Whether it’s for eternity or to celebrate a special event, rings have special meaning. MARCUS ROSE explains…

Every life is finite, unique and unrepeatable.

The joyous moments in life become treasured memories, often commemorated with the giving of precious gifts.

It is established custom that we mark our important milestones with the giving of eternity rings and celebration jewellery, indeed people have been doing this for centuries. It is natural for us to honour our anniversaries, our marriages, the birth of our children and achievements in life.

Eternity rings are considered the ultimate celebratory gift. They stem from the Egyptian idea of an eternal ring, a continuous circle that can never be broken.

This concept continues to define the modern eternity ring and this is where its name is derived. The name symbolises love and commitment.

The eternity ring is designed and made for easy-wear, skilfully crafted to securely hold a matched set of diamonds of equivalent colour, clarity and cut. Made from precious metals and indestructible diamonds, they are the perfect metaphor for everlasting love and everything that endures.

Charles Rose has a fine range of eternity styles and also craft bespoke eternity rings. These made-to-order designs have two main advantages: they fit perfectly and are the correct height and shape to prevent damage from rubbing between rings and they are a perfect match, taking design cues from the ring they are to sit next to.

These rings are all originals, worthy of celebration and joy.

For over three generations Charles Rose artisans have crafted handmade pieces worthy of the title heirloom; to sparkle for eternity and be handed down for generations to come.

The first step in making the eternity ring is to draw the design. Then it is necessary to source the finest materials.

Finally, the item is crafted by hand.

Charles Rose also features a range of pret-a-porter diamond jewellery that is original and exquisite, down to the finest detail.

Superb customer service, a beautiful range to select from, or have made-to-order, and a lifetime guarantee.

https://charlesrose.com.au/

The wildest celebrities would be red-faced if caught getting up to the antics of the You Yangs’ Clancy. LUKE VOOGT ventures into the bush to discover the secret life of koalas and the efforts to ensure their survival.

You Yang resident Clancy is Australia’s most famous wild koala and, boy, does he know it, according to ‘publicist’ Janine Duffy.

“He’s one of the cockiest, most arrogant koalas I’ve ever met,” the koala expert tells GC.

The blonde koala is unperturbed by tourists and animal experts that patrol the trees alike, having a scratch, groom or climb no matter who’s watching.

“He’s a bit of a performer,” Janine says.

“I often compare him to Chris Hemsworth – a lot of the American ladies love that.”

Clancy has almost 45,000 Facebook followers, the most of any non-captive koala, and has been proudly showing off new son Bunyip and daughter Lulu online. “His son is a spitting image!” Janine says.

But Clancy is a bit of scoundrel, whose sexcapades rival that of the wildest celebrities, she reveals.

His latest two joeys resulted from mating with a mother koala and her daughter, before taking off on a hiatus, Janine says.

“They’re his second and third that we’re sure of. He takes no responsibility for them, pays no childcare.”

But Janine is sure Clancy will come back, as she has observed him for nine years.

“He’s known us since he was in the pouch of his mother,” she says.

“I think it he’ll be back – he’s done it before where’s he’s gone away for three months.”

Female koalas can travel several kilometres in summer, in search of the male with the deepest voice, Janine explains.

“They’re not lazy in summer,” she says.

“He was the sexiest koala of the year last summer – he was Mr Stud and the women came from everywhere.

“We know far too much about these animals,“ she adds, laughing.

But with long hot summers and drought on the horizon, Clancy and his fellow koalas are under threat.

“Koalas in the You Yangs and Brisbane Ranges need our help,” Janine says.

“It’s getting hotter and drier around Geelong and every summer it gets harder for koalas to survive.

“It really is a serious thing. Our modelling suggests that they will not survive climate change in the You Yangs.”

Koala numbers have declined by 46 per cent in the You Yangs between 2007 and 2017, with a small recovery from 2011 to 2013, Janine says.

“The trend is continuing on that bad track. Our area is predicted to get hotter and direr and it’s been doing so for 20 or 30 years already.”

Gradual land-clearing of red gums in the “best quality growing land” over the past century has forced koalas to migrate further into the You Yangs, Janine explains.

There the “average” land has kept koalas alive but “wasn’t really where they wanted to be”, Janine says.

Hotter, drier summers in future means less healthy vegetation and lower tree survival rates in these poorer growing areas, she says.

Koala populations in western NSW are suffering similar decline, Janine says.

“There’s no lack of scientific literature and we have some top scientists working on these animals.”

Trees under already “terrible” water stress cannot sustain the “thirsty” local koala population in future, Janine says.

Koalas can die in temperatures higher than 37 degrees celsius if they cannot find adequate shade, she adds.

“We lost at least two to heat this January.“

But Koala Clancy Foundation is helping to ensure the outrageous antics of their namesake critter can continue well into the future.

Together with farmers, Landcare and volunteers, the foundation has planted about 5000 red gums over eight years on the edge of farms or local rivers.

“We’ll get another 3000 in this year,” Janine says.

“We’ve been getting quicker and more professional. We’ve also got more farmer support – they’re getting to know us and they like what we do.

“Little River has wet soil and every tree we plant along the river is doing extremely well.

“We had 80 to 90 per cent success, even during last summer, which was awful (hot and dry).”

Recently the group held a planting session in Bannockburn and Janine welcomes anyone to plant trees in the You Yangs and Brisbane Ranges on 21 July and 18 August.

“What we need is many hands to plant, and local hands are the best,“ she says.

“It only takes five years for a river red gum tree to grow big enough to feed a koala.

“In the time it takes a kid to go through high school, we’ll have a healthy koala forest – if we plant it now.”

The foundation digs the holes and supplies the equipment, meaning at most two hours of tree planting.

The cost of the day, $30 for adults and $20 for children, includes nature walks with koala experts and goes towards the foundation’s work.

With koalas being so beloved by Australians and tourists alike, Janine is confident local people will pitch in to protect the species for future generations.

Koalas’ tendency to make eye contact and their similar proportions to a baby human are the secrets to the cute creature’s popularity, Janine explains.

“When someone actually meets a wild koala and the koala turns and looks them in the eye it’s one of the most stunning moments,” she says.

“I’ve been to Africa multiple times, I’ve been walking with the gorillas and chimps and things. It’s very rare to make eye contact with wild animals but koalas do it all the time.”

After 21 years as a koala researcher Janine has never lost her “enchantment” with the furry marsupials.

“It’s like being a family friend, you’re somebody they’ve known for their whole life,” she says.

“I feel very protective of them and very privileged to understand so much of their life.”

For more information on helping local koalas visit: koalaclancyfoundation.org.au/you-can-help/koala-conservation-day

From teaching at Christian College to saving victims of sex trafficking in Calcutta, Kristi Van Es has seen the highs and lows of humanity. She tells ELISSA FRIDAY about her remarkable work with Offspring, the charity she established to help some of the world’s most disadvantaged women and girls.

Kristi, please tell us about your family background.

I’ve got an older brother and younger sister who now live in Melbourne. I’ve always lived in Moolap and have been there for the past 25 years of my life.

I have a boyfriend, which is interesting when you spend most of your time in India.

Pete and I have been together for 18 months, initially meeting when he came over to talk with me about the organisation he works for. We soon realised our common ground.

He works one day a week for a non-profit organisation in the anti-trafficking field, which raises funds for partner organisations throughout Asia.

You were a local teacher a few years ago?

I started teaching in 2005 at Christian College, middle school campus. Then I went across to the Bellarine campus teaching for around six or seven years there.

I loved my job. It was great to get up in the mornings and go to work thinking, ‘I’m getting paid for doing this’.

Also, it wasn’t about how well they threw the ball during sports class. It was more about me helping them through challenging years.

Tell us about your first experience in India.

I first went on a group trip to the south of India when I was 19 and still to this day have a love-hate relationship with it.

I loved it because of the constant things going on all the time. I struggled in some ways with the cultural difference. Plus, I got pretty crook, and at one point I was lying outside with an intravenous drip that was just attached to a bit of wood they had made on a makeshift bed. I did get better, though, and whatever they dosed me up with helped.

I don’t try to figure what it is any more that makes me unwell, I just figure out how to get better.

What was it about India that lured you back?

It was an organisation called Teen Missions that worked with taking kids on experiences to places like Fiji.

All the places they went seemed nice but India was somewhat intriguing to me. I think because I like a challenge and that was going to be one.

You included India again in your future travels?

I took a year leave from work and we worked in the Aboriginal community right in the centre of Australia, in Armada, just underneath Uluru. I was the swimming and sports teacher for a term.

We then travelled to Africa and were working with a few different organisations there. After that, travelled through Europe for six months and then went to India for two months in 2010 for the second time when I was 27.

Tell us about your third trip to India and how it inspired you to make a fundamental decision.

I went back in 2011, taking with me a small group of people on a two-week exposure trip looking at rural and urban poverty. I said to them, ‘This is what I’m looking at doing here and why, and this is how much it will cost for the trip’, and so on.

I was trying to lead people on a similar experience to what I saw in terms of how we live in such a privileged culture and world. I thought, ‘Let’s have a look at what’s going on over on the other side of the world and look into doing something about that’.

During the trip we visited an organisation called Justice and Care, which goes into the venues and rescue girls from sex trafficking.

For me, that was my first real exposure to human trafficking.

So you decided to resign from your teaching job?

At the end of 2012 I resigned and got on a plane to India.

I spent 2013 as a research year, working with different organisations, figuring out what the need was, and if there were similar organisations there. I felt ready to come on board alongside others but I was also ready to fill a gap.

It came from meeting a girl who had been trafficked from China into Greece. I was in Greece at the time and when she was free she looked at me and said, ‘But I’m still like a baby’.

All of her life she she’d had no independence, so for her to be free and let into the world with no skills or knowledge inspired me to want to help break that cycle of them feeling still vulnerable to going back into what they were rescued from.

You were inspired to open a charity there?

Doors just kept opening, giving me the opportunity to come to India. I felt that I couldn’t not do something, and part of that is my Christian faith. I just wanted to love people and these were the people that I felt like I needed to love.

We have been a registered charity since 2014. I did my research year and spent two years setting up the organisation in India, in Calcutta, before we actually had our first sex traffic survivors.

There were heaps of challenges for me in a new country, culture, language, new everything. I was working on finding a place to live, finding our first staff member and office and so on.

How did you decide on the name Offspring for your charity organisation?

It came from a verse in the Bible, which I had read when I was in Greece travelling in 2010.

I was standing in the spot where Paul had preached to the people of Athens. I asked a guy about it, and was told what Paul had preached was in Act: 17, so I read it. It said: ‘In him we live and move and have our being. We are his offspring’.

I wasn’t planning on setting up an organisation then but I love that word, offspring. We’re someone’s child and that’s important, offspring for life.

What is the process for rescuing the girls?

These guys from the organisations are going into the brothels undercover, pretending to want these girls but obviously not doing anything. They talk to the girls and explain why they are undercover there.

Huge risks are involved for those undercover. They put their lives on the line for girls they don’t know, which really got me thinking about what are we here doing about it.

How big is the sex trafficking Industry?

It’s massive.

Modern day slavery is another word for human trafficking. It’s bigger now than it’s ever been. Part of that is sexual exploitation and forced labour.

There are a lot of different areas in it. With females, sex trafficking is the biggest.

There are a lot of areas where people are forced into slavery, with no choice, such as forced labour in garment factories. We decided to hone into one area.

How are women trafficked? What is the process?

People struggle to understand that concept, which I did when I first heard about human trafficking. I thought to myself, ‘How does this happen? How does someone exploit someone in that way?’.

The biggest factor is vulnerability, which comes from poverty, which comes from a lack of education, and the low status of women in society.

From what we’ve seen with the girls we have with us it’s the parents who either can’t afford to have a girl child and then sell their daughter into the industry, or unknowingly they send their daughter to a job in the city so she can send money back to the family and it all sounds great but it’s not.

In India you have to pay a dowry for a daughter when she gets married and is about to live with the husband’s family. They would not really see their daughter after that, and she wouldn’t be sending money home. Whereas when a boy marries his family gets a whole lot of money and then his family has another female in the household helping out with all the jobs.

I can’t judge people for the decisions they make when I haven’t had the experiences they’ve had.

Does trafficking include children?

One of the girls we have is now 21, and she was trafficked at the age of four.

She moved from one side of the country to the other. She doesn’t know her original family and was rescued at the age of around 16, so, yes, they are trafficked often at a younger age because there are more profits for a younger girl.

Men are also trafficked?

Men generally will be trafficked more for forced labour but there is also definitely trafficking for sexual exploitation of boys.

Where is this most rife?

They say there’s not one country that’s not affected by modern slavery.

In terms of sex trafficking, I’d say it’s in the Asian countries where it happens the most.

What are some of the long-term effects for the victims?

We see girls having really high and low mood swings, also being on medications for schizophrenia, for depression, and having flashbacks when they’re with us. We do see the effects and try to have an impact on them in a positive way.

Are there deaths?

Not for us personally with the girls we’ve had but we have heard stories from one of our girls about another girl within her community who was rescued and went back into the community and then not long after was murdered.

If the traffickers feel like the girls are going to testify or say anything these girls are still at risk, or there may be stigma from within the community, so there are lots of risks involved.

Is it a high-end industry?

Not in India.

I walked past the red light area with one of my staff members and a woman came up to him and spoke. I asked what she had said – she had offered herself to him for the equivalent of 50 cents. The effect of hearing this impacted him so much, learning how someone can give up their body for such a low amount of money.

In India it ranges. People will pay money for a younger female or a virgin, and there are people who are also willing to pay low amounts of money for sex.

Do they women get much of the money?

The money mostly goes to the pimps and to the traffickers.

The females might get some but that’s part of the manipulation, part of the way to keep them there. It goes back to the vulnerability, of always being in poverty and the hope they have some money to save up and give to their family, which leads to the feeling of needing to stay in that place for their family. It’s a trap.

The manipulation and the lies involved almost make it so they don’t have a way of leaving, and it’s like their hands are tied behind their back. They actually don’t have a way of leaving or getting away from it.

What do you offer the survivors?

Everything we do with the girls is based on trauma-informed care. It involves protecting and working with these girls who have experienced trauma.

We have been in full operation with traffic survivors for three years now. We partner with organisations which actually do the rescues, and also organisations that have the girls living in registered government homes once they’ve been rescued.

Do the rescued girls live at Offspring?

They live with the partner organisations. They come to work at Offspring Monday to Friday and then they go back.

However, we’ve just set up our first home to provide the next level of accommodation for them with a little bit more independence. They’re still coming to work for us but they’re living in a separate space.

Often they don’t have a community to go back to, and it’s very difficult for a single female in India to get accommodation and to find a safe space to live.

Tell us about the training

We provide a vocational training centre to give the girls life skills including using the sewing machine and learning to make products from recycled saris. They earn money and can save. Plus, they also learg good behaviour in a workplace and what it means to come to work on time.

We have a non-negotiable hour every morning dedicated to education, which includes learning English, maths, and Bengali, the local language. We talk about healthy and unhealthy relationships, effective communication and decision making, and sex education.

Our vocational training centre has two units and no more than six girls in each. The girls have always been in unsafe environments, so we want them to come to a safe place where they know all the staff and they can start to become themselves again.

Our girls have never known these things, or how to make a good decision, or been aware that a relationship is unhealthy.

We also offer one-on-one care with an assigned case worker.

Tell us about the home you had built for the girls.

It’s one unit with maximum six girls in it. In everything we do we work off a model of quality over quantity.

We have low numbers because we want to make sure that, with the girls we have, we’re doing the best job we can for them. It’s easy as an organisation to get caught up in numbers but they get lost in that.

Our motto is, ‘Every life is worth fighting for’, so we want to do the best we can with the lives we have.

You mentioned a conversation that really hit home for you.

One of our girls was trafficked from Bangladesh into Calcutta. She was working in a garment factory in Bangladesh and the pay and working conditions were not great. Someone offered her a job in Calcutta, so she went across the border into Calcutta and was sold into a brothel.

One day I was wearing jeans and she asked, ‘Those jeans from India or Australia?’. I replied, ‘From Australia’, and she said, ‘Yes, but maybe made in Bangladesh by me.’

My heart sank and it made me realise that people have a responsibility in from where they buy their clothes and their chocolate. We should look at how we can be ethical in that.

We need to be aware that sometimes what we buy is made by real people, not robots.

How do you personally look into whether an item is ethically made?

There are a couple of good apps out there, like Baptist World Aid, which offers an ethical fashion report. When I’m out shopping and I like an item I get the app out to see if it gets a good rating. For me it’s not about whether I like the item or think I’ll look good in it, it’s about the fact someone made it, and if that company isn’t paying or doing the right thing by that person then I’ve got no right to buy it.

How do you see Offspring progressing in the future?

I want to see Offspring grow but at the same time I want for it to remain small.

It’s about doing the very best with what we have, one step at a time.

Looking good should mean feeling good, too, but ethical considerations can dampen the joy of a new outfit. Fortunately, as ELISSA FRIDAY discovers, one local woman is mastering the cycle of sustainable fashion.

Herne Hill’s Courtney Holm has loved arts and crafts for as long as she can remember.

“I’d get on the little sewing machine as a kid and pretend to sew with my mum,” she remembers.

After finishing high school Courtney decided to follow her creative heart, enrolling in fashion design at University of Technology Sydney. After six years of studying while working to make ends meet, she graduated with a major in menswear then took it a step further as an honours year project.

“The approach to how you design menswear really appealed to me,” she says.

Courtney launched her first menswear brand in 2013.

“It was more of a hobby than a proper business,” she explains.

“After finishing university I’d moved to Melbourne and become a Pilates instructor.

“I met my husband and decided to stay put. We really loved Melbourne and the people there.”

During a break from work Courtney envisioned taking her business in a new direction, toward sustainable fashion.

Now 33, she’s delivering on her vision with label A.BCH, an acronym for Article By Courtney Holm, which she launched in 2017.

“My dream is be able to prove to other business that there is a viable way.

“It is possible to run a fashion business whilst still achieving goals and dreams, but just not at the cost of the planet.”

Courtney says acknowledging the “reality of wastage” in the fashion industry was an eye-opener for her that serves as inspiration for A.BCH.

“When you’re cutting a garment 15 per cent of the fabric used gets disposed of and thrown in the bin” she explains.

“There was no recycling of textiles, and that became an issue for me. Recycling is something that has to happen at the design stage.”

The importance of achieving a sustainable clothing industry really hit home when Courtney watched The True Cost, a documentary on the suffering of Third World workers supplying global fashion houses.

Suddenly, her career wasn’t just about “design and just making more stuff” for Courtney. She began delving into the supply and manufacturing side of the fashion industry.

“It became my passion to make it all easy for the customer to understand the supply chain,” Courtney says.

“A.BCH is circular design. It’s a loop from the design phase, so nothing gets wasted.”

Courtney says garments must be designed in separate biological and technical cycles.

The biological cycle involves sourcing materials that decompose, which means trying to avoid certain products so full of chemicals they don’t break down in the environment. The technical cycle involves the use of materials that can be recycled, such as plastic.

“In the design phase we look at creating things that are made to last,” Courtney explains.

“We look at what works aesthetically, and what will work from the circular design aspect. The garments need to fit into the biological cycle.”

Items that fail the cycle include polyester threads because, as Courtney describes, they’re a “nightmare” for recycling and composting.

Buttons, interlining, dyes, finishes, enzymes and a range of other materials and items used in the manufacturing process also have to achieve a circular cycle.

Courtney uses threads made from organic cotton and Tencel, a product of wood pulp. She rates the strength of both threads as competitive with polyester.

A “whole-take-back program” for customers extends the cycle for A.BCH products, Courtney says.

“For every 500 grams of textile that is given back to us, we give them a credit,” she explains.

“Then the recycling process happens with that material. It’s chopped up and the fibre’s blended with new fibre then re-spun into new yarn.

“That’s the simple mechanical way of doing it. We’re also looking at future innovations in tuning the garment into a new fibre.

“Every creation at A.BCH is developed with intent, from responsibly sourced, circular raw materials and ethical supply chains through to a focus on the user phase and, finally, the garment’s afterlife.”

An 18th birthday party led to a proposal in France then a wedding on the Surf Coast for Ella Ridgway and Sam Hopgood.

Words: ELISSA FRIDAY

Pictures: LOUISA JONES

WHERE THEY GREW UP

Ella grew up in New South Wales before moving to Torquay, while Sam was a lifelong resident of Clifton Springs.

“We’ve lived together in Torquay since 2016,” Ella says.

The couple have been an item for 10 years.

WHERE THEY MET

“We met at a friend’s 18th birthday party, which was at the start of year 12. I was wearing a rag-doll costume,” Ella remembers.

Ella’s dad dropped her off at the party before Sam arrived and spotted her.

The two were introduced and “progressively” got to know each other at a series of subsequent 18ths, Ella says.

“We just clicked and have been inseparable ever since.”

THE FIRST DATE

“We went to an afternoon Sunday movie together,” Ella tells.

The couple watched Angels and Demons, with Ella describing the movie as “just a chance to sit in a dark room and hold hands”.

“The date was going really well and Sam asked me if I would come to meet his family that day for dinner. I did and it all went well.”

THE PROPOSAL

“It was definitely one of my most favourite memories,” Ella smiles.

The memory began when Sam booked the pair flights to Paris and Ireland around Ella’s 25th birthday.

“Lots of people had remarked that he was going to propose, so it was much anticipated but after a week still nothing had happened,” she says.

“Then we were in the elevator I saw a bar-cart used for deliveries to the hotel rooms with a note on it that said ‘Marriage proposal’.

“I realised that it was for us but I wasn’t supposed to see it.”

Later, in a beautiful Versailles garden, Sam dropped to one knee and finally proposed.

THE ENGAGEMENT

The couple was betrothed for two years, which gave them ample time to save money and plan their wedding.

“We chose a Saturday, November 24, which was the same day that we got engaged,” Ella says.

THE RING

Sam picked up the ring from a jeweller in Melbourne the day they flew to Europe.

“He wore two pairs of jocks to hide it well,” Ella laughs.

She describes the rose gold solitaire ring as “simple and classic”

“It’s probably not something I would have chosen for myself but I’m so glad he picked it.

“I think he did a better job than I would have for myself.”

The couple also returned to the same jeweller for Sam’s wedding ring.

“He chose a 14-carat rose gold band, and it really complements mine,” Ella says.

WEDDING PLANNING

The big gap between engagement and wedding day was handy for coordinating guests, with Sam’s family local but many of Ella’s interstate.

To make things easier, the couple chose the RACV’s Torquay resort as the venue.

It was all part of Ella’s planning motto: Simple but elegant.

“My sister and best friend were really helpful but Sam and I did the bulk of what was important to us,” she says.

The couple managed to balance their “big-picture” for the wedding with a sensible budget, which went right down to the choice of menu items.

“We chose foods that we knew our guests would like to help reduce wastage,” Ella says.

HENS AND BUCKS

“My sister, best friend and my mum threw a Versailles garden party at mum’s house in Jan Juc to celebrate our engagement,” Ella says.

“We even had a jumping castle to represent the palace.”.

All the girls in both families attended, along with Ella’s close friends. The 25 guests were pampered with the visiting services of Hilary Holmes Makeup, which also looked after the bridal party’s wedding day requirements.

“It was a really lovely experience,” Ella says.

Sam’s groomsmen organised a bus for 15 to Yea Racing Club where they had bought naming rights to one of the day’s races, with Sam making the presentation to the winner.

THE DRESS

Ella initially chose a dress off the rack when visiting a Pakington Street boutique with her mum, sister, and aunt Bree.

“At the time I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything by not getting a traditional wedding dress,” she says.

“Bree was very unwell, so it was so very special to have her involved in our wedding because she sadly passed away about a month before our wedding,” Ella explains.

Eventually Ella had second-thoughts about her choice of a non-traditional dress.

The uncertainty led Ella and her sister to Armadale, where the bridge-to-be found a perfectly fitting dress with a more-traditional design.

“I think I was fighting being a traditional bride,” she says.

“My sister bought me the new dress and I ended up selling the first one, which was right decision and it was an enjoyable experience.”

BRIDESMAIDS AND GROOMSMEN

“My sister, Rose, was my maid of honour, my best friend Alex was my bridesmaid, and I had my little brother, Anton, as page boy,” Ella says.

She granted her bridesmaids free reign to choose something they felt comfortable wearing, so each chose differently.

Sam’s groomsmen were best friends Nathan, Rob and Tom, all ex-high school mates.

“They all chose tuxedos,” Ella says.

“Another high school friend was working in the store where they got the tuxes, so it was nice for them all to catch up.”

THE CEREMONY

Celebrant Georgia Mills officiated on the big day, which went without hitch.

“As far as the wedding goes, I had more compliments about the ceremony and the vows than anything else. It went really well,” Ella says.

The ceremony was held amid the “lovely lighting” of the resort’s foyer, she says, with Frank Ocean crooning his version of Moon River as Ella and Sam walked up the aisle.

PHOTOGRAPHY

The couple chose photographer Louisa Jones, based on previous experience with her.

“She makes us feel comfortable,” Ella says.

“We found a nice location for photos along the track, and then the rest of the family photos were done at various locations around the resort.”

The photos were taken before the ceremony so Ella and Sam could mingle with family immediately afterward, Ella says.

“The only hiccup was when my veil flew off but luckily it blew inland and dropped into a scrub area. My sister luckily rescued it for me,” Ella laughs.

FLOWERS

“Our flowers were by Brit Hough’s company called Miss Petal and Co, so we picked someone we knew,” Ella says.

“I kept it green and coastal, with tropical foliage and whatever flowers were in season.”

The wedding wreath was a “big feature”, with Ella’s best friend, Alex, donating the wreath’s inner-structure after previously having it customised for her own wedding.

“We both had our own take on how to decorate it,” Ella says.

Ella placed the wreath on the bridal table for maximum effect.

THE RECEPTION

The ceremony and reception were both at the same venue.

“The wedding coordinator helped us to find a layout we liked,” Ella says.

“The coordinator also designed all the cards, welcome signs and invitations, and we gave everyone a chocolate with their place cards.”

The couple’s traditional table allowed lots of interaction with all the guests, while a DJ provided the entertainment.

THE CAKE

The couple chose to have caneles, a French pastry, instead of a wedding cake.

As a special treat, Sam’s dad made them for each guest on the morning of the wedding.

“We both really love them,” Ella explains.

“They were flavoured with rum and vanilla, with a custard centre and a crunchy caramelised crust on the outside.”

Learning to play the piano at the age of four was the beginning of Torquay’s Callum Watson’s musical ambitions.

Now 22, the pianist and composer has performed in front of audiences including mayors, ministers, premiers and celebrities.

The music prodigy says his love for piano started in kindergarten.

“At kinder they had this big old piano. I started playing it one day and became hooked,” Callum says.

“I didn’t like kinder very much, so the piano was the thing that kept me going there.”

Callum has since composed music for nine theatre productions and recently enjoyed international premiers of his works, including in the Netherlands.

While playing keyboard for up to six bands at a time, Callum also founded Geelong Jazz Soires, a monthly event promoting local talent.

The soires have received “strong support” from the community since launching in March, he says proudly.

“I’ve already got regular attendees coming back every month.”

But Callum’s journey has come with its challenges, inspiring his advice for aspiring musicians to “persist during the hard times”.

“There’ll be a lot of things that will set you back but you just have to keep on persevering,” he says.

The former Surf Coast Secondary College student was the sole recipient of the Margaret Schofield Scholarship for his original composition that featured various instrumentals on anything from the didgeridoo to bagpipes.

More recently Callum received a Geelong Youth Award, which recognises the contributions young people to their community.

The jazz enthusiast was “honoured” to land the “fantastic“ local award.

“It gives me a lot of encouragement to keep going on with what I’m doing,” he says.

Callum dream now is to make a full-time career out of music.

“I’d love to be able to compose during the week and then perform on the weekends.“

More than a quarter-century after kick-starting the transformation of Geelong’s waterfront, former premier Jeff Kennett returns to enjoy the stunning views with LUKE VOOGT

On his regular Geelong visits a Victorian minister Jeff Kennett saw a city facing “inward” rather than towards its greatest asset.

“Most cities (that) have water use it as a major feature. Geelong just allowed it to exist,” he says.

“(The waterfront) was a bit of a rust bucket – it was there by name but it wasn’t humming.

“I then started taking a much greater interest in Geelong and started working out what we could do to revitalise it.”

As Victorian Premier in the early ’90s Jeff established a stand-alone authority to pour millions into redeveloping the waterfront and attract private investment.

“It meant redesigning the whole front of the land mass to the bay,” he says.

He employed former Ford managing director, the late Bill Dix, to lead the authority attracting cafes, restaurants, hotels and institutions to the waterfront.

“Leaders are there to create the environment; they employ good people to fill in the colours,” he says.

“That’s where Bill was so terribly good. With him we had a very proactive focus on what we were trying to do.”

Deakin University set up a modern campus on the waterfront, while local businesses flourished as they invested in redeveloping it.

Re-landscaped parklands and art, like Jan Mitchell’s iconic Baywalk Bollards, transformed the precinct.

Sitting on a balcony watching people walk, jog and play in waterfront parklands, Jeff reflects on how far the precinct has come.

“The waterfront is, in one sense, complete because it’s a lovely place to be,“ he says.

“I like that people can still put their fishing lines in the little holes to fish.”

Roger Grant, then director of Geelong’s tourism board, says Jeff’s waterfront authority provided the “framework“ for businesses to invest.

“They had the freedom and the capacity to engage with the private sector and really make things happen quickly.”

Roger, who recently retired the post after 26 years, is excited about Geelong’s planned conference centre and a potential mineral spa project at Eastern Beach.

“I see (the waterfront) as this beautiful canvas where we’re just missing bits,” he says.

“I think we’ve moved beyond ’it can’t happen in Geelong’. The vibe now is ’it should happen in Geelong’.”

One of those making things happen on the thriving waterfront is Geelong Segway operator Tim Carr.

Many of his Melbourne clients initially plan to bypass Geelong for the Great Ocean Road before discovering his tours online, he says.

“They are blown away with how beautiful our waterfront is and it’s an absolute pleasure to take tours there. It gives me a buzz to hear comments from people about how amazing it is.”

The waterfront’s wide clean pathways and open spaces make Segway tours possible, Tim says.

On most tours the smells of a colourful plethora of multicultural families cooking lunch reaches the Segway riders’ noses, he says.

“It’s bloody brilliant, I love it.”

From Lake Mungo to Urquhart Bluff, Sue Anderson takes a unique perspective on the Australian landscape. JUSTIN FLYNN discovers the landscape and lifetime inspirations behind her art.

With a family full of artists, it’s no surprise that Sue Anderson travelled down the same path.

The Geelong born, Drumcondra raised artist was surrounded by art.

“I grew up in a family where both sides had an artist. I saw a lot of artwork at my grandmother’s house in Geelong,” Sue explains.

“My uncle on my father’s side was an artist and an art teacher and then on my mother’s side she had a sister who’s a painter and she’d paint at the kitchen table and was working the farm as well.

“And then when I was at secondary school I had a teacher who introduced me to van Gogh when I was 16 and that’s when I had that thunderbolt moment and thought that’s what I want to do, I want to paint.”

Sitting upstairs at Queenscliff’s Salt Gallery during its Terrain exhibition on a warm late autumn day, Sue is quick to identify the inspiration behind her art.

“Over the years I’ve become more and more interested in Australian landscapes – New South Wales’ Coburg Peninsula, Darwin, Mildura … Lake Mungo is a special place.

“There’s so much diversity in the landscape and so many different areas that are challenging to paint from coastal areas, to mountains and deserts.

“I’ve seen the encroachment of suburban development cover the land. A lot of it has disappeared.

“Because I grew up in Geelong, all of the western plains, the You Yangs and coastal areas are really important to me. That’s where my roots are and I respond to that landscape.”

Represented by Australian Galleries in Melbourne and Sydney, Sue has been exhibiting with them for 27 years. Her works has featured in group exhibitions at Salt Contemporary Gallery over the last eight years.

Sue walked to school at North Geelong Primary, then attended North Geelong High.

Her father worked at Ford but his transfer to the Philippines meant she was uprooted at age 14 and taken to a whole new world.

She loved the entire experience.

“That just changed my whole mind around, seeing another culture and another world,” Sue remembers.

“Seeing another way of living, it was totally different to what I knew and I loved it.

“There was a lot of fantastic art and craft there and amazing processions and decorations, people would dress up.”

Sue eventually returned to her hometown before finishing school at Geelong Grammar.

Growing up in Drumcondra surrounded by family, Sue says there were was never a dull moment.

“My grandparents lived in the next street, so I had a lot of family around me growing up in Geelong.

“My early memories were that we lived near the beach so we went to the beach a lot as kids.

“My father loved the water and would take us down the coast to Torquay swimming and camping trips and 30 years of family summer holidays at Indented Head where we sailed and fished.”

A passionate environmentalist, Sue says she tries to inspire people to look after their surroundings.

“Our natural environment is precious,” she says.

“I want people to appreciate how unique, especially Australian landscape environment is, especially our birds and our plants.

“I try to capture moments when you see something that’s amazing, like a flock of birds flying or a beautiful sky.

“That’s what I’m trying to do, but in my own way because people look at things in different ways. A lot of my paintings have different perspectives, looking above, sideways, upside down and trying to get that feel.

“Not necessarily what it looks like, but what it feels like and how it speaks to you and evokes memories.”

Sue spends most of her spare time sailing, swimming, walking, listening to music, playing the ukulele in a small band and reading.

“My husband surfs and sails so we are out on the water or at the beach every weekend,” she says.

Ocean Grove, Point Impossible and Urquhart Bluff are favourite spots. They’re also set to inspire another rush of creativity

“I’d love to do a whole series of all the beaches and coastlines because they are all very unique,” Sue says.

“There’s a lot of inspiration for me around here.

“I love the western plains and I love the flat grasslands and I love the coast.

“Those places are familiar to me but as you get older they seem more precious.”

How people interpret Sue’s art is up to them but she prefers an immediate response.

“I want people to respond to my art straight away and not intellectualise about it too much,” she explains.

“Not everyone agrees on what they think is a good thing but what I am trying to do is find my own language and my own voice about what interests and inspires me.

“Now I just want to spend the time developing my landscape painting and I’m also learning a lot more about ceramics.”

When she’s not working on her own paintings, Sue loves teaching art to children and teaches at numerous local schools.

“I love seeing what kids come up with because they are so spontaneous and it comes from their gut instinct,” she says.

When Abigail Grace collapsed at a school assembly and was rushed to hospital, she didn’t realise it would be the start of three years of worry.

Abigail was in year 10 at Bellarine Secondary College when she succumbed to a soaring heart rate and seriously low blood pressure.

After being told the incident was probably a panic attack, the problems persisted.

Eventually, three years later, she was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.

“Basically my heart beats at 120 beats per minute even while resting,” she says.

After countless specialists, tests and medications, and even being told it was probably all in her head, Abigail was told the news she didn’t want to hear: “There’s nothing we can do”.

The fall-out meant Abigail had to abandon her university plans and her dream of becoming a criminal psychologist and is unable to work, but her music career is slowly taking hold.

The talented musician hasn’t let it stop her from doing what she loves.

Her father Brett, who is also an accomplished musician and a very good saxophone player, gave her an incentive to learn the guitar.

“He had a Maton guitar and I loved the way it looked and I could already sing, so dad said he would give the guitar to me if I learned how to play,” Abigail says.

“He said playing the guitar would open up more doors for me further down the track.

“I pretty much had to teach myself and found it difficult but eventually got there.

“I really hated him for that, but in the end I loved him for it.”

The Drysdale resident, who turned 21 in April, has a voice that she reluctantly describes as “haunting, or at least that’s what others have said it is” and she is also an accomplished song writer.

Her blend of indie folk had her winning the busker’s competition at Portarlington Bowling Club Fair two years in a row, winning the Queenscliff Music Festival’s busking competition and being an opening act for country music singer James Blundell, also recording a song with him on his album Campfire.

And while Abigail seemingly takes things in her stride, she says she still has her bad days.

“Oh I still have days where it’s ‘why me, why can’t I do what everyone is doing?,” she says.

“But music is a great escape for me.

“When I’m performing, I forget everything and I’m in that moment. I don’t know what I would do without it to be honest.

“If I’ve got some problems in life or health worries, I go to music and forget about everything that’s going on.”

Abigail will often go to one of the supermarkets in Drysdale, set up out the front and busk.

“I’ll go down there and just busk for a few hours,” she says.

Abigail is a bit of a Jill of all trades, performing at weddings, cafes, pub gigs, wineries and private functions.

However there is a burning desire to take it even further.

With university and a career on hold while her condition is monitored, Abigail is steadfast in what she wants to do.

“I’d love to make a career out of this,” she says.

A new book recounts the early days of white settlement through the eyes of the local Wadawurrung people. And, as NATALEE KERR discovers, even author Dr Fred Cahir describes the content as “provocative”.

A Ballarat academic has wound back the clock to the 1800s with a book chronicling Aboriginal accounts of the region’s “invasion”.

Dr Fred Cahir’s novel details the relationships and interactions between British “invaders” and the traditional owners of the Geelong and Ballarat region, the Wadawurrung people.

Dr Cahir says his inspiration for My Country All Gone – The White Men Have Stolen In came from his 30-plus years working with Aboriginal communities across Victoria and the Northern Territory.

“It really began on the Nullabor Plain in 1983 when I was cycling solo across Australia from Perth to Melbourne,” he explains says.

“I was young, dumb and blonde – a bad combination. Not surprisingly, I ran out of food and water for several days.”

After returning to Victoria, Dr Cahir began consulting Aboriginal community members and reading “history books written by white fellas”.

“The Wadawurrung community indicated to me they wanted to rewrite their version of what happened as a contrast to the white historian point of view,” he says.

Dr Cahir worked with numerous Victorian Aboriginal groups and individuals to complete the 347-page book, which includes 40 colour illustrations.

The novel draws on three decades of archival research documenting the “invasion” of the Geelong district from 1800 to 1870, he says

The local Wadawurrung then knew the “white strangers from the sea” as the “ngamadjidj”.

Their tales cover first contacts ranging from the arrival of the British navy through to the appearance of squatters and then gold-seekers.

As a white man, Dr Cahir thinks he could be seen as “stealing Wadawurrung history” but maintains that it was important to detail the relations between two nations.

He admits that some might find his book “provocative” and “not an easy read”.

“Any reader who sits down to read a telling of history of the region that they live and work in, which was purportedly peacefully settled, and discovers that the peaceable settlement they thought existed was in fact a ruthless and greedy conquest, will naturally be rattled,” he contends.

“It talks about the Wadawurrung’s attempts to survive the frontier war and at the same time, thrive in a new society forced upon them.

“The squatters, with their hundreds of thousands of sheep, effectively became the spearhead of the British invasion as the sheep wiped out what had been the Wadawurrung’s staple food, the root crop vegetable murnong, or yam daisy, reducing them to starvation.”

Dr Cahir’s book recounts the “great anguish’ of tghe Wadawurrung.

“There were no murnong about Geelong,” a Wadarurrung man is quoted.

“It was like Port Phillip all gone, the bulgana (cattle) and sheep eat it all.”

However, the book also details a “surprising number” of touching interactions between members of the two cultures, Dr Cahir says.

“Quite a lot of friendly and very meaningful relationships took place between the two groups.

“It’s a history that provides fine brush strokes of a wider changing frontier that was violent in nature but surprisingly had some instances of cross-cultural engagement.”

Dr Cahir describes some of the engagements as “remote islands of friendly relations in an ocean of undeclared warfare”.

“In the Geelong district, these islands took many forms including trade, work and various forms of cultural exchange and even in learning one another’s languages,” he says.

Dr Cahir believes that many of the new Australians had a “longing to belong”, which inspired some to be “indigenised”.

His book includes snippets of Wadawurrung voices documented in the records of the new Australians.

“Some of the white strangers from the sea recorded the Wadawurrung’s oral stories that predated the existence of Port Phillip Bay,” he says.

“One account relates how the Wadawurrung could at one period ‘cross, dry-foot’, from one ‘side of the bay (in the east) to Geelong (in the west)’ until a time when ‘the earth sank, and the sea rushed in through the heads, till the void places became broad and deep, as they are today’.”

Fred says the “deep-time” stories about the formation of Port Phillip Bay reflected Wadawurrung women’s expressions of grief in 1853 about the unrelenting waves of the British.

“The stranger white man came in his great swimming corong (vessel), and landed at Corayio (Corio) with his dedabul boulganas (large animals), and his anaki boulganas (little animals),” one of the women recounts in the book.

“He came with his boom-booms [double guns), his white miam-miams (tents), blankets, and tomahawks; and the dedabul ummageet (great white stranger) took away the long-inherited hunting grounds of the poor Barrabool (Wadawurrung) coolies and their children”.

Cr Cahir says anyone interested in copy of My Country All Gone – The White Men Have Stolen can email him on f.cahir@federation.edu.au for more information.

Ocean Grove’s Monica Cavarsan was hooked on home-made butter from the first taste of mum’s handiwork in the kitchen of their family dairy farmhouse.

Monica has since followed in her footsteps to become known as The Butter Queen, who operates the cheekily named local business Lard Ass.

Monica makes the business’s hand-crafted cultured butter, while her husband helps with deliveries and their three sons handle sales at farmers’ markets.

“I started making butter about four years ago using my friends and family as the product testers,” Monica says.

She prefers cultured butter for its higher fat content and consequently richer flavour.

“To make cultured butter you ferment the cream for 24 hours with good bacteria, which enhances the flavours naturally found in the cream,” she explains.

“Normal cream is alkaline, so what we do is bring the PH level down to create what is known as a creme fraiche.

“Afterward, we refrigerate for up to two weeks during the ageing process, which brings out the rich flavours in the butter. We then churn it slowly to preserve the creaminess.”

Lard Ass’s salted or unsalted cultured butter also comes in a variety of flavours, including smoked garlic, dry-roasted fennel seed, smoked, and sweet vanilla.

Monica always has more flavours and butter products in the pipeline, so fans are advised to keep their eyes peeled for new offerings.

Lard Ass butter is sold at wholefood and fruit and vegetable stores, provedores, restaurants, coffee shops and farmers markets, giving Monica an extensive network of operators with whom she collaborates.

“I’m proud to work with other small businesses and producers to harness our opportunities,” she says.

Specialist Surgicentre is Geelong’s only free-standing, fully-licensed-and-accredited day hospital offering a variety of surgical services.

The facility is the realisation of founder Martin Ching’s 2006 vision for his own stand-alone day hospital.

The central Geelong hospital’s convenient location is ideal for patients and their treating doctors.

Operating as a registered and accredited day surgery, Specialist Surgicentre primarily caters for oral and maxillofacial surgery services with Mr Ching.

Both of his Geelong and Docklands hospitals are registered with the Department of Health and Human Services to perform acute surgical services.

Specialist Surgicentre recently expanded its services in a partnership with Monash IVF, which has been established in Geelong for 30 years.

“In July we’re really thrilled to celebrate our 12-month affiliation with the Specialist Surgicentre,” says Monash IVF fertility specialist Dr Prue Johnstone.

“As the pioneers of IVF and scientific leaders, Monash IVF has over 40 years’ experience and over 35,000 babies across Australia.

“Thanks to the Surgicentre we’re providing Geelong with access to world-leading fertility treatments and services in their home town.”

Monash IVF commenced its first Oocyte pick-up list at the Surgicentre in June 2018. On the first list, one patient’s single transferred embryo produced identical twins.

“As many as one in six couples will experience some difficulty falling pregnant,” Dr Johnstone advises.

“If you’re having troubles, we’re here in Geelong to help you add to or complete your family.

Both the Geelong and Docklands Surgicentres has achieved quality excellence in their risk management system with ISO International Standards Organisation.

The range of surgical specialities offered at the the Surgicentre include foot and ankle, plastic and cosmetic, oral maxillofacial and general dental and most recently IVF services. Gynaecology services to commence soon.

Clinical operations officer Chris Guidotti has run the hospital since 2009.

“I’m engaged as a consultant and look after compliance, which is the licencing and accreditation of the facility,“ she explains.

“Mr Martin Ching’s clinic is situated on the same site of the hospital. However, the hospital is a completely separate business and is managed by myself and the executive team.”

Chris is also president of Day Surgery Nurses Group in Victoria and nationally.

“And I’ve just been invited to join Australian College of Perioperative ACORNurses, on their working party for standards,“ she says.

Surgicentre is supported by a robust medical advisory committee, and all visiting medical officers and dentists must be credentialed to work at the facility.

Staff employed under the guidance of a nursing and operations management director, with all team members experienced and qualified in their specialties.

Nurse unit manager Renee Trotter previously worked in Geelong’s public health sector, so she has brought a wealth of clinical knowledge to Specialist Surgicentre. Under the guidance of Chris Guidotti, she has undertaken all the quality roles required for accreditation.

Patients have generally expressed high levels of satisfaction with the transition from the former Geelong Private Hospital, which closed in 2018, to Specialist Surgicentre.

The day hospital offers exceptional services from a group of friendly staff in a private, discrete atmosphere.

Specialist Surgicentre has become a benchmark among networking groups for small and day hospitals around Australia.

Specialist Surgicentre is at 200 Malop Street, phone 1300 654 456.