Dr Laura Brearley
ACCORDING to the Climate Emergency website, 800 local councils around the globe have declared climate emergencies, 43 of them in Australia. Last week, Bass Coast Shire Council became one of them.
Bass Coast Post |
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If we’re not to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenge, we must come together as a community, to listen to the environment and to one another. Dr Laura Brearley ACCORDING to the Climate Emergency website, 800 local councils around the globe have declared climate emergencies, 43 of them in Australia. Last week, Bass Coast Shire Council became one of them.
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By Ed Thexton A FEW weeks ago, at the Inverloch library I picked up Black Saturday – Not the End of the Story by Peg Fraser, a cultural history of a small place, Strathewen, with an extraordinary story. In this Museum Victoria publication about the afternoon of Saturday February 9, 2009, I could hear the voices of Barry, Barbara and Bronwyn as they spoke of a day, or more precisely a few hours of a day, that changed them. Like the expanding ripples from a pebble thrown into water, it also changed me. By Joan Woods OUR mayor Brett Tessari has called for community input into plans for Wonthaggi’s activity centre, including the water-logged Apex Park. I wonder if all that is required is a few more drains? Apparently this is all about preparing for the influx of new people to our town and to bring more people into the town centre. However, if Apex Park is “tidied up” too much with concrete and tar (the preferred improvements for townships), the Australian character of Wonthaggi will disappear. Do we want to be a proxy suburb of a big city? By Peter McKenzie SINCE 2016, Reed Crescent on the south side of Wonthaggi has been under threat of a totally inappropriate development of 93 new house blocks. These would be squeezed into the paddock between the cemetery and the Rifle Range wetlands, from the back of Reed Crescent properties up to and around the transfer station. Despite very limited public information, locals found out about the project and 28 objected to it. Objections were based on a multitude of problems. The proposal was for a single access road (Dowson Drive) to the estate, leading all traffic onto Reed Crescent, a narrow road with dangerously deep drains on either side. By Roderick McIvor MANY people say Hadden House in Bass is their favourite op shop. It has very reasonable prices. Most clothes are $2 an item or all that you can stuff in a bag for $5. Sited as it is in the old teacher’s residence, it offers a lot of nooks and crannies to show off the vast range of items that an op shop has on offer. With its shed for furniture and larger items, many people find visiting can become habit-forming. That’s wonderful for the Bass Valley Community Centre, which depends on the shop’s earnings to fund its services, particularly those supporting older and more isolated people in our community. By Bernie McComb THIS is about coastal erosion. It’s to challenge the usual solutions involving “world’s best practice” ideas, from the biggest consultancies, usually involving a huge budget and huge concrete and/or rock walls. Recently, it’s been reported that $29 million is needed to protect properties at east Cowes from storm surge inundation. It’s said that sea level rise is the cause of the problem, either this or the level of the beach is falling. In despair and contemplating a move to NZ on election night, climate activist Maddy Harford has calmed down and plans to continue working for action in her local community.
For Conservative Pamela Jacka, the joy of election night has been followed by a quiet satisfaction in the new Coalition ministry, including 11 women – without the need for quotas.
By Felicia Di Stefano MANY of us have run away from something. I remember as a child running from a German shepherd in a market garden and the relief when I climbed back to safety through the hole in the tall cyclone fence. I also remember running from a boy in our Wroclaw street after I had kicked his leg hard when he had called me a dirty Jew. Then in 1959 my whole family ran away from Poland to land safely and gratefully in Australia. In recent years Wonthaggi has welcomed South Sudanese and Karen refugees. The Sudanese ran from their homelands, family and friends, leaving behind all their possessions, when their government dropped bombs and destroyed all that human endeavour had created on their lands. By Margaret Lee PSYCHOTHERAPIST Ron Lee was writing, teaching, supervising and treating patients until six months before he died at home in The Gurdies in April, aged 89. At the time he died, he was working on a book encapsulating his 50 years of treating patients in Australia and the US. The overarching theme of his practice was to understand pathological narcissism and how to treat it. Ron was born in Melbourne on February 9 1930. He came to psychotherapy via a circuitous route. In his teens he worked as an instrument technician for TAA at Essendon Airport before going back to school at the age of 20 to complete his schooling and train for the Methodist ministry. By Ed Thexton
I READ a lot about vision and the fact that no party has a vision for the country. Don’t we really want to know that the things beyond the control or influence of the individual are being managed for our betterment? That amongst other things, past wrongs are righted; corporate regulation is effective and the government of the day looks beyond benefitting their partisan support groups and uses their position and our nation’s resources to enrich all our lives by addressing the needs of the marginalised. If, however you are fixated on a vision and you’re satisfied with a vision as a slogan, then Mr Morrison, the advertising man, is the one for you. By Bert Weitering THE Corinella Community Market is humble and unassuming, like its volunteer organisers. It cannot and will not compete with the fancy and trendy setups of other local farmers’ markets, but it is about community and spirit. The market’s origins emerge from that spirit of community. It supports our local producers: Sweetbee honey, produce from Macca’s farm, Coronet Bay free range eggs and service with a smile. By Tess Moore IT’S 3am, a full moon and wildlife party time in Ventnor. There is no breeze tonight and no clouds. It's very bright and the lack of wind accentuates the sound of animals going about their nocturnal activities. Possum, who sleeps under the solar panels, has come to life as he runs along the roof, launches himself onto the car port and into the netted orange tree in an attempt to get at the ripe oranges. Unbeknownst to him we picked them all earlier in the day. By John Eddy LAST month 15 trees were removed to make way for the new transit hub in the centre of Cowes. They included a magnificent southern blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) that was probably in the order of 150 years old, perhaps older. Most likely a remnant of the pre-settlement Island flora, it was 1.3 metres in diameter at breast height, a thing of natural beauty, and a habitat for many creatures, including a pair of kookaburras that nested in a hollow. It was significant for cultural reasons too. The site on which it, and many of the other lost trees, grew, used to be the school yard of Cowes Primary School, and the old blue gum was fondly remembered by many locals. In recent years, the prominent tree was admired by many as they went about their daily business in Cowes. Our council needs to work with VicRoads to sort out San Remo’s traffic tangles, argues Chris Day, rather than leaving it to the community. By Chris Day IT’S GOOD to see comments on road issues on Phillip Island and San Remo (Beware: four lane highway ahead). Mary Whelan and her committee have worked for a long time on behalf of the Phillip Island community to help sort out the bottlenecks. By Phil Wright
ON MONDAY the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal will begin hearing arguments in favour of a 208-site caravan park backing on to the Forrest Caves beach reserve on Phillip Island. The appellants are appealing against a decision by Bass Coast councillors in September 2017 to reject their proposal. (See Caravan park knocked back.) By Moragh Mackay
On March 15, strike action was taken by over 30,000 students in Melbourne calling for political action on climate change. They were joined by more than 150,000 people Australia-wide and over one million worldwide. The students took a day out from school to make their collective voice heard, saying not enough is being done to keep global temperature increases below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the point at which science tells us runaway climate change is the most likely outcome. |