🦎 Another hot one

Plus: Bairnsdale hospital repairs.

Author

Jacob Wallace
February 18, 2026

⏱️ This midweek edition of our newsletter is a six-minute read.

👋 Hello Gippslanders, it’s Jacob here.

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are making the most of the warm weather.

🏖️ I ended up driving over to Anglesea in Western Vic to catch up with some mates who were holidaying over that way. We went for a 7km hike along the coast to Point Addis before hoping in the water for a dip.

📸 Here’s an unsolicited photo of Quigley lying down in a sunny park in Anglesea.

👀 Looking ahead. In this week’s newsletter we’re talking about:

  • 🧯 The dangerous fire weather warnings across Gippsland;

  • 🩺 How Leongatha residents are coping with the closure of a major GP clinic;

  • 🏥 The much needed repairs at Bairnsdale hospital;

  • ⛏️ Community concerns over the test phase of a Glenaladale rare earth mine;

  • 🔌 What “intermittent power” really means; and;

  • 🛠️ How to remove 23 offshore oil and gas rigs without hurting Gippsland’s fishing industry.

🎤 Last week I spent an afternoon in Leongatha talking to locals about a range of topics.

One of the questions I asked them was whether they had been impacted by the closure of Leongatha Healthcare Group in January.

One resident told me the closure has led to patients struggling to get spots in other clinics around Gippsland.

❝

With these guys shutting everyone’s flocking, trying to find access to somewhere they can access a hospital and medical services, that definitely puts extra pressure on everyone.

Leongatha resident

🎥 Take a look at a video of these interviews below.

🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

🧺 FARMERS MARKETS 🥧

🚀 Alright, let’s jump into the Monitor’s latest yarns!

🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂

Extreme fire danger weather is once again bearing down on Victoria.

What happened: A total fire ban was declared on Monday over much of the state, including West and South Gippsland. 

  • A combination of high temperatures, strong winds and potential thunderstorms have created dangerous fire conditions.

Hot and dangerous

🗣️ Emergency Management Commissioner, Tim Wiebusch, said in a press conference on Monday afternoon: “The concerns will very much be for the western parts of the state, in particular, down into western south Gippsland, where we still have a lot of grassland fire load in our landscape.”

  • “The whole state is still a tinderbox in terms of the fuel types that are there,” Wiebusch said.

🩺 How are Leongatha residents handling the closure of a local GP clinic?

What happened: The closure of Leongatha Healthcare Group on January 16, which employed 18 GPs, has left thousands of locals without a GP.

The Monitor’s Jacob Wallace took to the streets of Leongatha to ask residents how they were coping with reduced healthcare services in the town.

🗣️ “I’ve heard from a lot of people that it’s impacted them and that it’s a bit of a worry for their health,” one resident said.

“With these guys shutting everyone’s flocking, trying to find access to somewhere they can access a hospital and medical services, that definitely puts extra pressure on everyone,” another local said.

A Foster resident said: “Even in Foster, we don’t accept any new patients and it’s really hard to get an appointment even if you are a patient, you’re booking ahead by about a month.”

Another local said he had immediately booked an appointment with a Mirboo North GP clinic when he heard about the closure, just to make sure he had an check-up locked in.

🎥 Take a look at a video of these interviews below.

With reports of patients left waiting in ambulances due to a lack of emergency service cubicles and a lift that frequently breaks down, Bairnsdale Hospital is in desperate need of an upgrade.

What happened: Last week, the Victorian Department of Health endorsed a plan from Bairnsdale Regional Health Service outlining just how much the hospital is in urgent need of additional emergency treatment and resuscitation spaces.

Not a done deal: The endorsement does not mean a guarantee of funds. 

  • A master plan still needs to be completed by the Department of Health before final approval can go ahead and work can begin.

The Victorian MP for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, spoke to the Monitor about the state of Bairnsdale Hospital and said patient support must improve.

Emergency, emergency: Bull said if the nine emergency service cubicles in the hospital are full then ambulances are forced to park outside the hospital while “paramedics are having to continue to monitor patients on ambulance trolleys until they can be moved into a cubicle”.

  • 🗣️ “We only have a nine cubicle emergency department, and it's simply too small,” Bull said.

Rare earth minerals are everywhere: they’re in our phones, our cars and the solar panels on our roofs.

That’s why the federal government has published a list of 49 projects around the country it considers key to acquiring more of the scattered metals.

But one of these projects, a rare earth mine in East Gippsland, has faced strong community opposition – with concerns over water contamination and possible dust pollution.

What happened: On February 4, the Albanese government released the Australian Critical Minerals Prospectus, which lists 49 mining projects across the country it considers key to acquiring minerals needed for the production of clean energy, the defence industry and manufacturing. The list of projects do not come with an endorsement from the federal government.

  • One of the projects it listed is the Fingerboards Mineral Sands Project, a mine proposed by the company Gippsland Critical Minerals (formerly known as Kalbar Resources) located near Glenaladale, between Stratford and Bairnsdale in East Gippsland.

A long history of opposition

The original proposal for the mine opened for public consultation in September 2020. In November 2021, the state Minister for Planning at the time, Richard Wynne, concluded that the environmental effects of the mine were unacceptable.

Since then Gippsland Critical Minerals has adjusted its proposal.

According to its presentation at a community consultation in Lindenow, the company has reduced the area of the mining and processing plant by 27 percent.

  • A trial phase of this new proposal is set to begin early this year.

LOOKING NATIONALLY 👀

I really enjoyed this video my colleague from the West Vic Brolga, Zara Cuthbertson, put together after interviewing One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce at the Across Victoria Alliance conference in Horsham.

While interviewing Joyce, Zara noticed him use the term “intermittent power” multiple times when referring to renewable energy.

Zara published this deep dive video into what the term actually means and why Joyce is using it so frequently.

Take a look at the video she made below.

🎥 Watch: How do you safely remove offshore oil and gas rigs from the Bass Strait?

Last week, I looked into a state government hearing in Leongatha that is trying to figure out the best way to decommission the 23 offshore oil and gas rigs — and 600km of pipeline — in the Bass Strait.

I had a chat with one of the speakers who presented at the hearing, Executive Officer of South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association, Simon Boag, about what concerns the Gippsland fishing industry has with the removal of tonnes of metal from the Bass Strait.

Take a look at a video I made about this story below.

Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Monitor. I hope you enjoyed this issue of our newsletter.

📧 If you have anything you’d like to share with us, whether it’s a local story you think needs to be covered in the news or a scenic picture of Gippsland’s landscape then feel free to email us at [email protected] 

I’ll be back in your inbox on Friday morning with more stories, informative videos and upcoming events.

Have a great week everyone.

Cheers,
Jacob