By Luke Voogt

Cosplay is more than fancy dress for its thousands of fans – it’s about becoming someone else entirely – if only for a day.

LUKE VOOGT steps into a quirky world of mythical creatures, comic book characters and physics-defying costumes with three Geelong cosplayers.

A facial feature which gave Kristian Schutz the most grief as a kid has become one his best cosplay assets.

“I had horribly low self-esteem growing up,” says the 29-year-old, who grew up in Leopold.

“I was massively self-conscious about my nose.”

But when he stepped into character as Aladdin for the first time, he discovered an uncanny resemblance to the fictional Arabian street rat.

“I look like him when I have a wig on and it’s because of the nose.”

One young Harry Potter fan hid behind his mother in awe when he saw Kristian in costume, thinking he was the real Professor Snape.

The boy was dressed as Harry Potter, but Snape was his favourite character, his mum explained.

With his prominent nose Kristian was a dead ringer for Alan Rickman’s portrayal of the tragic wizard.

Kristian regularly pulls out costumes of Disney princes for children’s festivals.“You get kids that walk in and it’s like they’re transported into magical world.”

He loves the reaction of older fans when he gets into character too.

“It’s amazing when you hear someone scream your character’s name and they want to crash tackle you out of happiness,” he says.

Kristian fondly remembers meeting with one very special fan, Stan Lee, who visited Brisbane Supernova earlier this year.

His depiction of X-men’s Angel, complete with fold-out wings, blew the legendary comic book writer away, he says.

“I still remember what he said verbatim – he was like ‘Wowee! You look like you’re about to take off’.”

The other best part of cosplay is the challenge of making the costume, Kristian says.

He remembers with pride his one of his first outfits – Dragon Ball Z’s Majin Buu.

“He has really weird ears,” he says. “Everything was failing – foam, fabric, everything.”

But after days experimenting he tried two Styrofoam cups and double-sided sticky tape.

“It was the simplest solution but it worked,” he says.

Apart from teaching himself to sew, Kristian says making costumes is mostly “finding the right combination of swearwords”.

“We’re our own worst critics. No-one else see the failures.”

He watched four seasons of TV series Breaking Bad while working on one shirt alone.

“That’s how I judge the work of a costume – the amount of seasons that I watch by the time it’s done,” he says.

Kristian says he has made more than 200 costumes, ranging in cost from $2000 to $50.

“Cosplayers are amazingly resourceful.”

His latest project was Professor Chaos, the villainous alter-ego of South Park character Butters Stotch.

Kristian’s lifetime love of comics and pop culture led him to cosplay.

“Being out of high school I just started to think ’Hey, this isn’t a bad thing’,” he says.

“My grandmother adores it but it takes a while for family to understand why you do it.”

Kristian has met some of his best friends at conventions and random cosplay meets, including partner Hayley Shaw.

Although naturally, it can be had to keep track of who is who.

“You can run into people 10 times without even knowing you’ve met them,” he says.

Cosplay “makes the impossible possible” for Geelong West’s Bianca Mileti, AKA Bianca Bella.

Physics-defying props, giant robot costumes and mythical creatures like centaurs walking around at conventions fascinate the avid 29-year-old cosplayer.

“You think ‘How do people do that?’ “ she said. “It’s amazing.”

Bianca got into cosplay through her love of gaming.

“I’ve always liked geeky things,” she says. “It didn’t take long for the cosplay bug to take hold of me.”

Perhaps Bianca’s biggest cosplay hit was her depiction of Cersei Lannister from hit TV series Game of Thrones.

She mimicked the show’s chief female villain down to her mannerisms.

“People love it when I cock the eyebrow,” she says.

Her portrayal earnt the approval of three guests from the series including Eugene Simon, who plays Cersei’s cousin Lancel Lannister.

Like Kristian, Bianca loves the fan reactions to her costumes, like the princess from the video game Zelda.

“So many of them have the time to talk to you and make your day,” she says.

“With Zelda I found I got lots more fan-girling and gushing.”

One of stranger get-ups was the dead, cryogenically frozen Nora from Fallout 4. The costume involved the tricky application of ice and snow.

“I ended up using spray-on adhesive and doing layer upon layer – without getting high from the fumes, thankfully.”

Bianca wants to learn how to craft costumes but a car accident in 2016 has prevented her so far.

The nasty T-bone smash on the Midland Highway at 6am on 20 June left her with chronic neck and back pain.

But for now Bianca is happy just to have survived to continue her favourite pastime.

“I have no idea how I’m still alive,“ she says.

Grovedale’s Andrew Cameron has been addicted to cosplay for the past decade.

“I’m a nerd of all variations – I love sci-fi, gaming, anime, manga,” says the man known as Andy Cam in costumed circles.

“It all just snowballed from there.”

Andy embraced his passion for drama when he changed schools in Year 7.

“I always was sort of the weird outsider kid,” the 28-year-old says.

“(Changing schools) was the big game changer where I went from the quiet nerdy kid to being more confident and outrageous.”

He became interested in anime in Year 12 which, combined with his graphic design degree and a visit to Melbourne Anime Festival, led to his addiction.

“It’s just one of those random things I stumbled across,” he says. “If I wasn’t doing cosplay at the moment I don’t know what I would be doing.”

Andy has 150 costumes under his belt, with 30 Power Rangers alone.

“They’re good for charity events and I bash them out quickly,” he says.

His hobby has seen him travel to some of the biggest conventions in the US.

It also won him his job as a supervisor at Lincraft.

“They saw me as a regular and said ’You should put a resume in’,” he says.

But he prefers local events like Adelaide Supernova, where he can carpool with other cosplayers.

“I don’t fit on planes half the time,”

Andy’s favourite costumes include Thranduil from The Hobbit and Doctor Strange.

The latter was an exception for Andy, who normally likes to “smash out costumes at the last minute“.

“I spent four weeks replicating every piece, from hand-stamping the lining to hand-weaving all the belts and braids,” he says.

“Being a creative person – half the fun is making the costume and creating something from nothing.”

Lighthouse Olive Oils describes some of its award-winning products, with ideas for using them to give a local splash of flavour to summertime dining.

Ruby Red Grapefruit
A pleasant and distinctive fruity citrus flavour, which is created by crushing ruby red grapefruits with our premium estate grown olives. Drizzle on salads, steamed vegetables, fresh seafood or add zing and colour to avocado smash.

Lemon
A refreshingly zesty olive oil created by crushing juicy lemons with our estate grown olives. These refreshing characteristics make it the perfect choice for dressing salads or drizzling over vegetables, seafood and pasta dishes. This oil is great to drizzle or add flavour while cooking.

Lime and Jalapeno
A zesty, fresh oil with an elegant heat. Made by crushing fresh limes and Jalapenos with our estate grown olives. This oil is great for pasta dishes, salads, seafood, vegetables and dipping. It is the perfect oil to drizzle or cook with.

Intense Fruitiness
A premium Spanish style olive oil of stronger character. This intensely fruity oil, with mild pepper, is perfect in all aspects of contemporary cuisine. The oil is the optimal dressing to enhance the flavours of green salads, red meat and bruschetta. Its high stability make it a great choice for frying.

Medium Fruitiness
A premium Italian style olive oil of medium character with fresh but mild pepper flavour. These fresh characteristics make this oil an ideal choice to accompany salads, pasta dishes, seafood and white meats of delicate flavours. Its high stability makes it the optimal choice for frying.

Picual
Picual is a Spanish variety of olive oil with earthy tones that are lifted by green olive leaf and a mild pepper. Perfect for salads, delicate white meats and cooking contemporary cuisines. Its high stability also makes it a great choice for frying.

Frantoio
Frantoio is a Tuscan variety which produces a smooth, fruity oil with delicate aromas. Its fresh fruity characteristics are combined with a light initial pungency that builds to a mild pepper on the palate. We recommend this oil for pasta dishes, salads, bruschetta, vegetables and red meats. This oil is also perfect for pan frying.

Barnea
Barnea is an Israeli variety that has a soft buttery character with notes of cut grass and a deferred hit of pepper. This oil is perfect for making hummus, bruschetta, couscous, accompanying red meats and for casual dipping. Its high stability also makes it a great choice for frying.

Gatherings By Crow owner Mandy developed a love of all things vintage while operating two market stalls at North Geelong.
Mandy already had a passion for finding old wares, unusual pieces and items others may have disregarded but the time spent selling antique goods inspired her to open a “unique” shop of her own.
“I’ve always loved to source and collect unusual items,” she says.
“When you’ve got so much stuff, why not become a shop with all your items in it?”
So in October Mandy opened Gatherings by Crow, on Geelong’s Mercer St.
“I came up with my business name because crows fossick for things and are gatherers, so I thought it combined perfectly with my floristry aspect,” she explains.
“Gatherings by Crow sells antiques, industrial-style furniture, floral and farmhouse “finds“, Est soaps and beauty products and fresh flowers.
Also a qualified florist, Mandy supplies creative flower arrangements for functions and intimate weddings.
“I can also use my vintage pieces as part of the arrangement for any occasion, making it unique and one-off.”
To find many of the items that feature in her shop, Mandy regularly visits auctions and has a network of dealers who source products for her.
“I’m constantly searching for items, I never stop really,” she declares.
“I love it – it’s something that I love to do”.
Gatherings by Crow is at 82 Mercer Street, Geelong. Inquiries can be made by phoning 0488 862 639 or visiting facebook.com/blackcrowfinds

The star formerly known as the Singing Budgie features in a colourful free exhibition at Geelong Gallery until 4 March.
Kylie on Stage features “magical moments” from the concerts of perhaps Australia’s greatest international pop star.
“I’m excited for fans to get up close and personal with my costumes and to get a glimpse behind the curtain to see some of the design process,” Kylie Minogue said.
Drawn from her spectacular stage wardrobe held at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Australian Performing Arts Collection, items on display date back from 1989 through to recent tours such as Kylie Aphrodite les Follies in 2011.
Featured designers within the world-first exhibition include Dolce and Gabbana, John Galliano, Julien Macdonald, Karl Lagerfeld and Jean Paul Gaultier as well as local designers including Peter Morrissey and Mark Burnett.
Geelong Gallery boss Jason Smith is chuffed to host the exhibition.
“We are genuinely excited to present Kylie on Stage at Geelong Gallery over the popular summer period,” he said.
“We expect to welcome thousands of people to view the truly extraordinary design and artistry involved in the making of Kylie’s costumes.
“The gallery has a strong commitment to diverse art forms, including a close relationship with the performing arts through our cultural precinct neighbour GPAC (Geelong Performing Arts Centre), which routinely presents the work of leading companies, actors and musicians.
“We are thrilled to be introducing Kylie’s wardrobe to our region. It is a stunning collection.”

Quality kitchens and general joinery have become a priority in family homes.
While adding so much value to a new or existing home, quality joinery can be simultaneously functional and aesthetically pleasing.
When it comes to finding a good cabinetmaker and related suppliers, ICM Geelong makes it easy.
ICM stands for Independent Cabinet Makers, a group of qualified professionals each with their own businesses who have banded together to highlight the skills and quality product manufactured by Geelong’s cabinetmaking industry.
They all strive to meet a code of ethics that sets them apart; the best in their field using quality hardware and materials and superior workmanship.
ICM Geelong was formed to encourage people including builders to utilise the services of local cabinetmakers, many of them family-run businesses, to protect the industry well into the future.
“We want to look after future job opportunities for our community, hence our advertising campaign slogan ’Our Jobs, Our Kids, Our Future,” ICM Geelong president Scott Smith says.
“The committee and members firmly believe there will be a trades shortage if we don’t promote our industry, which has so much to offer.”
With the introduction of larger department stores moving into kitchens, cabinetmakers want people to appreciate the difference between a “catalogue” kitchen and one that is custom-built and supports our local industry.
ICM Geelong cabinetmakers also want homeowners to know they do so much more than kitchens and bathrooms and offer custom-made joinery including entertainment units, bookcases and desks at competitive prices.
“ICM Geelong is about cabinetmakers educating and helping each other and sharing resources so our businesses can be more efficient, competitive and productive,” Scott says.
“We share new software ideas for running our factories and discuss the latest machinery available to us.”
The committee works closely with members to promote their work through ICM Geelong’s website and social media. An active website with cabinetmaker listings helps new home builders and renovators seek inspiration for their project.
Acquiring the latest equipment, machinery and technology is an expensive outlay, resulting in many cabinetmakers now choosing to specialise in a particular area so some jobs and tenders suit some businesses more than others.
ICM Geelong has attracted the attention of a range of sponsors who share a similar drive and passion for the industry. Together with them, cabinetmakers offer the best quality materials available, backed up with great design, advice and service to match.
ICM Geelong cabinetmakers can turn your ideas into reality and keep our jobs, our kids and our future where it belongs.

Daniel Mcdonnell’s expertise at crafting steel artworks began when he learned welding as an apprentice boilermaker.
“He started his apprenticeship when he was 15 and began making sculptures in his spare time, so he’s always had a passion for it,” wife Bianca explains.
“Later on he’d make sculptures for me, back when we were in our twenties.
“When our kids began school he got a shop and opened our business, Steel Art Australia.”
The North Geelong business has now been trading for eight years, working together as a team after Daniel taught Bianca how to weld.
“I don’t know personally any other women who weld. I see some women welding on my Facebook page but I don’t know them personally.
“I love working with all the boys and love selling what I’m welding.”
Welding now for the past two years, Bianca focuses on making the business’s smaller, detailed sculptures, such as steel butterflies and birds.
“I use lots of old bits and pieces; springs, old blots, nuts, car parts.”
Bianca’s materials come from sources ranging from “mechanic friends” through to tips.
“I’m always on the hunt for things.
“Every sculpture I build is very different, they are one off pieces, they’re not mass produced.”
Daniel creates the business’s larger sculptures, including life-size pelicans and nesting eagles.
He’s also sculpted a life-size whale tail along with decorative boat anchors for gardens.
“Daniel’s done lots of sculptures – my goal is to be as good as him one day,” Bianca says.
The pair has passed their love of steel scuplting on to older son Jake, aged 8.
“He loves welding,” Bianca says.
“He’s really good at art and has the flair and passion for it. Supervised, he made a life-size tea-bucket car in two days – it now sits in our garden.”
Steel Art Australia is at 1 Lillian Street, North Geelong, phone 0430 781 918 or visit facebook.com/Steel-Art-Australia

Seaweed and margarine – ingredients for a Japanese specialty dish? Not in the case of two local artists, as ELISSA FRIDAY discovers.

Pictures: Rebecca Hosking

Seaweed washed-up on the sand rarely earns more than a glance – unless Janet Miller walks by.
Janet instead pays close attention to the weed, considering it as material for her next sculpture.
She came up with the novel concept years ago while watching her young son playing with seawood on a beach.
Now it’s a feature material of her art, but not just any old seaweed.
“I use seaweed that’s called bull kelp. It’s really good to use and I haven’t used anything else,” she explains.
Born in the UK, Janet was a baby when her family moved to Australia and settled at Monbulk. She attended Mater Christi and Lilydale Secondary colleges before studying at Melbourne College of Decoration then finding work behind the scenes at Channel 10.
“I was the first girl in the props and set dressing department,” she declares.
“Then I got a position in the set design department, which is where is did my apprenticeship with Chanel 10’s set design department – I was a set dresser for Prisoner’s cell block H. My first show as senior designer was with the Comedy Company, a great show to work with.”
Janet’s creative talents and enjoyment of design inform her unique seaweed sculptures, which have had a handy source of materials since Janet moved to the coast 17 years ago. She now lives with her husband and their two teenage children at Torquay.
She’s been making her unique sculptures in a “little” back garden shed for nearly two decades.
Janet prefers “really fresh” kelp in large sheets.
“We live near Fishermen’s Beach, which is where I get most of my kelp.
“When we get a dumping of kelp after an easterly I usually get pieces from near where boats come in because they don’t like it near their propellers.”
“I’m at the hands of the kelp gods as to when however much is going to come in.”
Janet uses a phone-app tide chart to time her kelp raids.
“If I don’t grab it within the six-hour window of tidal change it’s gone again,” she says.
Janet enjoys the diversity of her chosen material.
“Every piece of seaweed is totally different,” she observes.
“They vary in thickness, colour, hue and you never know what you’re going to get.”
But it’s not always so easy to work with.
“It’s tough and it has a mind of its own,” Janet laughs.
“So I mould with it while it’s still wet, then sun-dry it, but not too quickly, then I treat it with a blend of plant extracts and essential oils.”
She then monitors the completed sculpture over a few weeks to make sure the kelp has stopped shifting and has settled in its final position.
Then she considers the best ways of showing off her creations.
“I’m experimenting with light behind the sculptures now. It looks really beautiful at night time,” she says.
Janet was recently successful in Surf Coast Arts Space People’s Choice award.
“I entered for the first time last year and won with one of my female kelp bodies. Then I entered again this year and won with another kelp body, which resembles a little black dress.
“Now I’m quite inspired to enter some more exhibitions.”
Janet believes kelp has wider possibilities in the arts.
“There’s a lot more we can do with it,” she suggests.
“It’s a different medium – it’s still living a bit.”

Belmont sculptor Edward Terry Guida remembers himself as “hands-on” back in his school days at Geelong Tech.
He started out in the ’70s using clay for his art before moving on to wood and metal.
But then in the mid ’90s he enrolled in a hospitality course at The Gordon Institute of TAFE, which “sparked off a cascade of elements” that influenced Terry’s art in an unexpected direction, he explains.
“I did the course for my own interests and part of it was quantity cooking.”
It was then that he discovered the unlikely medium of … margarine.
The choice seems ironic for a son of a milk factory worker from Colac – surely butter should have been a consideration.
But Terry explains that margarine is less expensive, has a heavier oil base, and, in the case of the hospitality-grade product, a “more-solid feel”.
The inspiration for his now-locally-famous margarine sculpture was a Gordon medieval buffet function, which needed suitable decor adornments.
Terry came up with The Menu Master, based on common wizard sculptures often seen in gardens but hunched over reading a book of recipes.
He chose as his medium Pastrex, a hard margarine used in puff pastry.
The sculpture was prepared in 12 phases, taking at least six weeks to reach completion, Terry recalls.
“At one stage I was working on it until 3am,” he says.
Terry used “classic carving tools” comprising wood and wires to craft much of the figure, with his fingers employed to shape the wizard’s intricate head of hair.
“On the night it was on display at the Gordon a little child was just about to put their finger on it and I was like, ‘Oh no’,” Terry laughs, recalling The Menu Master’s debut.
Higher accolades followed for Terry’s unique artwork.
“The Menu Master won a silver award in 1995 at the annual Salon Cullinaire Australian Guild of Professional Cooks Awards, held in the Carlton Gardens, Melbourne,” he says.
“The awards included sculptures, so I was chuffed that it got recognition.”
After completing The Gordon course Terry’s access to hospitality foodstuffs was “limited”, so The Menu Master ended up his first and last sculpture in margarine.
Now he displays it in a Perspex case, positioned away from sunlight.
“It was just too hard to let go of,” Terry admits.
However, time has taken its toll, with The Menu Master undergoing repairs a “couple of times” apart from a finger that Terry allowed to drop off.
“With all things, everything isn’t forever,” Terry observes. “And as George Harrison would say, ‘All things must pass’.”
After The Menu Master, Terry moved on to experimenting with various mediums, even magnetic materials. Deakin University recently displayed some of his latest work, Conceptually Car 1950s, inspired by Ford.
He hopes his works get people thinking about art.
“Sculpture is about igniting the imagination,” Terry says.
“When people ask what it is, I ask, ‘What is it to you?’.”

Community-owned-and-operated Wathaurong Glass specialises in stunning Indigenous art with a variety of applications.
The company’s glass creations can be used for everything from plaques to signage, panels, doors, widows, furnishings and mirrors.
The proudly Indigenous team behind the company uses techniques including kiln-forming and sandblasting to produce the high-quality artworks.
While the team’s exquisite, detailed artwork looks great on display in corporate or household settings, Wathaurong Glass can also produce functional items like bowls and platters in a range of colours including transparent, blue, green and grey.
The various designs and products offer unique gift idea for celebrations such as weddings, birthdays and corporate milestones.
Wautharong Glass even produces the medal for the best player in the AFL’s annual Dreamtime at the ’G match between Essendon and Richmond.
Custom pieces are also available for clients who want to have input into the design.
Orders can be made easily online at Wathaurong Glass’s website.
Wathaurong Glass was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit business to help express Aboriginal art in glass, so buying from the company puts money back into the local Indigenous community.
The term ‘Wathaurong’, or wathawurrung, or wadda wurrung, refers to a recognised tribe comprising 25 groups, or clans. Wauthaurong boundaries stretch from Geelong, north to Werribee River, north-west to Bacchus Marsh, south-west to Cressy, south-east to Colac, east to Lorne, and around the Bellarine Peninsula.
More information is available at wathaurongglass.com.au by visiting Wathaurong Glass at 16 Rodney Road, North Geelong.

Devoted mum, management consultant, published author and now a councillor – what’s next for Ocean Grove dynamo Stephanie Asher. ELISSA FRIDAY made an appointment to find out.

Pictures: Joeseph Van der Hurk

Stephanie where did you grow up?
I was actually born in Adelaide but I grew up in North Balwyn in Melbourne. I went to school in Camberwell North and then moved to Geelong for about a year when I was about three. Now I’m in beautiful, sunny Ocean Grove and have been living here for 18 years.

Tell us about your studies?
I studied English literature at Monash University. Having done maths and science all the way through school I chose English possibly because it offered the most creative opportunities. The reason I chose the arts degree was because it was so broad and allowed for creativity in my career. My dad was a very senior executive at Ford and he travelled a lot. So he didn’t have the flexibility in his working life that I wanted in my work and that I would need as a parent.

Tell us about your family?
I’m married to Robin. I have three children, a 16-year-old boy, a nearly 14-year-old girl and nearly 12-year-old boy. We’re a very close and a very sports-orientated family.

So Stephanie, we’ll cut to the chase, what is your politics?
I think the most accurate description would be, towards the right economically and towards the left socially and environmentally. I’m an independent thinker.

Now you are a councillor, is it third time lucky or not? Were your ambitions set towards being mayor?
No, it’s not really third time lucky because I haven’t run for council before. I’m pleased to be able to contribute and do as much good as the system will allow me to do.

Did you put your hand up to be deputy mayor?
No, I didn’t because I didn’t want to be the token female. Once the mayor had been decided there was support for a female deputy but not a particular individual.

What are some of your ideas for the Geelong and the Bellarine?
Connecting the community to the decisions made at City Hall, I think that there is disconnection particularly in Bellarine with decisions made in Geelong.

How do you feel about there being only three female councillors?
Firstly they are terrific women, secondly it’s disappointing because it doesn’t reflect the population and thirdly you need 33 per cent on a board or in a group to have a meaningful impact on thinking styles, leadership and bias.

Is it a boys’ club?
Yes there is that.

You obviously have big political ambitions. Is this a stepping stone for State or Federal politics?
I’m interested in politics. I’m interested in finding the right place to have a voice and make a difference.

Aside from your political life now, outside of that you’re a business owner too?
I started out in public relations and established a marketing and publishing consultancy, more than 20 years ago. Since then I’ve established several other business and currently own a management consultancy with a team of a dozen people, which involves strategic and leadership related work. I enjoy the freedom and achieving the scope of the work I do. I can choose my own projects and elect the clients that I work with.

You recently wrote a book and had it published, what’s it about?
It’s the biography of Susan Alberti who is renowned in Australia for leading the charge or the catalyst for the women’s AFL. Susan was recently named Melburnian of the Year. She is Australia’s most recognised philanthropist for diabetes research and the leader of the charge for AFL Women. It’s currently the best seller on the Melbourne University publishing list. The idea and intention of the book is to help inspire people to give to medical research and a percentage of the proceeds from the book will go to medical research.

How did you and Susan Alberti meet?
I was introduced to Sue and I pitched the story and a screenplay for a movie to her. We clicked and she agreed. I did 50 interviews with different people, including the Hon Tony Abbot, Ita Buttrose, Sir ‘Gus’ Nossal, Frank Costa, Linda Dessau AC and spent a lot of time with Sue. It took probably six months from first conversations to manuscript, then another three months or so to printing.
It’s the perfect Christmas gift.

What do you like doing in your spare time?
Spending time with my family, I think I’m also their taxi driver. Most of my spare time is family based and beach orientated. I also like talking to the animals; I have a beautiful Kelpie, two cats, seven chickens and a turtle that lives next door. We get fresh eggs every day, even though the kids aren’t so keen on eating eggs.

What would surprise people to know about you?
I have a motorcycle licence, but I don’t ride anymore. I had a bike in my twenties and I used to ride it to work.

By Luke Voogt

The years tore “twin flames” Stella Tassone and Ondrei Aiello apart, but their love affair with sand helped them fall for each other all over again.
The star-crossed Sand Whisperers tell Luke Voogt how art brought them together after 20 years.

Stella Tassone and Ondrei Aiello still remember the day they met 31 years ago, at an Italian festival in Swan Hill.
“Both my mother and I had travelled from Mildura to participate in Italian folklore dancing,” Stella says.
“Ondrei was dressed as a clown with his mum entertaining. Our mums were talking, and I guess for us it was love at first sight.”
Three years later, they met in the rain on a street corner in Melbourne while Stella was on an excusion and Ondrei on work experience.
“I had an umbrella and I turned to Stella and said “the rain’s a bit of a hassle isn’t it?” Odrei says.
“As soon as I said I was from Swan Hill and my name is Ondrei, Stella turned to me and asked, ‘Are you the clown?!’ We both laughed and couldn’t believe it.
“That’s when the butterflies in the stomach started to flutter.”
After a day at the Victoria Market, they spent four years running up their parents’ phone bills and writing love letters, as the letterbox became their “best friend”.
“Funny enough I kept many of our photos, poems and love letters, which I still have today,” Stella says.
“Ondrei still has some poems he wrote for me.”
Their paths split when Ondrei moved to Melbourne for a career in graphic design and Stella started at Deakin University in Geelong.
“I contacted Stella and informed her that things had changed,” Ondrei says. “We stopped our communication.”
But 20 years later, Ondrei recognised Stella on another fateful day at the Victoria Market, in 2011.
“Stella was buying bread and I recognised her,” the 43-year-old says.
“I called out her name and she turned to look at me. We both froze. “Instantaneously I began to have flashbacks of childhood memories shared with Stella.
“I immediately felt the pain of my heart being broken 20 years earlier,” Stella says. “I was nervous and it was difficult to look at him in the eyes.”
They became Facebook friends a year earlier, but neither knew what to say.
“Even though Stella was still Stella, I felt like a stranger with my heart beating a million miles an hour,” Ondrei says.
“Yet in my heart I was feeling the love I had always felt for her.”
But that night Stella sent him a message and they began talking about how their marriages had ended.
They remained in contact, which led to Ondrei discovering Stella’s unique talent.
Stella’s art began building sand castles with her two children, but soon developed into mind-blowing 3D sculptures.
“I began to go the beach any time I had to myself,” she says.
“It became my therapy, my tool for healing. I’d take photographs and send them to Ondrei.”
They started going to the beach together, creating side by side.
“This unique way of Stella expressing her feelings now had me driving from Melbourne to Geelong,” Ondrei says.
“The formations began to heal our broken hearts.
“Before we were writing love letters to each other using paper and pen,” Stella adds.
“Now together we write messages of love and healing to the world using a stick and a rake.”
The ancient art of sacred geometry influences the Sand Whisperers’ work.
They represented Australia in a global project, joining sand artists across the world creating the Sri Yantra – an ancient symbol of feminine and masculine union.
“Sand art is our love and passion and it’s really special creating together,” Stella says.
“We feel joy when people are curious and come over and see what we’re doing.”
“Nearly everyone” loves their art but the couple gets the occasional detractor, Ondrei admits.
“The craziest thing someone has said is that we are littering on the beach,” he says. “We laughed.”
The couple helped others express their love through marriage proposals and angel wings for a little girl who had passed away.
They even created a sculpture for motorcycle champion Valentino Rossi when he was at Phillip Island for the MotoGP.
Each time they create a piece the tide claims it back on behalf of “mother earth”.
“People think it’s sad for us to create and then have the ocean take it away,” Stella says.
“For us, that’s the beauty of all of it.”

By Chris Barr

Torquay is “battling to maintain its small town identity” amid new developments and a rapidly growing population, writes local historian Chris Barr.
With summer approaching and Torquay’s population set to triple as tourists flock to the beach, Chris steps back in time to tell her town’s story.

Torquay in 2017 is vastly different to the little fishing village that began life as Puebla in the 1840s.
For thousands of years the Barrabool, Barwon and Yaki Gurt tribes fished, hunted and built huts along the coastline near the Torquay, in was once Wathaurung land.
William Buckley was likely the first white man in the area when he travelled and lived with the Wathaurong people in the early 19th century.
Surveyors called the township Puebla when they first mapped it, but why remains a mystery.
A street in Torquay still bears the name, the same as that of a 500-year-old city in Mexico.
Henry Tait arrived with Torquay’s first settlers in 1841 and built Spring Creek Station.
Elias Harding followed and settled at Mount Pleasant Station, now the town’s golf course, and Robert Zeally joined them when he established the South Beach Run.
The area soon became a favourite for Geelong fishers, swimmers and picnickers, who set up camps in the summer months.
One of the weekend fishermen, Harry Rudd, pushed for the subdivision of the land closer to the creek, and Bannisters auction rooms held the first land sales in Geelong on 14 September, 1886.
Rudd got himself a block close to the creek and built a corrugated iron house, said to be the first permanent dwelling in Torquay.
The other early buyers included James Follett, Felix Rosser, William Bell, John Taylor and Colonel John Price – men who would shape the town’s history.
In 1888 Follett began construction on the Pioneer Coffee Palace, in Bell Street. The coffee house would become the Palace Hotel and later the present-day Torquay Hotel.
Rosser led a daring sea rescue which would become arguably the most notable event in Torquay history.
On a stormy night in May 1891, an American cargo ship, the Joseph. H. Scammell, ran aground on a reef at Point Danger, then known as Angel Point, 400 yards from shore.
Rosser led local fishermen to the ship to rescue the captain, his wife, the 21 crew and little daughter Hattie, along with her cat.
Rosser famously lit fires along the beachfront and around Fishermans Beach to guide the crew should the ship break up before the rescuers could reach them.
Daybreak saw most of the 80,000-pound cargo strewn along the beach and the beginning of one of the biggest looting events in Victorian history.
By midday 2000 people were pilfering cans of food, tobacco, kerosene, sugar, oil, medicines, tools and, of course, grog.
A few months later William Pride paid 40 pounds for the Scammell’s deckhouse, and a further 40 pounds for a local farmer to haul it up to his block of land.
The magnificent Scammell house is today the home of Pride’s grand-daughter, 102-year-old Margaret Ganly – both precious treasures to Torquay today.
Rapid land sales led to Col Price, a solicitor and former mayor of Geelong, to form the Spring Creek Improvement Association.
The association established reserves for camping and recreation, fought for better roads and even funded several improvements to the town themselves.
Visitors and locals alike can see their work as they walk through Taylor Park, a peaceful green wedge in the heart of Torquay.
The park features two gates, which Melbourne builder John Taylor took from a school building when he demolished it to build for the city’s college of surgeons.
Locals changed Spring Creek’s name to Torquay, after the seaside town in Devon, England, following the establishment of the post office.
In 1892 William Bell produced a plan for a public hall which the Torquay Improvement Association later built.
The hall became the focal point for the growing town and was home to school classes until 1910 when the town’s first school opened.
As early as 1904 Torquay’s football team played against teams from Jan Juc, Freshwater Creek and Grovedale, then known as Germantown.
By 1920 locals had built a golf course in front of the Palace Hotel.
The first president of the golf club, Alex Crowe, was also the publican of the hotel, which made a handy 19th hole.
In the 1920s the beaches were dotted with bathing boxes, not posh, painted ones like at Brighton beach, but in an eclectic mix of shapes.
Most boxes had a name that matched the name of the owner’s house.
The Gear family’s box at the bottom of Price Street was called the Kipsey after the name of their house, and Col Price’s box was called “Broomsgrove”, after his dwelling.
A bathing box cost 10 shillings, payable to the Foreshore Trust.
The Torquay Life Saving Club, the forerunner to today’s surf lifesaving club, began life in a modified bathing box on the front beach in 1922.
During World War II locals closed the beaches, fearing a Japanese invasion.
They erected wire and placed metal spikes in the sand at Surf Beach and the bathing boxes fell into disrepair. Locals removed them a few years later.
In March 1940 a bushfire, which started in Moriac, devastated Torquay after strong north winds fanned it toward the town. Two stores, 57 houses, a bakery and the Torquay Improvement Association Hall were burnt to the ground in the blaze.
A contingent of 5000 Victorian light horsemen, who were at a training camp on Blackgate Road, fought the fire and saved the Palace Hotel – quite a feat as most buildings around the pub perished.
Sadly, no light horsemen were around to save the pub when it burnt down in August, 1976.
In the post-war years the population of Torquay remained relatively stable, although like today there was a massive influx every summer.
It wasn’t until the 1960s that authorities established sewerage, a permanent police station and town water.
In 1969, Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer had a crack at making a living by sewing wetsuits and making surfboards at the old bakery in Boston Road.
The two young surfers’ company, Ripcurl, had become a market leader in Australia by 1973 and now sells products across the world.
Now Torquay, home to both Ripcurl and Quicksilver, is known as the surfing capital of Australia.
Our little village has grown and continues to develop at an amazing rate.
We are battling to keep our small town identity but reflecting on our history helps us remember who we are.
Our founders came to Torquay to enjoy our beautiful beaches, and brought with them a community spirit, which remains as strong today as it was 130 years ago.
To find out more visit Torquay Museum Without Walls.