Geelong’s first lady, Elissa Friday, has just made the big move from the UK to Oz. She talks with GC’s NOEL MURPHY about  life, love and living with mayor Darryn Lyons.

Moving to Australia’s no doubt full of challenges; professional, academic, emotional. How do you feel?  

Having travelled back and forth to Australia over the last few years was really the best preparation I could have done, to give me that familiarity with Geelong. I look forward to Darryn and I being permanently in the same country and, of course, living together again, and doing all the little things we enjoy together.

Also, I look forward to becoming part of the Geelong neighbourhood, getting into a routine, and getting to know the locals.  I’m very excited about my new role as mayoress.

Your visit to Australia late last year received a rock star-style reception. Did your feet touch the ground?

It was fantastic news when Darryn called me on the phone and told me he was now mayor. I was overjoyed.

I knew I had done the right thing encouraging him to go for it. I know his capabilities and knew the right man got the job.

It was a new situation that I had to accustom myself to very quickly, and I did. I suddenly adopted a new role too, and immediately felt a sense of my own responsibility.

What was your motivation for studying journalism and politics at Deakin Univessity? What do hope to do?

I’m nearly finished studying a journalism BA degree in London. I’ll complete my third year at Deakin on an international student scholarship. I also plan to continue learning Mandarin.

I take a keen interest in the media, politics and current affairs and love critically analysing them to understand how and why the system works the way it does.

Work wise, broadcast investigative journalism greatly appeals to me, informing the public in some way or working in PR.

More in the latest Geelong Coast Magazine – in newsagents now.

‘Have nursing quals, will travel’ – that’s the story for many entering the world’s most-trusted profession. But many well-travelled nurses are finding their niche right here at Geelong Hospital.

Words: John Van Klaveren

Pictures: Reg Ryan

Allison Groombridge can rattle off all the hospitals she’s worked in: Alice Springs, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne’s The Alfred, even in Ireland.

Likewise, theatre nurse Deb Marsden has worked everywhere from Perth and Port Hedland to Nambour and Noosa.

Community health manager Kerrie Smith finally landed at Barwon Health after moving to Torquay from Melbourne, while Lisa Campbell worked in several branches of nursing before settling into running a teenage-pregnancy support program.

“It’s a career that can take you many places,” Allison observes.

The four represent the changing faces of nursing as the health profession itself changes from curative to a more-preventative model.

Deb’s title is clinical nurse specialist but she loves being in the operating theatre, a role she has performed since graduating with her certificate in South Australia in 1983.

“That was when nurses were still going through hospital-based nursing training, before the uni-based system came in,” Deb recalls.

“But I’m really impressed by the younger nurses coming through these days. They’re extremely knowledgeable. I do enjoy sharing my experience with them, doing a bit of training and mentoring.”

Pick up the latest edition of GC Magazine for more.

BLUE, red, green, yellow – the flying, flapping, screeching, swooping spectrum of the rainbow lorikeet is a familiar sight across Geelong and the coast.

It’s also an image Ocean Grove photographer Danielle Bamforth loves, along with their raucous cockatoo cousins and the myriad other birdlife wheeling across the region’s skies.

Nightjars feathered like cocktail fascinators, inquisitive boobooks peering wide-eyed at the world, tiny pardalotes exquisitely spotted and plumed, spooky yellow-eyed ravens, flash pink galahs  – Danielle and her telephoto lens have been snapping them across the Bellarine Peninsula, along the Barwon River and out over the plains for several years with striking results.

Rosellas, frogmouths, cormorants, electus parrots, even a rare white magpie are also among the menagerie of airborne species captured in her mountain-bike photographic treks and sojourns.

“I think each bird is so unique, intelligent and each has their own special personality,” Danielle says.

“My photography studio is not just a studio but also a mini-indoor aviary. My three birds – Barney the cockatoo, Squeaky the galah and Piggy the cockatiel– are always with me by my side when I’m working.

“Sometimes it’s quite deafening and a struggle to focus but I wouldn’t have it any other way – it just wouldn’t be the same without them by my side.”

More in the latest edition of the Geelong Coast Magazine – in newsagents now.

Working with frozen water would seem a natural if your name is Viktor Cebergs, only one letter away from icebergs. But Geelong’s own international artist tells JOHN VAN KLAVEREN that sculpting with fire was a fresh experience.

Glamorous Geelong actress Esther Anderson tells JOHN VAN KLAVEREN about the excitement of appearing in her first feature film.

Esther Anderson read the script to Broken Contract as a straight-up action movie until its dark humour caught her by surprise.

“I remember thinking, ‘Hang on, that can’t happen’,” the Geelong actor laughs.

But the dry comedic aspects helped convince her to take on the role of Detective Keeling, a feisty internal affairs cop with a smart mouth.

Despite being another cop role, it’s still a departure from playing Home and Away’s Charlie Buckton, the policewoman who earned Esther Gold and Silver Logie nominations.

“I play a detective who has to clean up the mess as best I can. Being internal affairs, I’m not there to make any friends,” Esther explains.

“It’s a strong, confident, smart character with a cheeky side to her. It’s a bit of fun for me.”

The prospect of her first comedy role, albeit as part of a rollicking, action-packed storyline, excites Esther as well.

“It’s a blend of comedy and action and my scenes aren’t so comedic, so haven’t had to sharpen my comedic timing.

“But the story is full of really good characters, like gangsters, cross-dressers, transvestites and hit men. It reminds me a little of Breaking Bad.”

More on this story in the Geelong Coast Magazine – in newsagents now.

It’s a gallery of living art appreciated by green thumbs all over Australia – and its right here in Geelong, as John Van Klaveren discovered.

It’s a nursery but not as we know it.

It’s more a labour of love for Lyle Filippe and his reincarnated Lara’s Roraima Nursery, on the site of the former Lara Plant Farm.

The tall stands of Queensland bottle trees are easily visible from the Princes Highway, highlighted by the striking pink flowers of the interspersed South American silk floss trees.

“It’s a collector’s garden,” Lyle laughs.

“It was born out of my own collection. We have plants you won’t see in normal nurseries, the place is full of unusual plants and we wanted to find a space so we could make them available to the public.

“We have plants that are different and dramatic. We have embraced both the collector and domestic gardeners.”

Roraima has become a by-word among collectors of unusual plants as well as botanic gardens, zoos and heritage properties throughout Australia.

“It’s a bit like a gardener’s equivalent of an art gallery, or a mini botanic garden,” Lyle explains.

“If you need a specific plant or something unusual, we can supply it. If we don’t have it, we can grow it.”

Roraima also has a variety of sculptures by Drysdale artist Justin Zahra complementing the breathtaking variety of plant life.

Lyle spends a fair bit of his time chasing down the unusual and different in the plant world.

“I like to track down unusual plants. I enjoy the chase, just like any collector and I would drive to the ends of the earth to get an unusual plant.”

More of this story in the Geelong Coast Magazine – in newsagents now