🚂 The mysterious Korumburra train case
Mad Monday celebrations, golden wattles in bloom and the youth homelessness crisis.
Jacob Wallace
September 17, 2025
⏱️ This midweek edition of our newsletter is a six-minute read.
👋 Hey Gippslanders, it’s Jacob here.
In this week’s newsletter we’re talking about a 1919 Korumburra steam train mystery, Gippsland farmers noticing the timing of the seasons change, and the growing youth homelessness crisis in the region.
🌼 Over the weekend I went for a run along the Great Southern Rail Trail between Loch and Korumburra, and took some footage of the golden wattles in full bloom. Take a look at the video I put together below.
🔍 With the help of Annie O’Riley’s Odd Australian History website (which has lots of great Gippsland stories) and some old newspaper articles I was able to piece together the story of Alexander Eastman.
🕵🏻♂️ In 1919, Eastman was found dead on top of a steam train heading to Korumburra, and nobody has ever quite figured out why he was there, and how he met his demise. It’s a peculiar tale, and you can read more detail in my article.
🎤 I spoke to South Gippsland MP Danny O’Brien about the increasing homelessness problem in the region. Research from the Foyer Foundation published earlier this year showed the Latrobe-Gippsland region was one of 20 in Australia where youth homelessness was on the rise.
Gippsland was at the top of the list with more than 1,000 young people experiencing homelessness.
In the 11 years I've been an MP there's been a massive increase in the number of actual rough sleepers in our country's communities, which was something that a decade or two ago you just did not see.
🎤 Whilst interviewing locals on the street in Leongatha yesterday I ran into some Meeniyan Dumbalk United netball players who were enjoying their Mad Monday celebrations. Check out my interview with them below.
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🚀 Alright, let’s jump into the Monitor’s latest stories, informative interviews and fun videos!
HEARD THIS WEEK👂
It was a bitterly cold 1919 night, and Frederick Mills was aboard the steam train from Melbourne to Korumburra, shovelling coal into the fire to maintain the broilers.
As the locomotive passed through Nyora, Mills climbed on top of the coal pile and, with the bright moonlight reflecting down on the train, noticed an unusual bundle on the roof of a carriage.
Mills reported his discovery to the train driver and when they reached Korumburra, the body of 20-year-old Alexander Eastman was found face down on the carriage roof.
How a body got on top of a night steam train running from Melbourne to Korumburra in 1919, no one is really sure.
🌾 “It’s too dry to sow”: Gippsland farmers months behind schedule
Fifth-generation Gippsland farmer Ben Gebert is watching in real-time the impact climate change is having on the timing of the seasons, and the way he farms.
“At the moment in Stratford we’re quite dry when we should be well and truly kicking along from a grass production perspective,” he told the Gippsland Monitor. “I've noticed our water catchments are under strain. Most of the state and a fair whack of the country has planted their cereal crops later this year.”
Hailing from Wimmera Mallee in North Western Victoria, Gebert moved to his current mixed farming property just outside of Stratford in 2016.
He said farmers were “one to two months behind where they would otherwise be, because it was simply too dry to sow”.
A 2024 report from the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO showed there has been a decrease of around nine percent in April to October rainfall since 1994 in southeast Australia.
Gebert said farmers were increasingly turning to renewable energy as their concerns about the environment mounted.
🎥 WATCH: Gippsland conservationists purchase their second island wetland 🏝️
Check out the video I made about not-for-profit Nooramunga Land & Sea purchasing its second Gippsland island.
Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Gippsland Monitor.
If anyone knows someone in the Latrobe-Gippsland region who is experiencing homelessness or sleeping rough and would be willing to chat to me about their day-to-day, then please send me an email at [email protected]. You can always remain anonymous.
I hope you enjoyed this midweek issue of our newsletter. I’ll be appearing in your inbox again this Friday with a list of weekend events to check out, more fun videos and informative local yarns.
Cheers,
Jacob & the Gippsland Monitor team
