​By Richard Kemp
 
I’ve lived at The Gurdies since 1957. I’ve seen my share of bush fires and I’ve fought in many. I fought my first fire in The Gurdies when I was 13. I’ve seen the destruction of the bush and the wildlife. In my 18 years at the GMH Proving Ground I spent eight years as the Fire Chief over 2200 acres of basically dense bush. It was a bit of a daunting job.
 
There’s always that fire risk if you live in the bush.  I’ve always been aware that this day would happen one day. I’ve been in this house since 1972. I designed this place, I built it, I landscaped it.  I said I’d never leave it. I thought I was prepared. The lawn in front of the house was cut short and was green. We’ve got a lot of English trees around the house that don’t burn real well. I had rigged up a powerful firefighting pump with a 50-metre hose and I was confident to stay and protect the house.

By Maddy Harford
 
IN EARLY September, it was touch and go finding accommodation before the imminent arrival of our newest refugee family, Sabri and Jihan Darwesh and their five children. 

We (the Bass Coast Refugee Sponsorship Group), thanks again to the seemingly never-ending generosity of the Bass Coast community, had enough household goods to furnish a house.  All that was missing was ... a house!
 
At the 11th hour, a house in Wonthaggi was secured (relieved and grateful sigh).  Next came the task of collecting all the necessary household goods, stored in garages and back sheds around the shire, and transporting them to the new house.  ​

By Mary Whelan
  
IT IS with pleasure I write a few words about Jan Child from my time when Jan was CEO of Bass Coast Health (BCH) and I was a member of the Board, and Chair of the Quality and Clinical Governance Committee for five of the nine years. I joined the board in 2015 and retired in June this year. I do not speak for the board; they are my personal comments only. 
 
A little background is important. 
 
In 2015 when I and two others (Tim Large and Don Paproth) joined the board, many small, regional and rural health services were struggling financially. They also faced the increasing challenge of providing care for patients with more complex health conditions with few specialists available locally. Wonthaggi hospital was also experiencing these difficulties. ​

​Bass Coast Post: When you decided to stand for the Bass Coast Council in 2016, what did you hope to achieve? Have you achieved it?
 
Michael Whelan: As you know I wrote an article about giving back and contributing to the community when you have the benefit of senior experience. It wasn’t about me but it applied equally to me.

​I was also reacting to the aggressive behaviour of the people behind the Stand Alone campaign on Phillip Island. I wanted to call out and test the claims they were making. My aims in Council grew with the job and I am pleased that I have achieved what I set out to achieve. I’m particularly proud of Berninneit and the climate action leadership Bass Coast has provided.

By Leslie Adams

TAKE a moment to think about the things that sustain your income, your lifestyle, your well being.

Now think about most – maybe all - of that disappearing. What would that be like?  Where are you now?  Where would you turn to? Family?  Friends?  Bass Coast Health?  The Salvos? Vinnies?

My answer?  I’m not sure. If I didn’t work at Mitchell House, I probably wouldn't know that there is a food program that would allow me to take away a bag of basic food items and maybe a frozen meal or two.  That there is a community lunch every Wednesday.  I wouldn’t know that they can provide toiletries and feminine hygiene products as well as baby food and sometimes even pet food.

Bass Coasters were in the box seat for one of Nature’s exhilarating light shows and thousands of locals braved the cold to catch  the aurora australis from vantage points along the coast.

It was reportedly the best viewing for many years, caused by a geomagnetic “space storm” on the sun. 
 
Thanks to Alia Sconberg, Kim Richardson, Kylie Steer, Kim Atkinson and Nici Cahill for sharing their beautiful photos. 

By Dan Drummond
 
Darkness found in every tunnel 
Yet lamp light finds its way there
Splint coal shovel and pick
Skip pony haulage
Lizzy waits on orders
Found wanting
Mullock heaps played on by
Truants wagging school
McBride Billson Murray
Miners' cottages kept neat
Some in ruin
Shop girl teacher plumber
Postie peddles hard against the wind
Farmer shops before evening milking
Concrete curb  and channel
Town drain lamp posts bollards 
In the distance cypress trees of old
Hang their sad branches down
No more now going
Under ground.
 
With apologies to Dylan Thomas

By Helen Zervopoulos
 
THE recent community recovery meetings were an opportunity for council, emergency services and AusNet to understand how the devastating storm on February 13 affected the community in order to improve strategies to deal with natural disasters in the future.

The meeting at the Grantville hall was extremely well attended by both residents and emergency service representatives, including the SES, CFA, Police, Ambulance and allied emergency service personnel, as well as AusNet.

Western Port councillor Geoff Ellis introduced the agenda and praised the community and emergency response teams on the way everyone had worked together to find ways of community support and give help to those in need.

IT IS hardly thinkable that your house could catch fire while you are out, at exactly the same time as power is returned after a three-day outage. Add further devastation to find that a clerical error has left you without the financial protection of home and contents insurance. 
​
Just writing it now makes me feel a bit sick. But it happened. And as I've found, it happens not infrequently to people in our society. (NB. If you are reading this and not sure if you have home and contents insurance in place, now might be a good time to check.)

The words of my next door neighbour, Dave, still ring in my ears. He called me as I drove home from Kernot, where I work as a personal care attendant. I was about 15 minutes from home. The power had just come back on and I was daydreaming about life after our three-day power outage. I thought about the tiny speck of ice that remained in the chest freezer in the garage that was keeping my milk and dog food cool. The timing was perfect for me, as in three days was about the limit of comfort in my house without power. No lights, hot water, refrigeration, stove ... inconvenient.