Despite personal tragedy, Rochelle always looks to the future

By Nick Sinis  

ROCHELLE Halstead has had a long history of involvement in local government and hopes to use this experience to guide her after taking on the role of deputy mayor recently. 

Rochelle has been a councillor since 2020 at Bass Coast, but was also an elected representative at the City of Frankston back in the early 2000s, before eventually becoming mayor. 

However, due to a devastating family tragedy, Cr Halstead withdrew from the public eye. 

She spoke with the Sentinel-Times on her journey to Bass Coast and returning to council after some very difficult times. 

“My late husband was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer,” Cr Halstead said.

“I completely withdrew from public life and cared for him but lost him in 2011. 

I had two young children and I dedicated the next 10 years or so to raising them and getting them through school, which was a pretty devastating time for them as well.”

After experiencing the heartbreaking loss, Cr Halstead then sadly developed breast cancer.

“I had chemotherapy and it was quite a frightening time for my children, they had just been through all of that with their dad. So it was a pretty crazy time,” she said. 

“It’s been a long road, but you learn from those experiences and how you view life after going through them.”

When moving to Bass Coast, Cr Halstead described it like a ‘warm hug’.

“The community here is so embracing, and we just settled down and I married again.

“My husband and I own a business in Tooradin, Tides Bar and Grill, which he pretty much runs.”

With some of most challenging experiences now behind her, Cr Halstead has been strongly focused on getting back on track.

“All my children are now adults and we have the business, I help out through the busy periods so to speak and that keeps me grounded.

“It helps make sure my head doesn’t go too ‘high up in the clouds’ because sometimes in politics, you can make that mistake and lose sight of things.”

With all her experience in local government, she decided to give it another go on council.

“I guess having that ‘warm hug’ from the community, I thought maybe that’s a way I can give back to a community that was so supportive of me when I was going through a really rough time.

“I think some councillors go into council and look at it as a bit of stepping stone to another level.

“I’m really keen to stay on a local level and I believe that local government is where the most (personal) rewards are.

“Understanding what it’s taken to get a project up and running and then watching it happen from the ground up.

“When you’re at other levels of government, you’re not working closely with the community.”

Cr Halstead said she decided to take on the role of deputy mayor after being approached to consider it. 

“There’s a lot that goes either in deputy or in the position of mayor, and I thought do the hard work first and go through deputy position and who knows what happens in the future,” she said.

“I’m happy to support (mayor) Michael Whelan who wanted to do a second year. He has done some really great work in the area of climate change and is very passionate about it.

“For me, I’m really big on making sure that it’s the voice of the whole community being heard. It’s a whole team of councillors behind those decisions. 

“We don’t always agree, we’re just like tiny snippets of our community, we don’t always have the same views, but we work through any issues of concern and come to an agreement.”

Cr Halstead aims to focus on creating more off-lead dog parks and beaches, as well as implementing more infrastructure at Cape Woolamai such as a pump track. 

She is also acutely aware of the debate raging between community members over the shire’s plans to possibly implement a road and drainage upgrade, through a special charge scheme at Surf Beach and Sunderland Bay estates.