Rob Parsons

The forgotten chapter

12/7/2026

Gippsland West MP Alan Brown, second from right, receives a community petition of over
1100 signatures for the creation of a Western Port National Park from Meryl Tobin, Bill Sims and Rita Pearce, 1996. The petition was unsuccessful. Photo: Meryl Tobin

By Rob Parsons

THE Western Port Woodlands are back on the front page, and rightly so. Bass Coast Shire Council has asked the Planning Minister for interim controls. The Save Western Port Woodlands group and its allies continue to press for lasting protection. New pressures on the forest, from expanding extraction and from infrastructure cutting through remnant vegetation for the energy transition, have made the question urgent again. Urgent, but not new.

There was a fight 30 years ago that most current commentary has forgotten, and it is worth recovering, because it tells us something useful about how forests get protected and how community pressure translates into planning law.

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Just add water

18/5/2026

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Candowie Reservoir, July 2023. Photos: Westernport Water

By Rob Parsons

FEW people in Bass Coast think about where their water comes from – until there’s a problem.

Turn on the tap in Corinella, Grantville, San Remo and across to Phillip Island, and you expect the water to flow. It’s only in the dry years, when restrictions loom and dam levels make the news, that attention shifts inland to a place few visit but everyone depends on: Candowie Reservoir.

Set back near Almurta, Candowie has no reason to draw a crowd but underpins daily life across a wide sweep of the coast, supplying communities from Pioneer Bay through to Phillip Island.

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Changing of the guard at Glen Forbes

13/4/2026

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In 2006, a young George Blum helped plant a sapling at the Glen Forbes Recreation Reserve.
Twenty years on, George can stand beneath the tree.

By Rob Parsons

THERE are moments in small communities that pass quietly but matter deeply. The Glen Forbes Annual Picnic on Sunday 15 March was one of those moments – not just a gathering of families but a changing of the guard. To understand why that matters, you have to understand the place itself.

The Glen Forbes Recreation Reserve has a history stretching back more than a century. Around 1910, the Victorian Government acquired the land for railway purposes associated with the Nyora to Wonthaggi line. Much of that land, however, remained unused.

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From protest to participation

4/3/2026

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From approval to extraction to rehabilitation

By Rob Parsons

FOR many Bass Coast residents, the words “sand mine” once triggered images of protest placards, packed public meetings and bitter debate.

In the 1990s and again in the 2020s, quarry expansion in and around Grantville has been one of the most contentious local issues on the coast. Concerns about dust, truck movements, groundwater, noise and long-term environmental impact have galvanised sections of the community. The debate has often been emotional and divisive.

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Kernot Bridge: the vital link

12/12/2025

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Kernot Bridge, 1934. The current closure is the latest chapter in a century of collapses, repairs and community perseverance.

By Rob Parsons

WHEN Bass Coast Shire Council announced in early December that funding had finally been secured to rebuild the Stewart Road Bridge at Kernot, many people breathed a sigh of relief.

For those of us who use it regularly, the closure has been frustrating, inconvenient and at times isolating. But as I spent the last year digging through old reports, newspaper clippings and family stories about the bridge, I realised that the frustrations of 2024–25 are only the latest chapter in a very long history of collapses, repairs and perseverance.

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A view from the other side

16/10/2025

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A brief overseas holiday proves the perfect tonic for a group of farmers.

By Rob Parsons

AS dawn broke over the Bass Valley on Thursday, October 9, two small buses rolled out of Kernot, their passengers bundled in coats and beanies against the early chill. Twenty-two members of the Kernot Farmers Lunch Group were bound for Corinella to meet the barge to French Island – a rare day away from their own farms to explore how others live and work across the bay.

The group was ferried across Western Port in two trips, the water calm and mist lifting from the mangroves. On arrival they were welcomed by French Island locals and began a tour that was part sightseeing, part education, and entirely enjoyable.

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​The forgotten chapter

​Just add water

Changing of the guard at Glen Forbes

From protest to participation

Kernot Bridge: the vital link

​A view from the other side

The forgotten chapter

Just add water

A view from the other side