DRIVING INTO WANNON as the sun was rising on the last day of the campaign, the first sign of today’s election was a weather beaten, Dan Tehan corflute, actually, the way it was flapping around I wasn’t sure it was a corflute.
It’s about a two hour drive along the Princess Highway from the Eastern edge of the electorate to Warrnambool.
On my first trip into Wannon when I met the independent candidate Alex Dyson, Google took me on a grand tour of the electorate – once off the main highway, the roads are indeed shocking and frankly, dangerous.
On the outskirts of the city I pulled over to change my shoes and shirt then drove into, Liebig Street in the centre of the city to have some breakfast and post a TransitZone podcast for Peter Clarke.
After hitting ‘Publish’ my thoughts turned to pre-poll – the woman at the table next to me smiled as I looked up from the screen, so I asked her if she knew where it was.
She gave me directions and told me she’d voted on Thursday – I asked if she minded telling me who got her vote.
Alex of course
The woman told me she didn’t know him personally, but everyone speaks highly of him and it was good to have a different choice.
Warrnambool pre-poll had some pretty serious traffic and parking control in place, which looked a bit over-kill on arrival.
But 15 minutes later:
I sat on the grass waiting to do a quick interview with, Dyson and watched voters arriving to get a sense of whose ‘how to vote cards’ were being sought, rather than just accepting when offered. I couldn’t pick much of a difference.
Once Dyson was ready to talk, I thought it’d be nice to get a photograph of him with the current Member, Dan Tehan – he didn’t want his photo taken by No Fibs with the independent candidate.
Alex Dyson talks to No Fibs
I left per-poll in Warrnambool and planned to head to Portland pre-poll.
In the two hours it took to drive from the Eastern edge of the electorate, I saw in total 3 corflutes for Dan Tehan. I didn’t think much of it at the time.
In the 20 minutes it takes to drive from Warrnambool to Port Fairy, I saw at least half a dozen corflutes for Dyson. I was somewhat taken back by that, I didn’t expect to see such strong support for Dyson from farmers.
Change of plans, I turned off the highway and headed into Port Fairy. If I had to describe Port Fairy to people in Indi, it’d be Beechworth by the sea – it’s a really pretty little town full of great old buildings.
After a quick drive around town I didn’t see a single corflute, so grabbed a coffee and went for a walk – you wouldn’t know there was an election on.
I headed for the local newsagent to see what the local paper had to say about the campaign, not much except a quarter page advertisement for Dyson.
The young woman at the counter told me she wasn’t really following the election, but had seen Dyson’s face everywhere and thought she’d vote for him because ‘he seemed nice’.
It seemed a bit odd Dyson’s corflutes were pretty thick along that stretch of the Princess Highway but the town had none that I could find.
Another change of plans – I decided to drive up through the middle of the electorate to, Ararat which I’d planned to do but hadn’t so far.
There was not a single corflute, at least not on the roads Google took me. But I did finally get a nice photo of a wind turbine.
It’s hard to pick what’s gonna happen in Wannon today, it wouldn’t surprise me if Dyson’s knocked out by the Labor candidate and it wouldn’t surprise me if the independent candidate wins in an upset.
I think Wannon is in play.
One thing is certain – if Tehan does hold his seat, the Liberals will never take Wannon for granted again.