By Michael Wright

BEING a local business operator with 50 commercial passenger vehicles moving safely and efficiently around the area, roads matter to me. But I recognise the importance of our local environment and its link to our lifestyle and our ability to attract visitors. I am generally supportive of a speed limit review for Phillip Island and appreciate Bass Coast Shire Council’s influence in getting Regional Roads Victoria to consider such a project.

The review was born out of the Phillip Island Integrated Transport Study (PIITS) recommendation and long-term action RN9 to “improve main carriageway layouts along the arterial road network to generally be consistent with and achieve 80m/h speed limits throughout Phillip Island”.

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It’s taken me years

8/4/2021

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Cartoon: Natasha Williams-Novak

By Christine Grayden

I WAS extremely disturbed to read about the gay man at Wimbledon Heights who was verbally attacked and threatened by his neighbour simply for wanting to paint his house in rainbow colours.

In this day and age there would not be too many people who do not know of a member of the LGBQTI community and understand or at least are aware of the huge barriers they face.

My lyric reflects on the amount of wasted time and energy LGBQTI people have to spend in order to become themselves and be accepted for themselves.

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Mining onslaught affects us all

26/3/2021

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Sand mining occurs out of sight of the community, often just off the highway behind a thin strip of vegetation. Holcim sand mine adjacent to Adams Creek Nature Conservation Reserve, near Lang Lang, March 2021. Photo: Woodrow Wilson.

By Tim O’Brien

GRANTVILLE residents will be appalled at the scale of the open cut sand mine that is at risk of being approved right on their doorsteps.

Dandy Premix’s application to expand its Grantville mine drew 73 objections from local residents and others before it was called in by the Planning Minister, Richard Wynne. The Planning Panel hearing of the application, which will provide advice to the Minister, began last Monday and will continue into next week.

The maps we’ve seen as part of this panel process show the immensity of this pit, more than 1.2 kilometres across. Its potential impact on the amenity of this quiet coastal community is truly horrifying.

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When Whitney replaced Julie

25/3/2021

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Necessity forced Pamela Jacka to give up her car; she hasn't looked back – except to make a right hand turn.

By Pamela Jacka

IN 1998, to celebrate attaining my half century, I bought myself a brand new Honda CRV. The engine plate said she came off the assembly line in July, so she was henceforth known as "Julie".

On Monday, February 24, 2020, I received a letter from Honda saying that my 22-year-old car was in need of airbag replacement. However, because of her age, the parts were no longer available for that model airbag, so she was being recalled, never to return. I was offered market value, which coincided roughly with the insurance value, of $2700. I would not have been able to re-register the car in its current state and to have the airbag replaced would not have been economical. Julie left, with a full tank of petrol (rats!) the following Tuesday.

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From Burma to Wonthaggi

25/3/2021

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Mue Hsay, front centre, with husband Ah Klay, left, and her friend Mu Ha, right; back: her son April Htoo and the family’s sponsor, Sylvia Davey, at the Wonthaggi Library where Mue Hsay gave a talk for Harmony Week.

By Mue Hsay

I AM a Karen woman. I was born in Burma (Myanmar). My mum passed away when I was eight years old. After that, I worked for people. I was a babysitter, I grew rice and I looked after cows. I did whatever I could do to get things like clothes. I never went to school.

I married my husband, Ah Klay, in 1993. Our baby died after falling ill. We found it very hard to get medicine.

It was not safe in Burma. Our family lived in a small village, we had to keep leaving where we were living. The army would raid village after village. When the army came to a village, they would take food. Sometimes kill the animals. Sometimes, they took people with them to carry their things as they went on their way. We would run, and the army would come again. They burn down our hut. We had to keep moving.

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The winds of change

25/3/2021

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Photo: Catherine Watson

By Robyn Arianrhod

LIKE many Bass Coast residents I floated out of Gill Heal’s Looking for Wonthaggi feeling uplifted and a little teary, still humming “There’s a part of my heart in Wonthaggi”. What a history our town has! Gill and her cast and crew did it proud. And what natural treasures we have in Bass Coast – treasures brought lovingly to stage and screen in another recent showcase of local talent, the Coastal Connections concert.

Yet underneath the euphoria, the delight of publicly sharing in this feast of theatre and film about our precious part of the world, I felt uneasy. Another song was running amok in my mind: Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi, with its haunting warning: “Don’t it always seem to go / That you don’t know what you’ve got / Till it’s gone / They paved paradise / And put up a parking lot.” I couldn’t help wondering: do enough of us realise what we’ve got here?

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The day my mother said ‘Enough!’

11/3/2021

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Aunty Doseena Fergie recalls the day her mother
found the courage to call out racism. The theme of
the 2021 International Women’s Day was
“Choose to challenge”.

By Aunty Dr Doseena Fergie OAM

LET me share my story.

In the 1960s, the environment in which I was living was politically charged. Communism was on the rise, hence the Vietnam War; African American non-violent activist Martin Luther King Jnr was assassinated. In Australia, the 1967 Referendum to allow Aboriginals to be counted in the Census and for the Federal Government to make laws for our Mob was successful. But still white men dominated the places of power in both decision-making and finances.

The majority of Australian women did not enjoy equal opportunities in education or employment. The gap in career opportunities between them and their male counterparts was huge. But the gap between white and black women was even greater.

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‘Councillors must hold their nerve’

13/2/2021

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The Dandy Premix site looking west-east from the highway. The company proposes to expand and deepen its current pit and open a new pit in the wooded area at the top of the map.
Photo: Google Earth

By Neil Rankine

BASS Coast Shire Council will be letting down its community if councillors accept a defeatist report on an application by Dandy Premix to massively expand its Grantville sand quarry.

The report by council officers does not reflect recent policies or resolutions adopted by the council or community concerns around sand mining.

Councillors will consider the report at next Wednesday’s council meeting before “adopting a position” which will become a submission on council’s behalf at a planning panel hearing into Dandy Premix’s application.

The application drew 73 objections from Grantville residents concerned about dust, noise and traffic and from others concerned about the loss of a vital biolink.

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Shame on YOU!

10/2/2021

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Watch Harriet Shing deliver her speech. Video: The Age

Gay and transgender people know all about shame, says MP Harriet Shing, as she turns an accusing finger to MPs who abstained from voting on a bill outlawing the attempted conversion of gays.

By Harriet Shing

IN RISING to speak to this bill today, I do so on a deeply personal basis, because I want to talk today of the impact of being different and of being other and of starting out in a world where you think that there is nothing wrong with you before discovering, firstly, that you are different, that you are other; and secondly, for too many of us, there comes a point at which it occurs to us that our difference is wrong, that we live in a world that is generally yet to come to the point where we are accepted for exactly who we are.

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Our dearly departed

29/1/2021

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Cartoon: New Yorker

By Jill Nicholas

THIS week I attended the funeral of a 88-year-old woman I didn’t know particularly well but her late husband of 50-plus years mowed my lawns for yonks. Every summer he kept me over-supplied with tomatoes, two decades ago he helped me buy a car that I still drive daily. My presence at his widow’s funeral was a token of respect for him, not so much her, sad as it was to learn she was no longer with us.

Bett’s departure was described as a “good death”. If there is such a thing hers was it. She played Scrabble with an equally elderly friend on Saturday night, said she felt tired, went to bed never to wake again.

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Oz Day blues

28/1/2021

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The majority rules, or should do, argues John Cobbledick.
Not fair, responds Marg Lynn. Aboriginal people have been adapting since 1788
and it’s time for white Australians to meet them half way.

'We are one nation'

By John Cobbledick

IT IS a shame that some people take exception to 26th of January, Australia day. It is a day for Aboriginal, Anglo Saxon, Greek, Chinese, Italian, German and all other Australians of different ancestry to celebrate.

We are, after all, one people, one nation, and we all believe in equality, although there are those that wish to divide us by objecting to a word in our Anthem, a date on a calendar, even a flag.

Cartoon by Natasha Williams-Novak

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Megabits empower the people

28/1/2021

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All the knobs and dials ... Tony Hancock in
'The Radio Ham'

By Neil Daly

IN 1984, a date synonymous with a novel about totalitarianism and technological surveillance, I ventured into the world of contemporary technology. The time had come to move on from aerogrammes and send a fax instead.

Back then I also had a friend who was a licensed ham radio operator. He introduced me to his “CQ friends” across the world. We freely discussed a range of topics and swapped ideas about the interests we shared.

It was not an easy or a cheap way of communicating, for you needed lots of equipment (much of it dependent on valves and transistors) and a rather large aerial in the backyard for transmission and reception. But it was fun and if you’d like to step back in time, you can find out if it’s “still raining in Tokyo”.

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Reflections of a vintner

8/12/2020

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Dick Wettenhall with Daniel Andrews after The Gurdies’ 2017 chardonnay won the Premier’s trophy for best Victorian wine. Despite the gale-force winds, cold wet summers, kangaroos and currawongs, the winery somehow produced many award-winning wines.

By Dick Wettenhall

I HAVE just passed an echidna and lace monitor (tree goanna!) meandering along the St Helier roadside, after visiting The Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve in search of Flying Duck Orchids. At last I have the time for this now that I have sold The Gurdies Winery.

A decade of working in the vineyard and making wine in this spectacular location has provided much to reflect on. As one of Gippsland’s oldest, the vineyard was established by dairy farmer Frank Cutler in 1982. His pioneering efforts led the Western Port Council to engage consultants to formally investigate the potential for commercial viticulture in region in 1987. The availability of cleared land with favourable topography and low frost exposure was viewed as compelling and, in the ensuing three decades, Bass Coast has become the home of several of Gippsland’s most recognised wineries.

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A few home truths

8/12/2020

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Inverloch's Woodland Cottages, completed in 2007, is a great example of community housing where the community, council and State Government worked together to provide 19 units for older residents.

By Graeme Charles

THE recent announcement that Bass Coast Shire has been allocated $25 million toward providing more public and community housing has rightly been welcomed by Bass Coast Shire Council. And surely anyone living in Bass Coast, with even the smallest sense of social justice, would also welcome this announcement.

Such is the extent of the current social housing shortage in Australia that it has been suggested we would need to build 100 dwellings a day for 20 years to provide a home for people with the most urgent housing need.

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The green, green hills of home

11/11/2020

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Sharon Willcox was ahead of the COVID curve in embracing
slow, local travel.

By Sharon Willcox

I HAVE a confession to make ...

Over forty years ago, I left the small Gippsland town of Trafalgar, where I grew up, for university and the bright lights of Melbourne. In the intervening years, I’ve lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Boston and Washington DC, with regular international holidays and several years of interstate commuting within Australia. I saw myself as a city girl and, perhaps, even a global citizen.

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A reflection on depression (and COVID)

30/10/2020

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Author Tim O'Brien and Bob

By Tim O’Brien

MY DAD suffered with depression. It had its teeth into him for the greater part of his adult years (until lost in a settling fog of dementia).

We were aware of it as children, me, and my six brothers and sisters, but not by name. Born a sheep farmer, but eventually turning his back on the family farm, we knew he took tablets “for his nerves” – large blue ones – and we learned ‘invisibility’ during his long brooding silences.

He would sit, TV on, but his gaze above it, fixed on some distant point of regret and discontent outside.

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All aboard for Wonthaggi

15/10/2020

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The first passenger train arrives at Wonthaggi Station, 1912

By Peter Cliff

I WONDER if the people of Bass Coast ever look at the remnants of their rail line and imagine what a wonderful thing it would be if it were brought to life again. After all, the people own the alignment and it didn’t take long to make in the first place. Ten weeks only to construct the Nyora to Wonthaggi component, using horses and hand labour.

Victoria’s visionaries of the early 1900s knew that extending the rail service to all corners of the state would enable towns to prosper. From about 1950, however, the value of a rail service was forgotten and replaced by the new obsession: building roads and cars.

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If you go down to the woods today …

1/10/2020

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The creative kindness of strangers brightens a lockdown walk in the Wonthaggi Westlands.
Words and photos by Morgan Blackthorne.

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End of the line

15/9/2020

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David Sipress, New Yorker

By Sophie Cuttriss

The editor of the Bass Coast Post asked me if I had ever seen a residential aged care facility that I would like to live in.

Although I will continue to fight for good quality aged care, I don’t want it for myself. Like the majority of Australians surveyed for a Productivity Commission report (Caring for Older Australian, 2011) I want to remain at home for as long as possible.

I am seriously considering my options for when/if I struggle to live independently.

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Aged care: a checklist

4/9/2020

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DutchCare’s Victorian homes provide a model of aged care, writes Sophie Cuttriss, in her guide to what you should look for.

By Sophie Cuttriss

WHEN I was teaching aged care, I took my students to visit an aged care facility operated by Dutchcare. The facility's manager was very happy for us to visit because they were proud of their facility and their staff and the wellbeing of all their residents.

My students were fascinated to see the comfortable practical rooms that felt like home, not a luxury hotel or hospital, and person-centred care based on the Eden Alternative Principles which acknowledge and address the three plagues of residential aged care: loneliness, boredom and helplessness.

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My time has come

3/9/2020

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Retirement for Frank Flynn means having the time to turn down the side roads.

By Frank Flynn

MY FIRST teaching position was up the bush. I was 23 and I got a phone call from the Education Department which ran along these lines.

Them: We have a job for you
Me: Great! Where?
Them: Cohuna
Me: Where the hell is that!!!

Well, I went. I took all my worldly possessions – a suitcase, a ghetto blaster and a fern – threw them into my EJ Holden station wagon and took off.

I kid you not, it was like driving into the film ‘Wake in Fright’. The road north of Bendigo is dead straight, punctuated by a few towns identifiable by large wheat silos gradually appearing on the horizon.

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Back to the quiet life

3/9/2020

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Developers have scrapped plans for a 192-bed hotel development at Coronet Bay. Illustration: Bruce Henderson Architects

By Angela Christa

THE BIG bright news is that the developers of the enormous hotel complex on Norsemens Road, Coronet Bay, have withdrawn their planning application.

What a wonderful way to see out the last few days of winter in the gloomy pandemic lockdown and finally have something to brighten up the future as we move towards a safer warmer spring.

We have no details on why they have withdrawn but can only speculate that global circumstances plus the weight of local objection were enough to make them decide not to proceed.

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