FIRE up your broom and get ready to explore as The Great Witch Hunt Event is on again right throughout October, as we approach Halloween. Fifty-one witches will be on display at businesses right across the Bass Coast Shire as we encourage you to explore our region to hunt down the witches and locate their unique identification numbers.

Start your spellbinding journey in Grantville, where eight witches await to cast their charms around town. Greet a kangaroo, sprinkle your garden with a splash of enchanted colour, and conjure up strength with a feast of pizza and pasta before whisking down the highway to fetch a little milk for your black cat.

Drift to Corinella and Coronet Bay, where the map hides more wicked clues for sharp-eyed sorcerers. Then, with a flap of your cloak, soar across the great blue to Cowes.

There, refill your broomstick, set sail on a cruise to spy sea creatures of legend, and gather magical energy along the bustling strip. Test your Quidditch skills in a maze of mystery, then take to the skies once more and glide back to the mainland with a cackle and a grin onto Wonthaggi and beyond.

This community event is hosted by the Grantville Business and Community Association, so simply head to their website (visitgrantville.com.au) to purchase an entry ticket for only $5 and then download the map and get hunting! There is a range of great prizes on offer this year, including first prize of a two-day family getaway at Kaloha Holiday Resort in Cowes and three park pass from Phillip Island Nature Parks. The total prize pool is worth over $2000, with a special prize for every entrant who successfully locates all of the witches! The Association are also grateful to their major sponsors, Panny’s Chocolate Factory and the Bass Coast Shire Council.

This volunteer-run community event is a great way to explore Bass Coast businesses and at the same time donate to a not-for-profit event, where any funds that are raised are 100 per cent returned to the community through the running of other local events. Hard copy printed tickets and maps are also available from the Newhaven and Inverloch information centres, ArtSpace and information centre in Wonthaggi and Maru Koala and Animal Park in Grantville.

This year, 40 of the original large life-size witches have been retired and replaced with the smaller size witches. Those large witches are now being offered for sale to anyone who may be interested in them for their own Halloween decorations, head to trybooking.com/DFRFO. Follow the event facebook page @TheGreatWitchHunt for tips and clues on locating the witches and also this year there will also be three ‘virtual’ witches only seen on the Facebook page. So start flying around our beautiful Bass Coast now and get hunting!