By Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] M [/dropcap]elanie (Mel) Wells is beside herself with excitement: not only are the glorious Australasian Gannet seabirds back at Point Danger, near Portland, but they have guests.

“We have counted three Cape Gannets (from South Africa) and two have had chicks,” she says with a level of enthusiasm that makes you instantly want to grab your binoculars and go for a peek.

“It is rare to have them coming here, and they have never bred before.”

Mel, from Warrnambool, will be sharing all that she knows about the gannet – and that is plenty – during a free, guided “gawk and talk” at Point Danger on January 25 (see details at the end of story), where people may be lucky enough to see the South African tourists. (Update: unfortunately the Cape Gannets have since abandoned the nest and their chick died, edit.)

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] M [/dropcap]el, a marine biology honours student at Deakin University, has had a fascination with the Australasian Gannet since first spotting one from the Warrnambool breakwater.

“I had always liked birds ever since I was a little kid – I remember going for a walk around Melbourne with my Dad and coming home to write down all the birds I had seen,” Mel laughs.

“But my first love has always been the ocean, so when I started to study marine biology, it was seabirds that came to be my thing.”

Gannets are a superb seabird. A broad wing span (it can extend up to 2 metres) and a dynamic flight pattern that is part kite, part racing car and part dive-bomber, make for a spectacular sight.

But spotting them is usually not easy, as they spend the majority of their lives on the ocean, only coming to land to breed.

“They are perfectly designed for a life at sea and once they have fledged, they will stay out at sea for the first five years of their life,” Mel explains.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] S [/dropcap]outh-west Victoria is particularly privileged, as Point Danger is the only mainland gannet colony in Australia where people can see the birds without needing a boat.

They arrive in their hundreds from September each year to take advantage of the bonney upwelling – a natural phenomena where nutrient rich waters are pushed to the surface from deep below, providing a sort of drive-through cafeteria for a range of marine animals, including seabirds.

“Gannets mate for life and will keep coming back to the same place each year to breed,” Mel says, adding that she knows of one female gannet at Pope’s Eye, off Queenscliff, that is 24 years old.

[button link=”https://www.dropbox.com/sh/udkjpwn3fhhzhi6/AABm0cognIL4GK7JDwDO-7koa/pointdanger.MOV?dl=0″ newwindow=”yes”] If you have Dropbox, you can watch a 1 min video of the Point Danger gannets here.[/button]

The species is also a great believer in gender equality, with both the male and female taking turns to look after the chick, of which they have only one each year.

“They are so gentle and loving toward each other, it is really beautiful to watch, but when they are breeding, they can be super aggressive to anything else,” Mel says.

In fact Mel and her fellow researchers strap plastic chopping boards to their shins when walking among the Pope’s Eye colony to avoid having their legs pecked to pieces.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] M [/dropcap]el has been studying the feeding habits of the Australasian Gannet since last July as part of her honours thesis, under the guidance of lead researcher Associate Professor John Arnold.

The work involves attaching a tiny camera and GPS to the tail of the gannet which records where the birds are feeding and how their diet varies according to their location.

“Some of the images we are getting back are just amazing – David Attenborough stuff,” Mel says.

It appears to be both fascinating and fun work and Mel hopes to specialise in such research after she finishes her thesis in April.

In the meantime, she is thrilled to be able to use the Summer by the Sea guided walks to share her passion for gannets, before they start to take flight again in February.

[box]The Gannets Gawk and Talk is on Sunday, January 25 at 10am. Meet at the Point Danger Gannet Colony Car Park, off Madeira Packet Road, Portland (near the Alcoa smelter). Free, but numbers are limited, so you must reserve your place here. Find full details here.[/box]

[button link=”http://the-terrier.com.au/subscribe-2/” type=”icon” icon=”heart” newwindow=”yes”]Bluestone is aiming for at least 500 subscribers in 2015. If you enjoyed this story, please click here to become one![/button]

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Words and pictures by Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]eetotalling has taken on a whole new meaning at the Panmure Hotel, with owner Annie Lenehan offering beer in the bar and a Bushells out the back.

In what might seem an unusual mix that actually works, Annie and partner Graeme Throckmorton have added a retro-style tearoom to the back of the pub where women – and it is mostly women – can enjoy an afternoon tea or even high tea.

“One older lady said to me that nobody serves scones with jam and cream anymore – well they do at the Panmure pub,” Annie says with a laugh.

Annie bought the historic hotel (built 1871) five years ago, but took over the lease in August 2012. She has since worked hard to make it very much a family friendly place and a country pub with a point of difference.

“It was a very traditional pub in the sense that it wasn’t the sort of place you could walk into and feel entirely comfortable,” Annie says.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] I [/dropcap]n earlier times, a hotel could get by offering cold beer, a bed and a basic meal, but expectations have changed.

“These days, pubs can’t survive by just selling beer over the bar anymore, you need to be able to cater for a very different clientele,” Annie says.

A tearooms decorated in rose pink and an eclectic mix of retro and vintage items collected over the years is about as different as it gets.

“Nothing in here matches,” Annie laughs, “but it works.”

The tearooms also contain a sample of the more than 200 teapots that Annie has collected for many years, despite being a non-tea drinker for most of her life.

“I only started to drink tea about five years ago,” she says.

“But I have always loved teapots!”

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] A [/dropcap]nnie was born in Panmure and moved around the south-west quite a lot as a child and, later, in her 30-year career in hospitality.

She was living and working in Port Campbell when she decided to make the move back to her home town.

“I am a country girl. I really don’t like the city and can’t wait to get out of it when I go,” she says, and I assume she is talking about Melbourne, until she reveals it is Warrnambool.

Shortly after opening her tearooms, one of Panmure’s local identities, artist Glenda Hirth, dropped in to welcome her to the town and to see if she could host an event for the local Country Women’s Association.

“Glenda ran it by the CWA committee and they agreed. They had an absolute ball and have been coming here ever since,” Annie smiles, knowing endorsement by the local CWA is high praise indeed.

This more genteel side of the Panmure pub would surely meet the approval of the late Violet Meere, who helped her husband, Herbert Walsh, run the hotel in the early 1900s after being initially reluctant to work in such a male-dominated domain.

Annie hopes the tearooms will see the pub thrive into the future.

“Too many country pubs are closing down: well this one is not going to.”

[box]The afternoon teas, which are served at weekends, can be stylish or simple: Devonshire tea, mini high tea and a full high tea, with or without champagne. Groups by arrangement. Panmure Hotel, Princes Highway, Panmure. Ph: (03) 55 67 6270 [/box]

[button link=”http://the-terrier.com.au/subscribe-2/” type=”icon” icon=”heart” newwindow=”yes”]Bluestone is aiming for at least 500 subscribers in 2015. If you enjoyed this story, please click here to become one![/button]

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CLOSED – winners Jacqui Eberbach and Kate Scanlan

Bluestone Magazine is giving away 2 tickets (valued at $90 each) to attend the International Women’s Day Gala Dinner on February 28 at the Quality Suites Deep Blue Hotel, Pertobe Rd.

All current and new subscribers are eligible to enter.

The first 15 current subscribers to email us at editor@bluestonemagazine.com.au and the first 5 new subscribers will go into the draw.

Winners will be announced no later than February 5 and notified via email and our Facebook page.

Tickets to the dinner are $90 ($50 concession) or a table of 10 is $850 and available online via TryBooking here or from reception at Emma House, 131 Kepler St, Warrnambool (cash only).

You can read our story about the event here.

* New subscribers also have chance to win one of the six fantastic gift packs from Glenafton Goat Milk Skincare. See full details here.

CLOSED: winners, Nan Adams, Lesley Barnewall, Jane McDonald, Patricia Edney, Marianne Anthony and Ann O’Keeffe.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] T [/dropcap]hanks to the generosity of Bluestone supporter and subscriber Sharyn Carmichael from Glenafton Goat Milk Skincare, we have six fabulous gift packs – valued at more than $60 – to give away to six lucky new subscribers.

Glenafton specialises in hand-crafted, natural skin products that are made from the milk of more than 100 Anglo-Nubian goats that Sharyn farms with her husband, Trevor, on their property at Woorndoo. (See our earlier story here).

The gift packs include a ‘Natural’ Lotion with unrefined, organic shea butter; a creamy body wash with Australian lavender essential oils; a ‘Zinc’ lotion for hands, face and body; a Glenafton Goat Milk Soap; and a raspberry lip balm with shea butters and beeswax.

[box]The next 10 yearly subscribers to Bluestone Magazine will all go in the draw for one of these lovely packs, so if you have been thinking about subscribing (and keeping Bluestone alive), now is the time to do it. [/box]

The next five yearly subscribers will also be in the running for two tickets to the International Women’s Day gala dinner in Warrnambool on February 28, featuring Clementine Ford. See details of that competition here.

[box]You can find the Glenafton website here  and Sharyn can be found selling her products at a range of markets around Port Fairy, Warrnambool and districts. You can also order direct via scarmichael@optusnet.com.au or 0427 516 888[/box]

OPINION – Carol Altmann

The exposure of senior Warrnambool City Council manager Peter Abbott as the author of anonymous comments to the local newspaper attacking some councillors has revealed a toxic culture developing within its walls.

The local newspaper has today named Mr Abbott, who is the head of the council’s tourism services and manager of the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village, as the author of a string of comments to its online forum in which he regularly targeted Crs Peter Hulin and Brian Kelson while hiding behind a pseudonym.

This is not the actions of some junior staff member, over-excited by the opportunities of social media to air his spleen anonymously.

It is the actions of an experienced, highly-paid council manager who has set out to systemically discredit two of the people elected to represent ratepayers.

Mr Abbott cannot claim to have had a single rush of blood to the head.

Instead, he has carefully differentiated between commenting under his real name and making up a string of names such as Robinhood, Trash and Smallman to accuse Cr Kelson, in particular, of making false claims, getting his facts wrong, and failing to attend meetings.

These are highly personal attacks, designed to diminish the public’s view of elected members that – as representatives of the people – Mr Abbott is paid to serve.

If he was a senior public servant within the state or federal government making anonymous, critical attacks on MPs, he would have been dismissed for behaviour that is unethical, unprofessional and totally inappropriate.

The question is, how did Mr Abbott come to think that his behaviour was acceptable and, now that it has been exposed, how has he survived in his position?

Mr Abbott’s actions are indicative of a toxic culture that has been allowed to flourish within the council that considers some people – in particular Crs Kelson, Hulin and Sycopoulis – to be fair game.

It is a culture fed by a misguided belief that a council should be passive by not asking too many questions, not rocking the boat and agreeing to every decision as a united front.

Those who refuse to fit this mould are considered troublemakers who need to be discredited or, even better, removed from council altogether.

With this in mind, Mr Abbott no doubt thought that he was doing his bit.

The council’s chief executive Bruce Anson knows a lot about the potential problems of attacking councillors behind pseudonyms when he was scrutinised – and cleared – of any involvement in a series of letters to the newspaper written by his son under the pseudonym of Wilma Wright.

These letters, written over a period of four years, included personal attacks on Crs Sycopoulis, Hulin and then-councillor Jennifer Lowe during the 2012 election campaign.

Given this recent history, I would have expected Mr Anson to come down heavily on a senior staff member who has been exposed for such extraordinary and unprofessional behaviour.

Instead, Mr Anson has backed Mr Abbott to the hilt.

In his statement to the paper, Mr Anson said while “staff” should not engage in political debate online, he stood by “the excellent work” Mr Abbott had done at Flagstaff Hill and that he would  “be heavily involved” in the upgrade of the site.

Indeed Mr Anson even feels sorry for Mr Abbott: “It’s always a challenge, when you work as a public servant, to weather the criticism that comes with the job.” (I am sure the people who Mr Abbott has attacked would agree).

So Mr Abbott is going nowhere and will suffer no professional consequences for his actions.

I am trying to imagine the CEO’s response if Mr Abbott’s anonymous, public criticisms were aimed at Mayor Michael Neoh or, indeed, himself?

Would it be considered okay to continue in your position if you publicly criticised the two top civic officials you worked for?

Or what if Mr Abbott had used his anonymous comments to undermine the two women councillors, Crs Gaston and Ermacora? Would he (quite rightly) be taken to task then?

This should not be about individuals, but standards. Unfortunately what we have seen unfold today indicates that our local council has a long way to go in not only setting the highest standards for its staff, but enforcing them.

Note: It was Cr Brian Kelson who exposed the extent of the problems with the collection management system at Flagstaff Hill that has since revealed more than 130 missing artefacts, damage to Loch Ard relics and inadequate to non-existent record keeping. You can read our two earlier pieces on this issue here and here.