Galleries

Geelong’s hottest venue has something for everyone with its restaurant and vibrant front and rooftop bars. Built in 1855, Murphy’s is Geelong’s only Irish pub and the original home of the Cats. Four mates bought the hotel in 2016, spending nearly $ 1 million restoring the iconic venue. The pub now offers a Dublin-meets-Fitzroy vibe, […]

Low-volume builder Howard + Wade hopes to wow the public with its display home at Torquay’s Quay 2, says Lee Howard. Howard + Wade builds only around 10 to 15 homes each year, he says, allowing it to focus on “absolute quality“. “Our homes start as a complete package, we don’t build our home from […]

With its second birthday in November, Salon Meraki Colour Specialists has achieved early success that’s second to none. After winning Best of the Bay’s award for Best Hairdresser of 2017 and then employing first apprentice Taylor, the small salon on Vines Road is expanding again. “I’m so excited to welcome Hannah to our salon family,” […]

Words: Elissa Friday Wife, mother, radio host and exercise freak. Paula Kontelj tells ELISSA FRIDAY why she just can’t keep still. Tell us about your childhood. I grew up in Geelong. My mother was a school teacher and my father was a butcher. It was very humble working-class beginnings and a tight family unit. I […]

Furry or feathered, scruffy or scaled, all manner of marvellous animals make up the Geelong region’s menagerie of pets. ELISSA FRIDAY checks out the range. Pet: Teddy, golden retriever-poodle cross Age: One Owners: Angie Hilton, husband Braith Cox and their children, Sonny and Scarlet Cox, of Newtown ’It took 10 years of convincing Braith to […]

Words: Elissa Friday Pictures: Rebecca Hosking From working in the outback to marrying in the Otways then sailing the seas, ex-Torquay girl Vanessa Beach and Melburnian husband Ian Pinniger prove that some loves travel very well indeed. WHERE THEY MET “We were both working up at Ayers Rock in 2014,” Vanessa says. “Ian was flying […]