Author: Cottage By The Sea
An experience like no other
It was Tuesday, mid-December and the All Mentors were on the road to Winnap, a town along the Lower Glenelg National Park. For one Mentor this was going to be an experience like no other. Day 1 involved sleeping on a camping stretcher bed in a garage with carpet on the floor. “We’re not seriously sleeping in […]
Very Merry Cottage
Historically, Cottage by the Sea hosted children over Christmas and throughout the summer holidays. It was an invaluable service for hundreds of families, especially those who needed to work through this period. Thanks to generosity of private donations, the Cottage was able to offer a beachside holiday for free. Children played on the local beaches […]
Team Work
This week we had a school group from Corio for a 3day camp, who were eager to get onto the Low Ropes Course. Excitement was high as we finally made it onto the Low Ropes course for their last activity of camp. We were saving the best for last. All the children listened carefully to […]
Quiksilver Surf Day!
It was a beautiful morning on Wednesday for our annual Quiksilver Surf Day, unlike last year when we had rain and thunderstorms. We arrived down at Cosy Corner Beach in Torquay and we were greeted by eight of Quiksilver’s finest employees who were eager to get in the water with our campers. A short lesson […]
Can you cross the river?
It was the final day of camp. After being challenged while swimming in the ocean, learning about Point Lonsdale and the Rip, walking from the Queenscliff fort to the Marine and discovering new marine creatures at the Marine & Freshwater Discovery Centre there was one last challenge to overcome for these Grade 3, 4’s and […]
Thank you for listening!
One of our Mentors spoke at our 129th Annual General Meeting this October … below is a transcript of his thoughtful and heartfelt speech. Good morning everyone, welcome to the AGM. My name is Bailey, I’ve enjoyed my time at Cottage by the Sea. My five highlights were The Melbourne trip Seeing Foxy lose his […]
Saving Tawny Frogmouth
It was raining when the children arrived at the new park in ocean grove. Eager to test out the new play equipment, they waited patiently for the blue sky to come. Once off the bus, they raced to the top of the new spiral slide. Camp Leader Jess and a few children noticed a bird […]
Super Duper Fun Day!
It has been a long anticipated wait for the Super Duper Fun Park to open in Ocean Grove. This park has been on the Cottage radar for months now with some big hype behind the grand opening. Each week after our surfing and rockpooling sessions, we always make a quick detour to see the progress […]
A visit from Sammy the Seal
What a surprise for our first day of camp! While exploring the fishing pier in Pt Lonsdale we were visited by a local legend named Sammy the Seal. It is quite rare to see this cheeky character at the pier and it had been months since he has made an appearance. Each week we go […]
What’s over there?
“What’s over there?” “What’s that place called?” These are a couple of the many questions we have heard at Cottage, from our Mentors over the years, as they have looked across the rip towards Point Nepean. Many of our Mentors have been coming to the Cottage for five to seven years and admired the view as […]
2019 Annual Report
Welcome to our Annual Report for the Financial Year ended 30 June 2019 and congratulations to everyone involved in delivering another wonderful year of programs for the children at the Cottage, as well as the various events held to enable these programs to take place. Download the PDF
Fun times remembered
In 1945, Margaret Carroll (nee Woodman) from Boundary Primary School, North Melbourne stayed at Cottage by the Sea with her younger sister Lillian. In September 2019, she visited us again with her daughters Christine and Jenny. Margaret remembers coming with her mum and her sister on the tram to Spencer Street station. For her mum, […]
Reconnecting with friends
On the 22nd of September Camp Leaders Ebony, Louise, Louis and Sean picked up the new Mentors for a 5-day camp to Moulamein, thanks to the generosity of APCO. After a five-hour bus ride we reached camp. Although we all go to different schools and we hadn’t seen each other for quite some time we all connected back […]
Yabby Yabby You!
Thanks to the generous support of APCO, Cottage by the Sea took a group of our younger Mentors camping this September scholl holidays. On Tuesday morning Ebony, Sean, Pete and Damien took one group yabbying. We had to throw the nets into the water and then pull them out really fast so we didn’t lose any yabbies out […]
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
We had a mission for our rock pool ramble today! The mission was to find as many Sponge Bob Square Pants characters as we possibly could. The children were super excited to take on this task and finding the first character “Mr Krabs” was quite easy! Before we even made it out to the rock […]
A day full of fishing!
Competition time! This week we had two fishing charters on the program, thanks to the generous support of Kempe & Friends. Both scheduled for Wednesday. We were extremely lucky with the weather, picking out the nicest day of the week. Because we had two charters booked, it was of course going to be a competition […]
Social Return on Investment
“General happiness is a big thing. Overall happiness is the key.” This is a quote from one of the more than 50 parents surveyed as part of recent research into the Social Return on Investment delivered by Cottage by the Sea. This research, conducted by SVA Consulting and generously funded by The R. E. Ross […]
Invasion of the sea urchins!
This week we experienced some king tides and howling winds down in Queenscliff. With weather blowing in like this, we often find that so do some of the local sea creatures. They tend to end up on the beach and out of the water where they are supposed to be! On the first afternoon of […]
