Committee for Lorne Page in Surf Coast Times
4 September 2026
All Saints Anglican Church, Lorne
All Saints was the first church to be built in Lorne in 1880. Now, after 146 years of service the church is just four years short of a sesquicentenary celebration in 2030. The church, now located in a beautiful part of Mountjoy parade over-looking Lorne’s main beach, remains an important part of Lorne’s history, but it wasn’t always in this prime position.
From November 1879, regular Anglican Church services were held at Erskine House. The Lorne community then decided a church should be built. Henry Gwynne, builder of the Pacific Hotel in 1879, donated £50 and half an acre of land in Smith Street, Charles Beal £30 and Bishop Moorhouse £20 towards the cost of erecting an Anglican Church. On the 8th of March 1880 the building tender of John Snowdon was approved. The building was to cost £265-5s, but this was amended to £280-5s by mutual agreement.
It was a stormy day when All Saints’ Church was opened on November 14th, 1880. There were 65 parishioners at Matins and Holy Communion and 58 at Evensong. The first Vicar, The Reverend James C. Love, had been preceded by lay-readers, namely Mr Bishop and Mr J. Evans. On the opening Sunday, Mr Love took the duties in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening.
The Geelong Advertiser reported in 1881 that Reverend James Love performed the first Lorne wedding in All Saints Church between Charles Arthur Watson, second son of the late Samuel Watson, Brigade Major Aldershot, and Martha Thompson, second daughter of William Thompson of Geelong.
In 1884, following incessant complaints from visitors, it was decided to move the church from the corner of Charles and Albert Street to a more central position near to the sea. The church, weighing 30 tons was moved 20 chains down the hill, pulled by eleven horses and a bullock team across the Varna Gully, and down to 188 Mountjoy Parade. Then shortly after it was enlarged by the addition of the Chancel, Vestry and Porch as designed by the church’s architect Mr Watts.
After the church was moved to Mountjoy Parade, the awesome feat of moving the church was commemorated in the memorial window near the pulpit in memory of the pioneering Valentine family. The first service on the new site was the wedding of Mr Jesse Allen and Miss Sarah Anderson of Allenvale, acknowledged by a plaque on the Bible stand on the altar.
The church has a current heritage listing as being of local cultural significance because of its historical, social and architectural values. The church displays an interesting variety of Carpenter Gothic detailing of good quality of Low and Mixed Gothic style. Timber lining of interior, with leadlight windows and a corrugated iron roof.
All Saints, as well as being the first church built in Lorne, was also the first to hold a service on the beach in 1897.
The Lorne Historical Society works to share the history of Lorne on its website. A recent contribution by Sophie Chandler, to help document the work of Reverend Frederick Porter of All Saints, revealed some interesting information. Rev. Porter was the Vicar from 1932 – 1939 and, while working with the community to aid the victims of the 1939 Black Friday bushfire, Frederick’s wife Nancye gathered all the women and children and sheltered in waist deep water on the beach. Sophie also provided a great photo of the Vicarage that was built in 1889 behind the church. A second Vicarage was constructed in 1969. She also related a sad story. In 1937 Michael, the second son of Frederick and Nancye, became ill and died on the long drive to Colac Hospital. There is now a memorial plaque on the baptismal font at All Saints that remains today, commemorating the life of baby Michael Porter.
Reverend Frederick Porter and family at All Saints Vicarage 1930’s
All Saints Anglican Church Lorne is in the Parish of Lorne and the Diocese of Melbourne. The parish came under the management of the Diocese of Melbourne in 2023. The vicarage was extensively renovated and restored and is now used for short stays for clergy and church workers.
Church services are held each Sunday over Christmas and January and on the fourth Sunday of each month during the year.
A meeting of the Lorne Historical Society is planned for 1 pm on Friday 11th September 2026. Attendees will visit All Saints Anglican Church to admire the church and experience the beauty of its stained-glass windows and the many plaques commemorating the rich history of the church. There is much more information and pictures of the church on the Lorne Historical Society website that you are encouraged to view.
Linton Ferguson
Lorne Historical Society
www.lornehistoricalsociety.org.au
From the Chairman
Hello
Bye bye Winter, hello Spring! Well maybe not so fast! Although our calendar tells us Winter is over and Spring is in the air, Mother Nature chooses her own time. As I look at the 10-day Lorne forecast from Far North Lorne for the last time, it looks like we are not quite there yet, but the beautiful sunrise to start Spring was surely a sign of what’s to come.
*****
A highlight of the Lorne calendar is the award of the Doug and Mary Stirling Cup. The Cup is awarded on a biennial basis to recognise outstanding community service. It is named after the initial recipients of the award, Doug and Mary Stirling. Doug is one of Lorne’s oldest and much-loved residents, having recently celebrated his 104th birthday.
This year the award goes to Dr Peter Atkinson. Pete has not only been (and continues to be on a part-time basis) one of our local GPs but has immersed himself fully in our community. Pete has volunteered for the Surf Life Saving Club and the Lorne Football and Netball Club for over 50 years, and he is there to support most sporting events held in the district.
In the early days of the Mountain to Surf/ Pier to Pub weekend, Pete established the on-site medical response team and over the years moved the support from a basic first aid station to a dedicated, specialist medical centre which provides outstanding service to all our running and swimming participants.
Pete is also an outstanding support for our football and netball club. He is present at junior and senior games, caring for our and opposition players in times of need. He works at the Lorne Medical Centre one day a week and provides essential back-up service when needed.
All in all, Pete encapsulates what it means to be a volunteer and contributor to our community and is a most worthy recipient of this special award.
Peter will be honoured at a luncheon to be held at the Stribling Reserve Community Pavilion on Friday 30th of October, when the Cup will be presented by the previous recipients, Clive and Lesley Goldsworthy. Everyone is welcome and bookings are essential at https://tinyurl.com/peter-atkinson
*****
As we move into the second week of finals, four of our football teams are still “in the mix”. Well done to our Under 12s who bowed out last week after making finals for the first time. All our teams are playing at Central Reserve this Saturday for a spot in the Grand Final, starting with the Under 15s at 9.50am. It will be a big day out for our Club. Please come along and support all our players if you can. Go Dolphins!
*****
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and grandads in our community, old and new. We also pause to remember fathers who are no longer with us but never forgotten.
RIP Paddy.
Cheers
John
John Higgins
Chairman
Committee for Lorne
11 September 2026
There is something in the air tonight …
Adapted from: Parfummele-science-of-perfume
The heady scent of Manna gum blossom along Mountjoy Parade in front of the Lorne Hotel and the hospital car park, and from the stand at the corner of John and Charles Streets, has revived my memory of a piece I titled “Petrichor” that appeared in the Lorne Independent in March 2021. Inevitably, as the recent explosion of gum blossom scents around Lorne — while not strictly synonymous with the term petrichor — triggered a Phil Collins earworm loop, ”… there’s something in the air tonight”, and I couldn’t resist sharing an updated version of that original LIN article.
I first encountered the word ‘petrichor’ during the COVID period, when, after breathing in the scents of rain-dampened earth while mooching along a forest track, I learned that a scientific term had been coined for the phenomenon. New words demand to be turned over, examined, played with, and understood. Moreover, I was intrigued by the science behind it.
To quote Mary Halton, BBC News science reporter, July 2018: [see: https://tinyurl.com/454dc3fs]:
“… petrichor was coined in 1964 by two Australian scientists, Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Thomas, in an article ‘Nature of Argillaceous Odour’, published in the journal Nature. The word was coined from the Greek petros, meaning ‘stone’, and ichor, meaning ‘the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods’.
It is such a lovely word … the smell of the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods and is set free from stone by rain. To appreciate it fully, bend down, eyes closed, and sniff the Otway bush after the next rain. Savour the scent of the stone — even wet concrete releases it — and imagine you are breathing in that “blood of the gods” metaphor. It may prove to be the first [and only] metaphor you will ever smell!
Petrichor is ‘… a scent long chased by scientists – and especially perfumers – for its enduring appeal’. It is that ‘… that pleasant smell we experience after a thunderstorm; the scent of clean air and wet earth …’
Despite feeling slightly irked that I was ignorant of a word for the almost intangible scent that rises from the damp forest floor, that so many of us breathe — and breathe deeply — as we walk the dripping fern gullies of the Otways, I am truly thrilled that I now have a name and form for that heady fragrance.
I remember, as a boy, when my mum and dad would wind down the windows of our old Plymouth … yes, car windows did once wind up and down with a handle. They would audibly sniff the air in the once far more deeply-indented gully above Grassy Creek and cajole: ‘… smell the musk, Johnny’. I always did … and it was heady!
Thinking back, “musk” was their me-and-you word for the more scientific term petrichor, that would emerge a decade later, courtesy of Bear and Thomas.
‘Petrichor’ is actually all about chemistry. It turns out that a family of bacteria – the streptomyces/actinomyces group – is found widely throughout most healthy forest and loamy soils. They release a molecule … ‘geosmin’ [gee-oz-min] … after being ‘wetted’ by rain. Furthermore, animals – and particularly humans – appear extremely sensitive to it.
Not only are we drawn to its earthy fragrance, but perfumers have long recognised ‘… there is something very primitive and primal about the smell’.
A fascinating report, “Making perfume from the rain: bottling the fragrance of the monsoon”, describes how Indian perfumers have attempted to capture the scent of geosmin in the Indian perfume, ‘Matti ka attar’ – [Cynthia Barnett: The Atlantic, April 22, 2015].
Geosmin is not only a detectable smell, but it has a ’taste’, too, though interestingly, humans actively dislike the taste, even though we are positively drawn to the smell. In this respect, geosmin is a most interesting molecule — it seems to be one of the few substances that thrill one of our senses [smell] yet is detested by another [taste]. It is said that even the tiniest amount can taint wine or mineral water, even though it is quite non-toxic.
While rain brings out the fragrance of geosmin, how or why is not well understood. A scientist from the Royal Botanic Gardens [Kew, London] has noted that:
“… plant chemicals that smell pleasant are often produced in leaf hairs … and rain may release these compounds by a similar mechanism to that which enhances the fragrance and taste of dried herbs when they are crushed.”
Thunderstorms can also contribute to ‘the scent of rain’ by producing the clean, sharp tang of ozone – a tangible smell released when lightning discharges in the atmosphere and ‘welds’ three oxygen atoms together to form ozone. Ozone is normally found only in the stratosphere, but lightning briefly creates it in the lower atmosphere as it reaches the ground.
Finally, rain improves air quality by clearing away any dust, aerosols, and other particulates.
So … as you walk through the fern forests of the Otways after fresh rain and breathe in the petrichor — the scent of the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods — you may also like to daydream of a similarly captivating name for the mesmerising sensory fragrance of Lorne’s Manna blossom each August and September.
As they begin to burst into bloom, their white flowers release a characteristically strong, sweet, honey-scented fragrance into the August air to attract birds and bees. As our wattlebirds, honeyeaters, and coastal lorikeets love to feast on the nectar of the manna blossoms, the ground beneath the Manna’s soon lies thickly carpeted with nipped flower heads and leaf shoots as the birds feed happily above.
However, it is also a cue to look up, for although they have been less commonly seen about the centre of town in recent years, our koalas prize a Manna gum shoot above others as their favourite delicacy.
The Manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) received its Judeo-Christian ‘manna’ epithet from the sweet, white, sugary sap its bark and leaves exude and which has seemed so beloved by our native animals and birds that early European settlers compared it to a biblical ‘manna’ in the Australian wilderness.
This brings me to a final and slightly irreverent thought. Perhaps petrichor and manna scent could be thought of as two co-located Ancient Greek Olympian olfactories … petrichor: the scent of the blood of the gods, and manna blossom: the aroma of their breath.
How ‘Odyssean’ can you get?
John Agar
Feature Writer
From the Chairman
Hello
It’s always good to come home, especially to Lorne. After a few weeks in Port Douglas (aka Far North Lorne), we have returned to appreciate more the special things that life in Lorne offers; stunning sunrises, beautiful moonscapes and the most beautiful beach anywhere, just to mention a few. Sure, the water’s a bit cooler (24 degrees in PD, 13.8 degrees in Lorne) but that doesn’t worry our intrepid mermaids, with their colourful hats and a bit of chatter they don’t feel a thing!
*****
There are many similarities between Port Douglas (PD) and Lorne including reliance on tourism income, geographical remoteness and dependence on temporary workers. The variety of accents you hear there is amazing, and it becomes a bit of a guessing game to determine their origin. There are also some notable differences between Lorne and PD. Because PD does not have the boundary restrictions imposed on Lorne due to bushfire and conservation requirements, it has been able to expand its housing stock with new developments at prices that are affordable for workers and families. This has been assisted by the decline of the cane industry and the opening-up of new land for development. Also, PD now has an ABS estimated population of about 6,000, at least four-times that of Lorne, which together with year-round tourism, supports a vibrant hospitality and accommodation industry (including at least 10 top-quality restaurants).
In Lorne we are blessed to have good quality hospitality and accommodation operators, our own medical centre, hospital, aged care and P-12 school. Not bad for a little town of 1,300 people!
*****
There is much excitement at the Dolphins as we head into the third week of finals with five teams still in contention. Congratulations to our B Grade netballers who have sealed a place in the Preliminary Final with a thrilling one goal win last Saturday. Their next challenge is against Colac Imperials this Saturday for a spot in the Grand Final. Good luck girls! Meanwhile in football, our Reserves and Under 18s have earned their places in the Grand Final, and a week off, while our Seniors and Under 15s will play Preliminary Finals this Saturday.
What a great effort for five of our teams to get this far! Please get to Central Reserve, Colac on Saturday if you can and support our girls and boys.
*****
Just a reminder that Amy’s Gran Fondo is coming to town this weekend with over 5,000 cyclists expected to take part. There will be significant road closures in the town and the region on Sunday, so be aware if you have travel plans. Please see www.amysgranfondo.org.au for details.
Let’s welcome our visitors and thank them for their contribution to our local economy.
*****
Please also remember to book your places for the Committee for Lorne Community Lunch on Friday 30 October, where the Doug and Mary Stirling Cup will be presented to Doctor Peter Atkinson. Tickets can be purchased at https://tinyurl.com/peter-atkinson.
John
John Higgins
Chairman
Committee for Lorne
18 September 2026
The Sagas The Myths, Legends, and Stories of the North.
Today’s article departs from the usual coastal themes I try to bring to this page. As I have revisited one of my favourite books over the past few days, the Gaelo-Viking streak buried deep in my inherited genes … a sense of “Northness”—or, better, “Norseness” … and the peculiar pleasure I derive from cold, ice, and snow have bubbled to the surface again. Perhaps exacerbated by the closing weeks of a long, cold winter, this is the same feeling evoked by Game of Thrones [I am an unashamed devotee], a primal sense that I am one of the Free Folk, the Children of the Forest, those hardy souls whose origins lie north of The Wall: https://tinyurl.com/4f98rwsb
For those who are not fans of Game of Thrones—the mega-hit HBO series that held so many spellbound [well, me, at least] since its first release in 2011—that may all sound like gibberish. To an extent, it is. But the 8-series fantasy drama, adapted for the screen from the fertile imagination of George R Martin, was so remarkable that Queen Elizabeth II asked if she might visit the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms during a visit to Belfast in her later years. Politely declining the invitation to grace it with the Royal buttocks, she is said to have muttered: “… I already have one at home”.
Photograph: Phil Noble—Reuters
For those many devotees of the Seven Kingdoms who have a healthy respect for the ‘wildlings’ to the north of The Wall, your Gaelo-Viking antennae may already be twitching with interest as you wonder where all this is leading—and, to a certain extent, so am I—but a theme will emerge!
All of us share a similarly deep, strangely powerful sense of our origins. Whether it is to a deeply rooted Anglo-Celtic or European ancestry, to original homelands in Southeast Asia or the subcontinent, the tundras of Northern Asia and Russia, or the wide expanses of Africa, or, as with our own Indigenous First Peoples, to this wide and stunning Great Southern Land, an innate, subconscious affinity for ‘home soil’ dwells within us all, no matter where we may find ourselves in this only recently mobile world.
For example, when I visit Scotland—as I am frequently drawn to do—I am flooded with an inexplicable emotion for that wild and beautiful place, at the farthest reaches of the world from where I now live. Scotland always seems somehow ‘home’, even though it has never been so in a physical sense. Whether I choose to actively coax my Hebridean roots to the surface—as I do now—or leave them to gently germinate and exert their guiding influence in the hidden depths of my being, I know they will always remain a welcome part of me.
As there are likely many others along this coast who share Gaelo-Norse origins, perhaps this piece may resonate with some of them, especially those with Celtic, Norse, or Gaelic DNA. Further, as a good read for the coming summer months, I suggest you might consider ‘Sagaland’ by Richard Fidler and Kári Gíslason, a delightfully entertaining conversational blend of a contented modern-day Iceland and its ancient Sagas, which, as the dust cover explains, are “tales of blood feuds, of dangerous women, and of people compelled to kill those they love the most”. I am currently re-immersing myself for a second read, and it seems even better the second time around.
A representative page from the Icelandic Sagas
The Icelandic sagas are medieval prose narratives that detail the lives, feuds, and genealogies of early Iceland’s Viking Age settlers—settlers who, in time, temperament, and belief, mirror my own Norse forebears—Vikings who invaded the Gaelic Isles in the last three centuries of the first millennium but stayed on, settled, intermarried, and put down island roots.
There are, in fact, three main genres of ‘saga’: the Sagas of Kings, which recount the lives of local Icelandic earls; the Legendary Sagas, which tell heroic tales of ‘the Ancient Ones’; and the Sagas of the Icelanders, which are narrative stories about the early Viking inhabitants. In Sagaland, authors Richard Fidler and Kári Gíslason infuse the stories with 21st-century conversational life and humour as their medieval characters act out short, often brutal lives that commonly end with a well-aimed Viking axe yet somehow preserve a moral justification for the ending.
Life in Iceland in all those centuries long gone was undeniably harsh and brutal – but having spent time in that verdant yet terrible landscape, it is impossible to imagine how it could have happened any other way
Most stories describe events in Iceland between 930 and 1030 CE, an era known as the Söguöld [the Age of the Sagas]. They were passed down orally—much like the songlines of our own Australian Aboriginals—before being recorded on vellum [calfskin] in the 13th and 14th centuries. While Snorri Sturluson [1179-1241] is regarded as the primary author of most of the sagas, the original authors remain anonymous. Four stand out as the ‘major sagas’: the sagas of Njal, Egil, Laxdaela, and Gisla.
They tell of honour and vengeance, of blood feuds fuelled by uncompromising codes of family loyalty, and of fate that pits destiny against free will and choice, all set against a violent and unforgiving physical backdrop.
For an overview, visit https://tinyurl.com/3vd5ha97, but better still, I heartily recommend Fidler and Gíslason’s Sagaland. It’s a ripper read.
John Agar
Feature Writer
From the Chairman
Hello
Last Friday I had the occasion to visit the (once) great metropolis of Melbourne for the first time in a couple of months. After a beautiful sunrise drive to Waurn Ponds Station and a very punctual, clean and comfortable V-Line service, I arrived at Southern Cross Station to find cafes full and tram stops overflowing. Wow, I thought, they have finally got “working from home” sorted out. People have realised that face-to-face personal interaction is much more satisfying than virtual meetings and you can’t beat a good Friday lunch! Alas my excitement was short-lived when I became aware of unfamiliar accents and football jumpers with names and colours I did not recognise! The realisation dawned that this was not a dramatic return to work but the amazing response to a foreign code of football, attracting over 100,000 patrons (on a working day)! The last time I could recall that happening was Oaks Day 2004 when 110,677 people turned up at Flemington on a working day to see a horse race!!!! Despite Melbourne becoming the capital of a few other things more recently (potholes, home invasions, carjackings and firebombings to name a few), it clearly still holds the title of the sporting capital of Australia, if not the world!
*****
Meanwhile back in Lorne, we are doing our bit to put our town on the sporting and tourism map. Last weekend, Lorne jumped out of its winter hibernation to host Amy’s Gran Fondo for another year. The event brought 5,000 plus cyclists and many more supporters to our town and smiles to the faces of our hospitality and accommodation providers. Despite some windy challenges in the Otways, conditions were dry and relatively favourable and there were no major incidents.
Meanwhile at Central Reserve, Colac and in perfect conditions, our Senior footballers recorded a comfortable 32-point win over Alvie to secure a place in the Grand Final next week, but it was not until halfway through the last quarter that supporters (including the Pres whom I was sitting next to!) could breathe a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, our B Grade netballers were not so lucky, going down by three goals after being level with two minutes to go in a nail-biting final. A great effort ladies!
We now have three teams, Seniors, Reserves and Under 18s competing for glory at Central Reserve on Saturday. The weather forecast is looking great, so get there if you can and support our boys. The Under 18s start at 11.15am, the Reserves at 12.45 and Seniors at 2.15pm. Eyes on the prize boys and bring the trophies home.
*****
Don’t forget to book your seats (or tables) for the Committee for Lorne Community Lunch on Friday 30 October, where the Doug and Mary Stirling Cup will be presented to Doctor Peter Atkinson.
Tickets can be purchased at https://tinyurl.com/peter-atkinson.
Cheers
John
John Higgins
Chairman
Committee for Lorne
25 September 2026
