‘You have to start somewhere’: Making connections wherever you are 

In this personal reflection, Leonie Oldmeadow shares how her small Baha’i community in the Bass Coast, Victoria, is striving to advance within the framework of the Nine Year Plan albeit the fewness of their numbers.

The Gippsland cluster in Victoria is an extensive area stretching from the Mornington Peninsula to the east coast. Look closely to find the small Bass Coast sector of this cluster. It’s an area stretching 53kms, from Phillip Island to Inverloch. 

My family has had a holiday house at Cowes, Phillip Island, since 1956 and I began to live there more regularly after I retired. Curious to find any other Baha’is on Phillip Island, I was excited to discover that 11 other Baha’is (including myself and my husband) lived there! 

I contacted the two people living in Cowes, and though delighted to make contact, Covid and personal circumstances meant it was months before we met. I also visited the addresses that I had for friends in Wonthaggi and Inverloch, and though none responded to my letters or texts, I happily did meet Angela Kither in Wonthaggi. Angela and her late husband Ralph had become Baha’is in the 1980s, but since moving to Wonthaggi, they were isolated from any Baha’is. 

Eventually, the four of us living in Cowes began to study Ruhi Book 1 – a book from the Baha’i institute exploring Reflections on the Life of the Spirit – each fortnight. Unfortunately, distance prevented Angela from joining us. Then, out of the blue, at the beginning of 2025, Marilyn and Ian Cerny chose to move to Wonthaggi from the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland, swelling our number to seven Baha’is. Though 53kms apart, we now have held our first devotional gathering to which four ladies from the Yarra Ranges kindly travelled to share with us and we are continuing our Ruhi Book 1 study through a monthly Sunday intensive, which keeps our travel time to a minimum and avoids night driving.

In April 2025, on the Ninth Day of Ridvan – a Baha’i festival celebrating the birth of the Faith and the time when Baha’u’llah declared His Mission, we held the first ever holy day celebration in Bass Coast, Victoria. What a joyful, uplifting, special event it was!

Our vision now is to form our first local Baha’i governing body, a Local Spiritual Assembly, once we have nine adult Baha’is in the community. In the meantime, we hope to start face-to-face feasts and consultation spaces, distance permitting, with the goal of working towards developing a vibrant, spiritually connected community of friends in Bass Coast, offering the core activities as our small resources permit, and reaching out as opportunities present to engage more friends into the community-building process and be involved in social action groups as appropriate. 

One of the Baha’is currently offers craft classes, another is on the board of the Community House and another is a taxi driver. All of these spaces offer potential opportunities for conversations and engagement. You have to start somewhere! And we are blessed and honoured to be serving in this, the earliest stages of community-building. 

May our embryonic and humble efforts contribute towards the building of an outwardly focused and vibrant community, neighbourhood and society in Bass Coast.