Carol Altmann – The Terrier

It’s two weeks tomorrow since Lyndoch Living went into lockdown in the face of the Covid-19 virus.

At the same time, as we know, Victoria has strict rules regarding leaving home, travelling or spending time with others, with a bottom line that if it’s not essential, don’t do it.

But where has the Lyndoch CEO, Doreen Power, been these past two weekends since the lockdown began?

Not in Warrnambool, but – according to sources – travelling back to Melbourne, which is where Ms Power has her family home.

This came as a shock to me: that the CEO was not here, seven days a week, standing side-by-side with the staff as they faced a health challenge that could devastate a nursing home if it took hold.

Why, as their leader, would you not be here? If there is a logical explanation, we should be able to hear it.

 

It’s well known in certain circles that Ms Power travels home most weekends – usually leaving Friday afternoon and returning Monday morning – having never relocated her family to Warrnambool as she planned to do, according to a local newspaper report, after becoming CEO in 2015.

In normal times, we might shrug our shoulders and say “who cares?”

But these are far from normal times.

Lyndoch Living is an aged care facility in full lockdown and Ms Power is the CEO of this facility.

Is travelling anywhere out of Warrnambool right now and then returning to Lyndoch the best thing to be doing? Is it essential?

Does the board know about this and does it accept it as being okay?

This is why CEO’s are paid the big dollars, because the expectations on their time are so much greater and especially so during a crisis.

I have checked the fine print for the Victorian travel restrictions and people who have two dwellings can travel between them (such as a parent who works in the city, but commutes home at weekends), but the overarching message is to do so only if absolutely necessary.

Lyndoch Living says as much on its own website: it tells us there are only four reasons for us to be leaving home – food, work, exercise and medical reasons.

We know the mantra and we are all doing our bit, despite all of us missing family and friends and wishing we could just jump in the car and drive.

We can’t.

But the CEO of Lyndoch can, even with Lyndoch in lockdown, and my question is why?

 

I put three questions about this to the CEO and the board chair Kerry Nelson this morning. I have not yet had a reply and will run it in full if I do, although I suspect the questions, as in the past, will be met with silence.

Speaking of silence, it’s also a fortnight since the Lyndoch Living board met to talk, among other things, about how to respond to explosive allegations against the CEO that were contained in a confidential staff survey.

We have heard nothing official since.

This is despite South West MP Roma Britnell saying that the allegations and concerns in the survey mirrored those from people who had contacted her directly over the past months.

And it’s despite the last two places where Ms Power worked as a CEO before being hired by Lyndoch Living – Seymour Health and Plenty Valley Health – both reporting low staff morale during her tenure: that is on the public record.

And yet the Lyndoch board has done nothing and continues to do nothing.

 

Maybe they just don’t believe it.

Or maybe Lyndoch has seen so many staff leave over the past five years that they no longer care whether good, hard-working people stay, or they leave because they have had enough or felt they had no choice.

That must be terrific for staff morale.

And yet the Lyndoch staff, all of them, are now rolling up their sleeves, battening down the hatches and devoting themselves to caring and protecting the frail and infirm residents against one of the greatest health challenges of our time in the Covid-19 virus.

The staff continue to show their professionalism and concern: they continue to show up because they care – first and foremost – about the residents who have perhaps never been more vulnerable.

For this, I send gratitude and thanks to all of the Lyndoch staff and I know you do too.

I am suspending the Tip Jar for the time being and encouraging readers to make a donation to Warrnambool Food Share which you can do below.

By Carol Altmann

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] I[/dropcap]t is with a hint of shame that I must admit that despite the Cape Nelson lighthouse being “just down the road” for 131 years, I have never got around to visiting it.

“You are not alone,” Rob Hunt says by phone, when I confess my failing.

Rob, who together with his wife, Margaret, leases and manages the Cape Nelson lighthouse precinct which includes unique accommodation, a cafe and the lighthouse itself, says most of their visitors come from well beyond south-west Victoria.

“We get a lot of international guests, especially from Europe, China…who are looking for something different and something remote,” he says.

If people are prepared to travel tens of thousands of kilometres to see a place that is right on our doorstep, we thought it about time Bluestone drove a mere 90km from Warrnambool to just south of Portland and checked out the historic landmark in a spectacular landscape.

In the process, we uncovered the perfect day trip.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] P[/dropcap]ortland locals Grant and Carmel Wallace, together with son, James, have kindly agreed to act as our guides, which is extremely helpful because Grant is one of several tour guides at the lighthouse, so he really knows his stuff.

We start the day with what should have been an invigorating 3km, circular walk on the way to the lighthouse, the Sea Cliff Nature Walk, but there is so much to enjoy on the walk that it is impossible not to stop, look, smell and even taste, if the bush tucker berries happen to be out.

Best of all, the easy walk reaches its halfway point on a rocky outcrop that offers spectacular views across to Cape Bridgewater and makes you re-appreciate – all over again – the wild coastline that so defines where we live.

According to the Portland Tourism Association, this lovely walk was created in 1979 by Portland High School students, parents and teachers as the first bit of what is now the 250km Great South West Walk. It is well sign-posted off the Cape Nelson Road and you can download the Parks Victoria walking notes here.

Of course after a walk, comes lunch.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T[/dropcap]he Wallaces whisk us off down the road to the lighthouse for lunch at Isabella’s, the beautifully refurbished bluestone cafe that was originally a stables and still has some bluestone flagstone flooring.

The cafe was the first thing to be revamped when Rob and Margaret took over the complex in 2008. They added a commercial kitchen, reglazed the front and employed former thespian, Steve Campbell, to run the place.

Steve, who still has the pliable face of an actor, adds a touch of style from the moment you step in the door, but this is not a stuffy, over-priced cafe. Instead it is cosy, affordable and offers great food including fish and chips (fresh flathead tails) to a gourmet, home-made chicken pie, to lamb kofta. (No wonder it averages almost five stars on trip advisor.)

Fed and walked, we make one final, quick detour before the lighthouse to look inside the cottage accommodation.

The side-by-side cottages were originally built for the assistant lighthouse keepers but, over the years, as Rob describes it, were “bastardised” into three units. As part of a painstaking restoration that finished in 2010, walls that had been pulled down were replaced. Fireplaces that had been closed off were reopened.

“We ended up doing a renovation in reverse: not fixing it, but taking it back to what it was,” Rob says.

The Hunts are now restoring the lighthouse keeper’s home for similar, boutique, unique accommodation.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] A[/dropcap]nd so, to the lighthouse: the 32-metre tall, whitewashed wonder that has been safely guiding ships to the shore since 1884 and is still fully operational.

In this respect, it is a rare treat to be able to spiral your way into a working lighthouse, as most of those open to the public in Victoria have been decommissioned.

Whenever I am near a lighthouse, I always suffer from a mix of slight vertigo, awe and an inexplicable desire to quote passages from Moby Dick (if I knew any) and today is no different.

The lighthouse is in stunning condition, as solid as the day it was first built, with freshly painted railings and shining brass air vents and a visually arresting staircase that winds us up, up, up – like climbing the inside of a nautilus shell – until we pop into the light room.

Grant points out the globe that illuminates the world, well, at least our corner of it, and I won’t spoil that surprise…

He then heaves open an Alice-in-Wonderland-style door and we duck our heads, pass through, and step out.

Gasp.

Wow.

[box]The Cape Nelson Lighthouse precinct tours operate daily at 11am and 2pm, fees apply. Isabella’s is open seven days, from 10am-4pm, serving coffee, cake and lunch. Breakfast is also available from 10am on weekends. Licensed. For more information on the Cape Nelson Lighthouse precinct and bookings, visit the website here. [/box]

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After living in Tasmania for a time,  the bar had been set very high for bushwalking. A visit to Cape Bridgewater, however, exceeded all expectations.

 

 

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DDCE8D;”] E [/dropcap]xactly where the Great Ocean Road comes to an end in south-west Victoria is open to debate, but those who turn off too early – say, at Port Fairy – are missing one of the most spectacular beaches and cliff top walks in the state.

Cape Bridgewater is only 20km west of Portland and wraps itself around a long, crescent-shaped beach that is perfect in itself for a long walk, but the real joy lies in a two-hour return walk to the tip of the cape that takes in two seal colonies.

You can prime yourself for the walk ahead with a morning coffee at the charming Pickled Pelican café in Percy St, Portland – say that three times quickly – or breakfast at the funky Bridgewater Bay Café that has absolute waterfront views. (Unlike many beach cafes, this one is open all year round).

The walk starts with steps up from the carpark about 100m west of the café, although we still managed a wrong turn and ended up on a wheelchair ramp rather than the steps, which was slightly embarrassing.

[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DDCE8D;”] F [/dropcap]rom the carpark, the track meanders high along the farmland boundary before descending to the shoreline where Seals by Sea Tours run seasonal boat trips out to the seal colonies, cutting the travel time to a few minutes. For those who like to walk, however, the trek is just beginning.

The track rises up to the cape in a steady climb, but is still steep enough in parts to work up a sweat on a warm day and requires a reasonable level of fitness (be sure to carry a water bottle, and binoculars are also handy).

The views as you move up and along the cliff face become increasingly spectacular and are equal to those of the more famous parts of the Great Ocean Road around Port Campbell and Peterborough.

[quote type = “center”] Allow time for plenty of stops to take photos, as on a clear day, the views across the bay are vast and breathtaking.[/quote]

While the scenery alone is worth the walk, Cape Bridgewater is also home to the largest mainland colony of fur seals in Australia and there are two viewing platforms from which to watch them at rest and play.

The first platform overlooks a flat rock that is equivalent to a seal sun bed, while the second, at the end of the walk, looks down on a reef that the seals use for surfing (this is where the binoculars come in handy).

[quote type=”center”] While wildlife is wonderfully unpredictable, we were lucky enough to see a dozen or more seals frolicking in the surf and catching waves like Kelly Slater.[/quote]

The geology of the area is also fascinating, with the tip of Cape Bridgewater actually part of a volcanic crater – such facts always make my head spin.

After a packed lunch, the return walk was less arduous, being mostly downhill, but equally as beautiful, with the mid-afternoon sun shimmering on the water.

This is a walk that is not too long, not too difficult, and very rewarding: perfect for a fine spring day.

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