One Down, One to Go.

GORCAPA has finally seen sense, listened to the Lorne community, and provided what should have been an easy solution from the start—a renovation plan for the Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club building that meets all community needs.

Why it proved so difficult is, frankly, beyond comprehension, but with one half of the Point Grey project agreed … Hallelujah!

While Leonard Cohen might not have had Point Grey in mind when he penned his timeless anthem, with a few word swaps [and my apologies], it could have served as the script for Lorne’s never-ending fight…

“Well, it went like this,

The fourth, the fifth

A minor brawl, then a major rift

As the baffled township prayed for Hallelujah!” 

Now for the more challenging part—the renovated, ‘reimagined’ Co-op building.  Let’s hope GORCAPA will pick up some pieces from its shattered community respect, listen again, and come back with a freshly minted ‘A’ game.  Their latest sketch plan brutally demeans our memories of the original … the attached architect’s drawing shows a ten-seat kiosk [think soft drink cans, lolly wrappers, and discarded takeaway coffee cups] and a public loo!  This will not impress the town.  While we accept there must be a public loo, please put it around the back and out of view.

 

Please think again. It shouldn’t be hard to …

• Rebuild to a surface footprint similar in space and area to the current structure. Most now accept that the old building has passed its use-by date.  Don’t try to make a statement.  A replacement structure that echoes the lines of the old girl it replaces is possible without spending a fortune.
• Design its north-west facing wall—for the spatially challenged, the wall that faces the LAAC and has the prevailing south-easterly weather at its back—that opens onto an outdoor patio if it’s sunny or closes against the westerly rain when it’s cold.
• While GORCAPA seems oddly averse to a formal restaurant—though no one understands why—it has lowered its gaze far too far by suggesting “a ten-seat café”. That’s more than ‘minimalistic’, it’s insulting.  What’s more, no lessee alive would take up that option and make it work.  It should not be hard to imitate the ‘Swing Bridge Café’ at Point Grey or to draw from Apollo Bay’s experience with a relaxed harbour-side seafood café.  Furthermore, the LAAC would likely welcome any such venture.
• The dominant feature in the architect’s drawing is a ‘gender neutral’ public loo [which I personally find detestable], but if the reconstructed building were to match the current Co-op’s footprint, the service facility would take precedence, not the public loo. GORCAPA’s current suggestion is cringeworthy.

Lorne’s active and excellent Historical Society [LHS] has attempted to promote Lorne’s unique history within the redevelopment.  Oddly, this has been a struggle from the outset.  The current drawing insults the town again by offering just two small, enclosed, and static display cases.  Where is your imagination?  Where is there pride in that?

Reiterating my recent Committee for Lorne editorial [GORCAPA: Chained by its Creator: SCT 26/09/2025: p22], the innovative LHS concept would incorporate hard copy, digital, and holographic screen displays that showcase:

• The links between the ancient Otway rainforest and old Gondwana.
• The long history of the Gadubanud in Otway’s forests … note that the Eastern Maar, the current so-called ‘traditional owners’, only came into existence as a legal entity in 2011 and cannot—indeed should not—be allowed to replace the Gadubanud as the rightful Otway Aboriginal tribe.
• The importance of the Aboriginal feasting sites—the middens—that front the shores in and around Point Grey.
• Lorne’s rich early settlement story—the arrival of the Mountjoy brothers, the establishment of their cattle run, and the hinterland history of potato farming.
• The timber industry, with its extensive railways and horse-drawn cartways that cut through the steep Otway valleys, played a crucial role in transporting the massive forest giants to places like Lorne, Wye River, and Apollo Bay.
• The clear-felling of the forests … the LHS has an extraordinary photographic record of the denuded hills behind Lorne, which, while nothing to be proud of, nevertheless tells a powerful story of colonial Melbourne, Geelong, and the goldfield towns of Ballarat and Bendigo.
• “There’s coal in them thar hills”—the coal mines of Benwerrin and Wensleydale.
• The tourism boom of the late 1800s, the guest house years, and the tussle between temperance and tipple.
• The genesis of ‘The Road’—Howard Hitchcock’s bold idea, the hardy First World War diggers who came in droves to hand-build the road with picks, shovels, wheelbarrows, and dynamite and the challenges in the modern era of maintaining this national asset, now billed as the largest single war memorial in the world.
• The ‘Couta Decades’: the fishing families and the unique pier-based crane and rail system they devised to avoid Lorne’s boat-unfriendly shore by lowering and lifting their couta boats to the safety of the pier, where they would unload their seemingly endless tonnes of fresh couta into the Co-op.
• Lorne’s seminal role in Victoria’s surf lifesaving history, along with the arrival of the surfboard, and the remarkable success of the Lynch and Couper years during the 1960s surfing revolution.
• The transformation of Lorne into a tourist destination with the rise of 21^st-century hospitality, the influence of our Greek bistros, and Lorne’s day-tourism boom.
• Lastly, while a reincarnated fresh fish retail outlet—think ‘Pisces by Christos’—might be wishful thinking, there’s no harm in dreaming!

Lift your game, GORCAPA.  Replacing the Co-op with a kiosk and public toilet is just as disrespectful to the town’s rich history as the earlier architecturally terrible designs that we fortunately avoided.

A simple, understated, site-sensitive building that echoes the existing footprint, blends a straightforward indoor/outdoor seafood taverna, and is complemented by inventive historical displays shouldn’t be too difficult.

Come on, GORCAPA … one down, one to go!  You can do it if you try.

But … and here’s the thing … talk to us!

John Agar

Feature Writer

A word from the chairman

Hello

Like many of you, I watched earlier this week as 20 Israeli hostages taken captive 2 years ago were reunited with their loved ones.  For the last two years, these families have lived with despair but hope and now joy and relief.  For the families of the dead hostages and those slaughtered on that bloody day, this hopefully will enable some sense of closure.  We also mourn the many thousands killed in the resulting conflict in Gaza and hope and pray for a lasting peace and a territorial solution which will enable all people to co-exist in safety and security.

*****

Last week the Point Grey Community Reference Group (CRG) met for the last time with GORCAPA.  You may recall that the CRG was a group of community representatives, selected by GORCAPA, whose role was to provide input into the planning and design of the Point Grey precinct.  It was the tenth time the group had met since its appointment in December 2023.

While the CRG (along with broader community consultation) has helped to shape the overall precinct design and deliver an outcome for the Aquatic Club which is sensible, practical and acceptable to the Club and the community, it has failed to deliver an acceptable solution for the Co-op building and has been dismissed before completing a fundamental part of its designated role.

At the meeting last week, in response to a question, GORCAPA confirmed that the proposed floor plan for the Co-op building was not included in the “concept designs” issued for public comment, and furthermore the floor plan would not be made available for public comment!

How can this be that the most important component of the precinct redevelopment is not made available to the Lorne and broader community for comment and input?  It makes no sense.

The floor plan was inadvertently released as part of a package of plans for the Aqautic Club and so has been seen by a select few.  The building is to include 8 gender neutral toilets in a semi open-air format taking up an area of 63 square metres, and a minimalist “kiosk” of 80 square metres including kitchen, storage and service areas, which will seat 10 people.  This is far short of the 220 square metres we were promised in 2024.

Is this an acceptable outcome after 18 years of discussions about the future of our historic precinct?  Is it a satisfactory outcome for the many hours of community time that have been devoted to the precinct over so many years?  Is it an acceptable result from spending $12.14 millions of public money?  My answer to these questions is a resounding NO, but I can’t hear you, I can’t hear the community outrage.  Am I wrong?  Is this what our community wants, are we leaving it for someone else to sort out, or are we waiting for an opportunity to voice our concerns?  If you want your voice to be heard, let us know at Committee for Lorne ([email protected]) and if there is enough interest we will convene an urgent public meeting.

None of my above comments are a criticism of the project architects who have done an amazing job in creating two buildings which respect the precinct, within a myriad of constraints.  It is the internal layout of the Co-op building that is the problem: too much toilet amenity, not enough usable space and inadequate recognition of the heritage of the precinct.

This is our last chance.  Act now or Lorne will become famous for having the Best Toilet Block in a Coastal Setting!

Cheers

Lorne Ward Events Calendar

October

15-19 – UCI 2025 Gran Fondo World Championship

19 – Amy’s Great Ocean Road Gran Fondo, cycling event on the Great Ocean Road www.amysgranfondo.org.au

19 – Run the Marsh, 3km Walk, 2km and 5km fun run at 9am, Frogwood Arboretum, Deans Marsh

25 – Women of Troy, Anglesea Performing Arts group, 2 performances, 2pm & 7.30pm at Lorne Community Centre, www.trybooking.com/DCWRE

November

1 – Lorne Market, 9-3pm, www.lornemarkets.com

1-4 Tide to Treetops Exhibition, Dee Matheson & Veronica McDonald at Community Connect 10am-4pm each day

2 – Tide to Treetops exhibition opening, 3pm meet the artists

2 Lorne Aquatic & Angling Club – major fishing competition no 6, weight cut off 12.30pm. Free roast lunch for competitors, $10 non-fishing members.

8-9 Tide to Treetops Exhibition, Dee Matheson & Veronica McDonald at Lorne Community Connect 10am-4pm each day