[box] Welcome to Treasures: this is a new section where we invite you to tell us about an object or item that you treasure. It might be sentimental, it might be valuable, it might be part of a collection, or it might be something you just can’t live without. If you have a treasure that we can feature here, let us know! Email us at editor@bluestonemagazine.com.au and tell us about it.[/box]

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] H [/dropcap]ave you seen this car?

It is not lost, stolen, missing, for sale or sold, but it was once a much-loved little mover for Cheryle (Chez) and Terry Wilson, a couple from Portland, who have set out to try and find where it may have ended up since they last saw it in the 1970s.

At first glance, it looks like a regular old Mini Minor with some sexy mag wheels, but look again.

This Mini is actually more mini than a Mini thanks to some custom work by Terry and his former panel beating workmates Peter Hudson, who now lives in WA, and Kevin Radcliffe.

“The boss (Peter) brought the car into work one day and asked what we might be able to do with it, so I said I would have a bit of a go at modifying it,” Terry explained.

Terry removed a metre from the middle of the Mini so that the back seat became the front seat, giving a whole new meaning to the term “back seat driver”.

“You actually drove it from the back seat. People thought I must have just chopped the back off, but when they opened the boot, there was a normal size boot: the piece that was missing was from the middle of the car,” he said.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]he body modification meant that the Mini was no longer roadworthy in the technical sense, but it still made a serious impression at the Portland drag races.

The three men raced the car for fun during the mid 1970s and Terry’s tweaks to the motor saw the Mini Minor move in a major way.

“Kevin was driving it and it was a beast. We asked him how fast he was going and he said he was afraid to look,” Terry laughed.

“At one point, though, he said the speedo had gone past where it should go.”

After two or three years of fun with the car, Peter apparently sold it to Mini World in Melbourne and it was never heard of again.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] L [/dropcap]ate last year, however, Chez decided to try and track the car down via online advertisements on ebay and Gumtree and while she received a healthy number of Mr Bean jokes in reply, there have been no confirmed sightings.

“One person told us it was listed on ebay, but it was not the same car,” she said.

“For all we know, it might have been recycled and turned into a washing machine,” Terry added.

Perhaps also keep an eye peeled for a washing machine with one hell of a spin cycle.

[box type=”bio”] If you can help with any information about the modified Mini Minor, please contact Chez at portlandautowreckers@hotmail.com or on 0428 508 998[/box]

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] G [/dropcap]iven Joe Logan is a reader, an English teacher and a bibliophile, what she does to used and old books can only be described as tough love.

In order to create her craft as an upcycler of pre-loved books, she first needs to pull them apart or, at the very least, remove several pages, fiddle with the spines, or redecorate the covers with an assortment of creative twists.

“The first hard cover book I had to pull apart was very hard, but it does get easier: you do get over the desecration,” Joe, from Portland, laughs.

During the working week, Joe teaches senior English classes at Portland Secondary School, but in her spare time she works as one half of luciandjoe (pronounced Luci and Joe) creating new-from-old pieces using bookbinding and papercraft techniques.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] W [/dropcap]hile Joe enrolled in several workshops to learn the traditional methods of bookbinding/restoration and papercraft, she has since turned those techniques on their head to create her own style.

“Basically I learned how to do things the proper way and then butchered those techniques to create something very individual, but which still maintains the integrity of the original book,” she says.

Joe scours op-shops, tip-shops and secondhand stores for pre-loved books that may be a bit crusty, but still have a certain charm or character: perhaps an interesting cover, for example, or some lovely illustrations.

The books are then transformed into something useful and beautiful by having fresh, blank pages added, some old pages removed, and a freshening up of their covers through beading, or stitching, or by adding a special trinket.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] T [/dropcap]hrough this technique, an old encyclopaedia starts a new life as a funky travel journal, a cookbook can become a photo album, or a long-forgotten adventure book is reborn as a diary.

“Every book I select has its own character and I keep that character, because that is also what makes each piece individual and appealing,” Joe explains.

Like most creators, Joe started out making gifts for her friends about 10 years ago, before Megan Langdon, from The Little Bookshop, in Portland, saw the potential in the unique products and began to stock a few pieces. The response prompted Joe to “go public” and, in the past three years, she has started a market stall that visits Warrnambool, Ballarat, Port Fairy and Geelong, while also setting up a shop online.

“People still really love books – they love the tactile nature of a book,” she says.

“And, at the same time, there is a resurgence in crafts and people are more appreciative of hand-made, quality possessions.”

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] A [/dropcap]side from upcycling books, Joe creates a range of cards using her own photographs (such as those taken during a trip to Paris), or screenprinting her own designs.

“I am enjoying exploring the papercraft side of things a bit more and seeing what can be done with screenprinting and embroidery, for example, which brings together my love of paper and fabric,” she says.

People can also commission Joe for a one-off piece of work – perhaps using a book they have chosen – but she has had to knock back customers looking for a book restorer.

“When people ask me if I can restore one of their treasured books, I say ‘you might want to take a closer look at what I do to books!”’

Now we did mention earlier in this story that Joe is one half of luciandjoe, which means there is another half: Joe’s silent partner, Luci.

Luci is 11, white-haired and, despite having four paws, is not particularly dextrous. She is, however, Joe’s beloved Maltese Shih tzu and loves nothing more than a dog-eared book.

[box type=”bio”] Joe Logan will run a series of workshops at the Julia Street Creative Space, Portland, in March. Contact the space (03 5523 6566) for more details. Visit the luciandjoe online store here or find them on Facebook here.[/box]

 If you enjoyed this story, you might enjoy…

Happiness is a home full of pins and needles: Kristi Packham

Hot glass melts hearts: Robert Gatt and Freya Marriott

A long way from Pomonal to Pip: Kate Bouman 

Finding inspiration in the natural world: Jill Edwards

No time limit on this wearable art: Helen Bunyon

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] L [/dropcap]ast week for our Quiet Hero we brought you the inspiring story of the Year 12 students from Bayview College, in Portland, who have chosen a fantastic way to celebrate the end of their secondary schooling.

Instead of spending “Schoolies” getting drunk and partying until their clothes start to shred, these Year 12 students have headed to Vietnam for “Schoolies with a Cause”.

They are spending their time not only exploring another culture so different to their own, but are bending their backs helping on various work projects at the Thanh Loc School.

This week, for something a little different, we decided to share some images from the Schoolies with a Cause Facebook page so you can see the students in action.

[slideshow_deploy id=’3096′]

What a great addition to your resume as a graduating Year 12 student – choosing to spend Schoolies helping out people less fortunate than yourself.

(And thankyou, again, to Katy Sullivan from the Pickled Pelican in Portland for providing us with our coffee and cake vouchers to give two of the key people involved in this project, Rod Stone and Nicole Reefman.)

 Read about more of our Quiet Heroes…

Pat McLaren and the silent terror

A winner for Woodford

United we stand – Wbool Uniting Church

Kylie Thulborn – pushing boundaries

The Drylies and creating art with kids

Susie Alexander fights cancer…and aims for a fun run 

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] T [/dropcap]he end of the school year for Year 12 students has, unfortunately, become associated with some fairly high-level drinking and partying as part of the traditional “Schoolies” week, but a reader has told us about one Portland school that has turned this tradition on its head.

Bayview College, which overlooks the stunning Portland Bay, will this week run its Schoolies with a Cause program, where Year 12 students will celebrate the end of their secondary schooling not by heading to the closest beach, but by helping out at a secondary school in Vietnam.

Eighteen students have volunteered to spend 10 days in a disadvantaged community and will work on a number of projects including improving playground areas.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A5CECD;”] I [/dropcap]t is the third year Schoolies with a Cause has been held by Bayview College, and each year more students are signing up to be a part of a life-changing experience. The trip is subsidised by fundraising held during the year and enthusiastic Year 11 students have already started raising money for their trip in 2014.

There are always a lot of people behind such a successful program, but the two names that kept coming up when we investigated the project were Nicole Reefman, who works as the Public Relations officer at Bayview, and Portland financial adviser Rodney Stone, who has a deep connection with Vietnam through his volunteering stints in the country over the last five years.

We would like to acknowledge the hard work of Nicole and Rodney, in particular, and Bayview College, more broadly, for putting together such a great alternative to “Schoolies”: they are our very worthy Quiet Heroes for the week.

[box] Our Quiet Heroes will each receive a coffee and cake voucher from The Pickled Pelican, 137 Percy St, Portland. Thankyou so much for your support, Pickled Pelican.[/box]

 Meet some of our other quiet heroes…

A winner for Woodford

United we stand – Wbool Uniting Church

Gary Webb – Bidding for the arts

Kylie Thulborn – pushing boundaries

The Drylies and creating art with kids

Susie Alexander fights cancer…and aims for a fun run 

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DDCE8D;”] T [/dropcap]HE MOUTH of the Fitzroy River, between Tyrendarra and Portland, is a wonderful spot that is hard to find, so it is best to look for the shoes.

Some kind and obviously quirky people who live in the farmhouse right across from the turnoff to the river on the Princes Highway have very helpfully decorated their front fence with what looks like every pair of shoes they have ever worn.

Or maybe they found them on the roadside.

Either way, the shoes provide a handy visual marker for the gateway to what is a lovely, yet wild, camping spot for those who like to rough it a little…and bring their dogs.

The “shoe turnoff” is in fact Thompsons Rd which winds its way for a short distance to the coast and the river mouth.

The roughly 4km trip takes you through some lovely farmland dotted with abandoned buildings built by the early settlers in the area.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DDCE8D;”] T [/dropcap]he first stop at the Fitzroy River campground area is the boat ramp where you can wander out on the wooden jetty and watch the river surging its way to the sea.

Drive a little further on to find the start of the campground area, which is essentially a patch of open grass with several trees for shelter.

This area is quite protected from the southerly winds that can whip through the south-coast with ferocity (there are wind farms in this area for a reason!).

Another 200m along and you come to the riverbank where camping is also permitted, but there is less protection from the elements.

Part of the appeal of Fitzroy River is that it remains bush camping, with no power or facilities beyond a new, long-drop toilet block, and a basic picnic and barbecue area.

Camping is free, except for peak times, when an onsite caretaker will collect a small fee; so don’t expect a Big 4 – or the crowds that come with it.

Instead, in the off-season particularly, you will most likely have the place to yourself.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DDCE8D;”] I [/dropcap]t is a wonderful area to explore, with a short walk along the estuary taking you right down to the foreshore of the wild ocean.

Information signs indicate that at least two tall ships came to grief in the area in the 1800s, including the Julia, the remains of which are apparently still visible as a dark patch in the surf, visible from the hilltop.

Dogs are welcome, but plovers nest in the area (it is a great spot for bird watching) so remember to bring a leash…

   Other stories you might enjoy…

Climbing the spectacular cape at Cape Bridgewater, Portland 

More to Heywood than meets the eye

On the road from Port Fairy to Boatswains Point, SA