Humans in St Leonards

Shannon Lewis – at home in the village of St Leonards

Shannon’s family has lived in St Leonards and surrounds since her mother arrived here with her parents at the age of nine from New Zealand.  Her Nana and Koro (a Māori name for grandfather) ‘came to work on the family muscle farm. My uncle was working overseas as a deep sea diver and needed Koro to run the muscle farm while he was away.’

Shannon was born in Portarlington before moving into Geelong with her mum and siblings. They returned to live in St Leonards in time for Shannon to start grade three at St Leonards Primary School, and for the most part she has been in St Leonards ever since; now with a daughter of her own, and a partner, surrounded by a big extended family and strong connection to community.  

When Shannon attended St Leonards Primary School there were about eighty students enrolled.  Her daughter Claire also attended St Leonards Primary until starting high school this year. The school has doubled in enrolments since Shannon went there, though the connections have remained. One of Shannon’s teachers Mrs Arbuckle and Janet in Reception were still there while Claire was a student.  

Shannon started work with Mary at the St Leonards Bakery at age thirteen and then went over to Mary’s daughter’s bakery in Portarlington, earning seven dollars an hour – which might remind us on this International Women’s Day that there’s still a way to go in the fair pay department . At the age of seventeen Shannon moved to Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria to live with her father. Karumba is a tiny town with a population of about four hundred, boosted periodically by a lot of visitors – mostly from Victoria escaping winter – and most people like her father, work on fishing boats. Shannon worked in a child care centre which she loved as well as at the visitor information centre and library. One gets the impression Shannon had every job in town that wasn’t to do with fishing.  Shannon’s work in the child care centre has inspired her interest in further study to work in child protection in the future. 

Claire was born in Karumba, but when it came time for her to start school, Shannon decided they would move back to the Bellarine. A big factor in the decision to return was the educational limitations of the two-classroom Karumba School. But it was also that Shannon’s fatherhad moved away and all Claire’s paternal family were fishing people and away a lot.  Shannon and Claire had better support systems here on the Bellarine. 

Shannon grew up within the Church by the Bay community in Portarlington, and though she said it offered a strong sense of community earlier in her life, she doesn’t attend church any more. ‘As I got older I decided it wasn’t really resonating with me the way it does for other people.’ For Shannon, and now Claire, ‘growing up in a small town like St Leonards means everyone knows you, and as a child you can’t get up to much mischief without getting caught out, but there are also always people looking out for you, to make you safe.’  

The greatest support and influence for Shannon however, has been the women in her life. ‘I learnt how to be independent and how to keep going when times got tough through my mum and my nana. They have always shown that no matter what happens in life you still have to get up and keep going.’ 

There is also the ever increasing extended family. Shannon’s mother and grandmother live in Portarlington as do one of her eight siblings while another is in Leopold and the rest a little further afield from Queensland to Western Australia and Gippsland, and there currently seven nephews and nieces and a couple of the next generation again.  Getting together for Christmas is a staggered event spread over a few weeks. 

Shannon started working at the St Leonards News Agency and Post Office five and a half years ago. She started in the Tattersalls area, and then learnt from Roxy how to do the Post Office side, which is most of what she does now.  Is it little wonder that Shannon talks about ‘everyone knowing everyone’ when she works in the centre of it.  And in news that will surprise absolutely no-one, not a single scrap of gossip, not even a hint of a secret was given away in the making of this story.  

For anyone who has ever met Shannon across the Post Office counter you will know how unflappable she is. Even during COVID when ‘there was a time, it seemed to bring out the worst in some people’, particularly those who had escaped the tighter restrictions of Melbourne, or people who were objecting anyway. Some people became ‘entitled and angry, you could feel the animosity; but it’s calmed down now.’ In the meanwhile ‘the town is getting busier, both at holiday time and with the new estates. Housing is also getting more expensive. Some shops barely made a living outside the holiday period, and we needed (population) growth but it’s still small and it will always be that way.’ 

It’s obvious that Shannon ‘loves small communities, where everyone knows everyone’ and as it is in St Leonards, a place where her daughter could walk to school. Even though she acknowledges that St Leonards has grown a lot in recent years, ‘it always felt like home, and I’ll stay here as long as we can afford it’.  Shannon’s hope for her daughter is to ‘be happy and finish school.’ St Leonards looks like a good place for all that to happen.