17 The evolution of a magazine they call Gippsland Lifestyle

THE EVOLUTION OF A MAGAZINE THEY CALL

I have often been asked why I started this magazine, and the answer was and has always been simple.

Here is my story.

Back in 2007, I was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I decided to move to the Bass Coast, I had previously visited Inverloch earlier in the year prior to the cancer diagnosis and fell instantly in love with the area. This wasn’t hard to do as I had been living in Mulgrave, with a view of the busy and noisy Springvale Road, an old sewer in front of the fence and one of those massive overhead power line structures in my back yard.

The moment I moved into Kilcunda, I was in love with the area, the rugged coastline, the Killy Pub, and people would take time out to talk to you and not ignore you as they did in the ‘burbs.

In 2008, I began my radiation treatment and other treatments that I needed to battle this awful disease. My PSA was 91.5, I was supposed to be a goner, but for some good people at Peter MacCallum’s Hospital I am still here to tell the story.

I also met my future partner in 2008 and sadly we have since parted but have remained good friends and Maree has always been an enormous help with the magazine and always good for a chat and support in the tough times that we have all endured with covid-19.

A funny thing happened after the cancer treatment, I suddenly developed my old creative self again, I had shelved this part of my life for many years, but I thought about running a magazine. My aim was to do this in South Gippsland, probably because I hadn’t travelled past Foster, and it seemed a logical and easy way to start.

The first edition came out in the Autumn of 2009, we had no writers, we did however have a photographer, but we had some very loyal clients and some of them are still here today.

Notably, in the first edition we had a feature on David Tree. David was the man behind the Sam the Koala story of giving a koala a bottle of water to drink from after the fires had devastated the bush.

David was reluctant to tell the story as he had and was continued to be pounded by the media for this amazing happening, and he insisted that I run a feature predominantly on his snake catching abilities. So here I was, deep in the Mirboo North forest, following David through the bush as he picked up Tiger snake after Tiger snake like a Mum picking up her child’s toys. I can vouch that I was not keen on taking photos of snakes within inches of their fangs, so David was able to do this for me, he had this hypnotic effect on the snakes, and they would sit still long enough for him to take the pictures before they slid off into the wild.

For the first four editions we were learning the craft, the biggest edition was No. 4 which was 56 pages. The first edition was 40 pages, hardly any competition to our already established rivals, but you must start somewhere.

We then upped our standard with a designer, not just any designer but a Walkley award winning designer who was running the newsagency in Mirboo North at the time and saw our magazine and wanted to tidy it up. He was contracted for two editions and then he and his partner eventually moved to Geelong.

Then from Edition 7 to the present time we found after many unanswered phone calls our man. The unanswered phone calls was because our soon to be Creative Director was in Bali, a place I know he dearly misses thanks to covid-19.

Alex Smirnakos, who wishes to remain anonymous but sorry Alex, I must tell your story as well, because without you we would not have this beautiful magazine that we present to the public.

Suddenly we found someone who knew what we wanted, he was polite, enjoyed a joke, didn’t lock us out from conversation for a month while he designed the magazines, innovative, always friendly, and apart from that a bloke who I call a friend, my bro, now a lifelong friend and his vision and creativity has put the magazine where it is today and has done so since the winter of 2011.

Many writers have come and gone, some have come back, but our mainstay of permanent writers is impressive and again the loyalty factor is there, big thanks to Danielle Ralph our first journalist who left to see the world and then came back to us, Chris West, my good friend for over 30 years, professional to the core and Anita Butterworth who I chased for months on linkedin and finally I persuaded her to write for us.

WORDS BY DOUG PELL

Trevor Stow, my good friend from Bairnsdale still finds time to write for us despite his busy days of being on the East Gippsland Council. Wendy Morriss our long time journalist and photographer has also returned on a part time basis.

We have had our share of photographers as well, for many years Geoff Watt was our photographer, and he would most likely be still taking happy snaps for us, but the family decided the cold of Boolarra in winter doesn’t match the even colder winter of Ballarat and he took the family to new pastures and their photography business is booming, not surprised by that, but I must thank Geoff because without my persistent enquiring about photography I would not have learned the art of taking a good photo.

I had mentioned previously my former partner Maree, we met after I had made many visits to the Kilcunda Hotel and we eventually married, we did this in the USA in 2008 after I finished my cancer treatment. No, we didn’t marry in Las Vegas, but a place called Buchanan, which is a small friendly town in Michigan.

As an aside when we flew from New York to Charlotte and then drove to Buchanan, our pilot was Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, we had the pleasure of flying with him three months to the day that he landed his plane in the Hudson River. We had a chat with Sully before exiting the plane, he is a nice man, he wished us well and I knew that after finding out he was the pilot that the passengers would all be safe.

Back to the magazines, it has been an adventure, The Lifestyle South Gippsland, became The Lifestyle South Gippy, then The Lifestyle South Gippsland - Yarra Valley - Mornington Peninsula and Melbourne, we then settled for The Lifestyle, then The Lifestyle Gippsland. We were going to end it all after edition 14, exhausted, being continually smashed by our rivals, not enough advertising, and rising debt, we were coming to an end.

After a short conversation with an 85-year-old man in a shop one day when I was whinging about not selling enough magazines, he informed me that my masthead was all wrong. He was right. So, we swapped Gippsland with Lifestyle, and it has remained the same ever since.

We have never looked back after that day. Gippsland Lifestyle has covered topical features, sporting, culture, towns, places, famous people, famous local people, we developed the popular feature of Millie the Jack Russell Dog with her owner Ken Roberts and their many Gippsland adventures.

We have had some wonderful contributors over the years in Kerry Galea who was our astrology expert for many years, now Stephanie Johnson has taken over. Liz Fleming our business coach is one of our newest contributors who is already making an impact. Erin Miller who has given us tips on a better life is now leaving the magazine and will be missed and Christine Boucher and Christie Nelson are now moving on to new adventures.

The magazine continues to evolve and revolve, we have had some wonderful covers over the years and notably two beautiful cartoon covers from the Herald Sun’s award winning and best Australian cartoonist Mark Knight.

So, we have now reached Edition 50.

I play cricket every now and then and I cannot remember the last time I made a 50, it is a milestone that I am immensely proud of. Edition 50 is special, not the biggest one we have had, but it is a special one, and with our usual number of features, lovely photography, and our most loyal advertisers and of course we have discerning readers who keep supporting us. Afterall we are Gippsland, and we will always remain Gippsland.

By the time this magazine is in the shops, I will start working on a new magazine called The Middle of Everywhere for the Wellington area and of course Gippsland Lifestyle Winter 51 will also be on the drawing board.

Thank you to everyone that has contributed in any shape or form over the journey, you have all been appreciated and to our wonderful clients and readers, a big thank you. As I say in each edition enjoy our magazine, the magazine that is for Gippsland.