By Carol Altmann

There is a small irony in the fact that one of the earliest motels built in Warrnambool to accommodate motorists will be bulldozed to make way for a car yard.

The Caravilla motel, now known as the Southern Right Motor Inn, was one of several ultra-modern motels to spring up on the eastern entrance to Warrnambool during the late 1950s and early 60s to cater for a generation of post-war holidaymakers on the move.

Now, with the imminent demise of the Caravilla, the Turn-In Motel further along Raglan Parade will be the only Warrnambool motel from the 1950s that is still standing.

The motel site has been bought by the Clinton Baulch Motor Group to expand its presence with a new car yard and showroom, with the property keys to be handed over in March next year.

While the budget motel has no doubt seen better days, its demolition has a particular poignancy for Jenni DeGrandi, the daughter of draftsman Don Hunt who designed the building.

“It’s very sad for me to see that it’s going,” Jenni told Bluestone.

“As old as it is, I think it is still cheap accommodation for people on a budget holiday (and ) it’s just another piece of Warrnambool’s history going, sadly.”

Don Hunt was part of the well-known architectural firm run by ‘Tag’ Walter and Bruce Auty whose mid-century modern designs are now gaining a new appreciation across Warrnambool and other parts of the south-west.

The Caravilla’s reception had a distinctive ‘Dutch-hat’ design with a steeply pitched roofline, while the motel’s ‘wings’ included the signature crazy paving decorative stone that typifies buildings of the era.

As Bluestone columnist Clinton Krause has written previously, it was a period heavily influenced by trends in the United States where energetic and creative designers were busting out of the stuffy confines of traditional architecture to reflect an age of space travel, relaxed home entertaining and the automobile.

This influence can be seen in the Caravilla, which has similar lines to the now defunct and demolished Aloha Motel in Miami, Florida.

English  couple Andrew and Mary McKenzie bought the Southern Right Motor Inn just on 11 years ago, three years after it had been reinstated as a motel after serving for many years as student accommodation (Ethel Mitchell House) for the Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education and later Deakin University.

“We had been to Warrnambool a couple of times and decided we wanted to move here, so Mary started looking for budget motels and we found this on the internet,” Andrew explains.

“We’ve had 10 good years and most people in motels only last five, so we have done pretty well,” he says.

Unlike the Turn In Motel, the majority of the original fittings and features of the Caravilla are long gone, replaced during several makeovers up until the 1980s.

As a budget motel, however, it has attracted a steady clientele.

“There are a lot of people who either don’t want to or can’t afford $150-plus a night, so it has been great for them. Each year we have had it, apart from one or two years, it has got better and better,” Andrew says.

The Caravilla/Ethel Mitchell House/Southern Right Motor Inn will close in February in preparation for the March handover.

In the meantime, another of Don Hunt’s buildings – a residence at 60 Jukes St, Warrnambool that was built in 1959 – has recently been given local heritage protection.

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Time stands still in Reicha’s store, Terang

W’bool losing its character, brick by brick

Turning in to the Turn In Motel

By Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] D[/dropcap]riving through Cobden on a very quiet Tuesday morning, I spotted a sign that is impossible to pass: Op Shop – OPEN.

The Uniting Church Op-shop in Cobden is part of a larger community house that actually looks like a cute, welcoming house: the sort of cottage that your grandparents might have lived in.

And inside I meet a smiling, blue-eyed woman who is just the sort of person we would all want as a grandma, if we didn’t happen to have one.

“I am Mary Elizabeth Smith,” she says by way of introduction.

“Mary Smith, I know, a very uncommon name,” she adds with a laugh.

Mary doesn’t own a computer and has no interest in ever doing so, but she likes the idea of a story about the shop in Bluestone Magazine and is more than happy to show this drop-in visitor around.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] T[/dropcap]he op-shop, Mary explains, was recently expanded to allow more space for its wares and it is surprising to discover just how many rooms it occupies.

The back section, added as part of a major upgrade in 2014, is full of neatly stacked games and books and toys and well-organised racks of clothing, shelves of linen, and an assortment of larger furniture.

By selling some of the church’s other assets, including buildings at South Purrumbete and Purrumbete, plus donations from the community, the Uniting Church has transformed the cottage into a welcoming and useful space.

The upgrade included not only more room for the secondhand treasures, but a community meeting room, full kitchen facilities and spanking new toilets.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] V[/dropcap]olunteers like Mary keep the place ticking over and I point out that, technically, she shouldn’t even be there given it is 11.30am and the sign says the op-shop opens at 1pm on Tuesdays.

“I know, but if there is somebody available, we open, so don’t worry too much about the sign,” she smiles.

“Take a look around, take your time.”

And with that, I am off, peering at old paintings, checking out the cutlery, cups and plates and slowly entering that blissful state that comes over us op-shoppers when we are immersed in a new find.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] A[/dropcap] retro metal candle holder for a trio of candles is the pick of the day at $4, followed closely by a long teak platter for $1.

Now I am not sure it is right to eavesdrop in an op-shop, but as I take my treasures to the counter, I can’t help but overhear a conversation about the imminent arrival of the person who will be handling welfare requests at the shop that day.

It is a gentle reminder that op-shops are so important in so many ways. If you are anywhere near Cobden, drop in to visit this one.

[box]The Uniting Church Op-Shop is at 50 Curdie St, Cobden (the main street). The official opening hours are Mon-Thurs 1pm-4pm; Friday 10am-4pm;
Sat 10am-12pm. Contact: 0475 699 483. You can find them on the Cobden Business Network here. [/box]

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Restoring a treasure back to life

Words and photos: Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] A [/dropcap]s an experienced paediatrician, Dr Nick Thies is already considered somewhat of a magic man in medicine, but he also – quite literally – has a number of tricks up his sleeve.

“Here you go,” he says, flipping three playing cards between his fingers, and launching into a quick trick where red cards mysteriously turn into blue cards and blue cards transform into red cards and within seconds, despite how hard you concentrate, you are completely bamboozled.

Nick then makes a coin disappear from his fist and reappear out of his shirt collar, before showing me how he can balance a drinking glass on the razor-thin edge of a card.

It is all mysterious, magical and good old-fashioned fun and will be part of of the Warrnambool Theatre Company Variety Show next Friday and Saturday (Nov 6-7) at Warrnambool’s Mozart Hall.

“I did my first real show at Fifteen Minutes of Fame at Crossley about two years ago and, because of that, Heather Goddard (WTC president) asked me if I would be part of the first revue, which I did, and so here I am again,” Nick explains.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] A [/dropcap] love of magic, however, began for Nick when he was a teenage scout and his scoutmaster, a Mr Rids Van De Zee, happened to also be a magician (and with a name like that, how could he not be?)

“He would put on magic shows for us kids and I was fascinated by those and tried to learn a few tricks,” Nick says.

Then, about 10 years ago, Nick’s youngest daughter, Lucinda, introduced him to a friend from the UK who had come to Australia to surf and ended up staying and, eventually, working as a professional magician.

Nick again picked up a few fun tricks that he could use with his young patients to keep their mind off their medical issues.

“I always have a little trick in my pocket because it really helps to develop an understanding with children, and it’s a bit of fun,” he says.

The WTC Variety Review will see Nick debut a series of new tricks, based on the famous escape artist Houdini, for which he was still rehearsing.

“That could end rather awkwardly,” I joke.

“Hmmm, I am pretty confident, but we’ll see,” Nick laughs.

[box]The review on Nov 6 and 7 features a 1930s theme and includes pianist Gavin Franklin, balladeer Joseph Buller, singer Belinda Bell, Bernie Opperman on accordion, a barber-shop quartet, female singing trio and even a drag queen. MC is John McGuiness. Tickets are $25/$20 and include a complimentary drink and canapes. Available from Collins Booksellers, 159 Liebig St, W’bool.[/box]

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Comment – Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] T [/dropcap]here is a great line floating around about the South West Coast by-election this Saturday (Oct 31) – don’t keep voting the same way and expect things to be different!

Yet so many south-west Victorians do just that: keep voting the same party back in year after year and then complain that things don’t change.

You only need to look around our beautiful corner of the world to see the hazards of living in a super safe seat and when it comes to the condition of our roads they are, quite literally, hazardous.

The roads are dreadful and the train service is old and inadequate.

The local job market – especially for young people – is shrinking as traditional industries close down or dry up, with few adequate replacements.

Portland should have, by now, been sitting at the forefront of the state’s renewable energy industry, but has been hamstrung by the poor policies of the conservative parties at both a state and federal level.

Our key tertiary institutions, South West TAFE and Deakin University, are struggling to either get back on their feet (as in the case of TAFE which was gutted under the Napthine Government) or to keep upright, as in the case of Deakin-Warrnambool.

Warrnambool used to be a humming university town: it is no longer, as bit by bit tertiary courses are shut down, relocated, or moved online.

Mainstreet is struggling, shops sit empty and fibs are told – such as the fib about the number of jobs that would come from a largely automated powdered milk factory and cold store in Merrivale – to make it look like change is happening.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] T [/dropcap]he people living in the south-west are not suckers, yet every election that comes along, be it state or federal, I believe we act that way.

We forget all that has gone before and fall for the glossy, big-faced posters that are strung up on fences, even if, in the case of Michael Neoh, they only joined their party (the Nationals) minutes after it became clear they were not wanted by their first party (the Liberals).

Or we are bombarded by advertising from deep-pocketed parties like the Liberals, who have long treated this seat like a personal fiefdom.

And, sure enough, the same party wins each time, and nothing actually changes.

So the roads get lumpier and bumpier, the old train with its old carriages still runs late, and more young people slip into a zone where they leave school, jobs are harder to find and things like “ice” become a way out of reality.

This Saturday, things can be different.

We can make a change – a real change – by voting for an independent, and that independent is Warrnambool legal aid lawyer Roy Reekie.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DC943C;”] B [/dropcap]luestone is backing Roy for this election because we believe he has the experience, commitment and creative thinking needed to put the south-west back on the electoral map.

We want to live in an electorate that is no longer taken for granted, and attracts as much attention from Spring St as the other marginal seats around Victoria. As an independent, Roy can make a lot of noise and he can make it now – not stuck on the Opposition benches.

Roy has a range of creative and interesting ideas (you can read more on his by-election Facebook page and his open letter to voters) and, above all, he has shown a unbendable commitment to representing this corner of the world – even at his own expense.

Why else would anyone run five times against formidable odds?

The odds are still formidable – former Liberal Premier Denis Napthine pushed the seat out to an 11 per cent margin – but we are hoping that, this time, the south-west is ready to back a different runner in Roy Reekie and come home a real winner.

[box]A forum featuring all candidates will be held at the Lighthouse Theatre, W’bool, tomorrow (Monday Oct 26) at 7pm. The candidates are: Roy Reekie (independent), Thomas Campbell (The Greens), Roma Britnell (Liberal), Michael Neoh (Nationals), Michael McCluskey (independent), Swampy Marsh (independent), Pete Smith (independent), Jim Doukas (Country Party), Rodney Van De Hoef (independent), Jennifer Gamble (Animal Justice Party), Lillian Len (Australian Christians).[/box]

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Analysis  – Carol Altmann

The figures for the 2015 Fun4Kids Festival are in, and it’s a case of good news and bad news for the Warrnambool City Council and, by default, its ratepayers.

The good news is that it didn’t blow the bank.

In other words, it kept within the $450,000 budget that was set aside last October and avoided anything like the $150,000 blow-out of last year. Phew.

The bad news, however, is that the festival is attracting less people and therefore, you can assume, generating less economic and tourism benefits to Warrnambool but still costing $450,000 to run.

While there is still no official report on the results, the council released some figures to Bluestone today which said about 15,000 tickets were sold for the seven day event.

Last year, when the event ran over eight days, it attracted 19,758 people.

Of the 15,000 tickets sold this year, 24% were from metropolitan Melbourne – the highest percentage ever – which sounds like great news, until you work out that equates to only 3600 people compared to 3965 in 2015 and 5590 in 2013.

When you are coming off a smaller base, the percentages start to get wobbly.

It is extremely difficult to run a critical eye over a children’s festival – after all, it is aimed at children for god’s sake – but someone also needs to be the kid in the crowd as the Emperor marches by and point out that he is wearing no clothes.

So Bluestone, at risk of being deemed “too negative”, is prepared to say that the Fun4Kids Festival is getting precariously close to being bare-butt naked.

The reason is that the festival is no longer what it was designed to be, which was a major tourism attraction for Warrnambool.

Indeed in its heyday, the festival was pulling crowds of more than 32,000 people: double what it now achieves.

It was also costing less – far less – and at one point it was thought the council may not need to subsidise it at all because it would cover all of its own expenses. Such a notion now seems fanciful.

Here is the critical stat: in 2005, not long after the festival first began, it cost the council $156,354 and attracted 32,112 people.

This year, it cost up to $450,000 and attracted 15,000 people.

These are the cold, hard facts and why council staff last October recommended that the festival be discontinued because it had seemingly had its day.

But the decision to kill Peppa Pig, as it were, proved too emotional for the majority of the councillors and they agreed to press on in 2015 – turning the festival into more of a grassroots, simple-kids-fun kind of event with an extra heavy reliance on volunteers.

According to council spokesman Nick Higgins, this formula is set to be repeated in 2016.

“Council will shortly call for expressions of interest from local people keen to be part of the festival’s community consultation panel,” he said via email.

“The panel worked well this year and generated plenty of ideas and enthusiasm for the festival.”

It is wonderful to see such ideas and enthusiasm and I am sure most of the 15,000 people who turned up this year had a terrific time, but is this the best use of $450,000 each year to generate more visitors to Warrnambool?

Cr Kylie Gaston asked a question this week of Cr Brian Kelson, when he successfully pushed for free CBD parking over December and January, as to where the $70,000 in lost car parking revenue could be cut from within the budget.

I can think of at least one area….

For my money, I think free off-street parking over the busy summer period will do more for local traders than seven days of Fun4Kids where most of the action is confined to a plastic palace on the Civic Green.

If we want to continue to run a kid’s festival for, mostly, local and regional kids to enjoy, then let’s embrace that idea and stop pretending that Fun4Kids is a major tourism magnet.

It was once, but it is no longer, and there still needs to be a full and frank conversation about its long-term future.