Newsletter: Affordable date night ideas

🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

• WEDNESDAY, 04/02/26 | Daniel Champagne

• FRIDAY, 06/02/26 | Hockey Dad

• FRI. 06/02 - SUN. 08/02 | Darnum Heritage Display dinner

• SATURDAY, 07/02/26 | Loretta Miller

• SUNDAY, 08/02/26 | Churchill Island Summer Sunday Sessions

• ALL OF FEBRUARY | $8 Baw Baw Arts Alliance sessions

🧺 FARMERS MARKETS 🥧

• SATURDAY, 07/02/26 | Trafalgar Market

• SATURDAY, 07/02/26 | Koonwarra Farmers Market

• SATURDAY, 07/02/26 | Farmers' Market Bairnsdale

• SATURDAY, 07/02/26 | Heyfield Market

• SATURDAY, 07/02/26 | Fish Creek Summer Market

• SUNDAY, 08/02/26 | Maffra Rotary Community Market

• SUNDAY, 08/02/26 | Kongwak Market

🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂

🔋 “Popping up everywhere”: Gippsland’s large-scale battery boom

Overlooking the enormous retired Hazelwood open-cut coal mine is a small plot of land that contains rows and rows of 2.5 metre tall grey boxes. They don’t appear to be doing much, but these 342 batteries power over 30,000 Gippsland houses every night.

New energy in Gippsland: Systems like the batteries at Hazelwood are popping up everywhere – and they’re changing the way Australia’s grid operates as the country transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy. 

🦎 The Monitor’s Jacob Wallace visited Engie’s Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at Hazelwood to speak with BESS Coordinator Johnathan Vila, and discuss how the system works, how battery technology is changing and what it means for power bills.

What happened: Over the last three months, renewables and energy storage contributed to more than 50 percent of Australia's electricity. 

• This is a significant figure, as it represents the first time the nation’s power has been this far weighted towards renewable energy. 

• As the cost of building large batteries has plummeted their output around the country has almost tripled in the last three months.

Battery farms in Gippsland are a big part of these record-breaking numbers, dropping wholesale electricity prices by more than 40 percent compared to a year earlier.

How do big batteries work? There are two things to keep in mind when trying to understand how a large-scale battery works: How much energy is being generated and how much electricity people want to use. 

• Engie’s Johnathan Vila said supply and demand dictates when energy companies choose to charge a battery and when they choose to discharge it and sell energy to consumers.

Read the full story here.

🪨 Did you feel the two recent Gippsland earthquakes?

On Tuesday there were two quakes that shook Gippsland, one at 8:38am near Briagolong and one at 5:02pm just north of Moe. Take a look at the short video I made about the earthquakes below.

🥂 LIFESTYLE 🏖️

🌹 The ultimate list of Gippsland date night ideas

❤️ Valentine’s Day is around the corner, so it’s time to pluck up the courage and ask your crush whether they’d like to join you for a romantic date night. 

🥂 But don’t worry: first dates don’t have to break the bank to be fun.

💘 Whether this is the first date of a blossoming relationship or you just need some fresh ideas, the Monitor is happy to act as your cupid.

Read the full story here.

LOOKING NATIONALLY 👀

I enjoyed this video my colleague Archie Milligan made on why betting ads are still so prevalent in Australia and the amount of revenue the gambling industry generates.

I didn’t know that in the 2023-24 financial year Australian’s lost over $32 billion to gambling.

Take a look at Archie’s video on betting ad policy below.