🦎 What’s the best dinner spot in Leongatha?
Plus what affordable school holiday events, what a drier climate means for bushfire seasons, and chilli scrambled eggs in Warragul.
Jacob Wallace
September 26, 2025
⏱️ This edition of our newsletter is a 6-minute read.
👋 Hello Gippslanders, it’s Jacob here.
This week’s newsletter we’re talking about school holiday events, the best place to get dinner in Leongatha, and why the bushfire season is arriving early this year.
🚗 I’ve been busy travelling around Gippsland following stories and chatting to locals but every now and then I make sure to find the time to appreciate Gippsland’s picturesque landscape. Here’s a picture I took this week of a bunch of cows in the Strzelecki Ranges having a feed, how good.
🎤 On Wednesday I spoke to the Director of the transdisciplinary Fire Centre at the University of Tasmania, Professor David Bowman. Bowman has been studying bushfire seasons for over 40 years.
🌤️ He told me one of the biggest knock-on effects of a warming climate is fuel dryness - and drier fuels mean more extreme fire behaviour.
🌳 Bowman is concerned about what he calls “climate whiplash”, where we bounce between very wet and very dry seasons which means we see more shrub growth which can act as fuel for bushfires.
We've got landscapes that are recovered and are ready to burn again, even though they were burnt only five or six years ago. It's quite a sobering scenario.
🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️
FRIDAY, 26/09/25 | The Paramour Cabaret
🎊 SCHOOL HOLIDAY EVENTS 🎟️
SATURDAY, 27/09/25 | Emma Memma Dance Island Party
MONDAY, 29/09/25 | Celebrate the Children's Book Council of Australia
MONDAY, 29/09/25 | Whalebone
TUESDAY, 01/01/25 | Wacky Lolly Shooting Machine Workshop
FRIDAY, 19/09/25 - SATURDAY, 25/10/25 | Next Generation Art Exhibition
🎊 MARKETS 🎟️
SATURDAY, 27/09/25 | Yarragon Craft and Produce Market
SATURDAY, 27/09/25 | The Mirboo North Market
SUNDAY, 28/09/25 | Bairnsdale Howitt Park Market
SUNDAY, 28/09/25 | Inverloch Lions Community Market
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🚀 Alright, let’s jump into the Monitor’s latest yarns, local interviews and silly videos!
🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂
🍂 “It's quite a sobering scenario”: Gippsland bushfire season could come early this year
South Gippsland Mayor John Schelling spends a lot of his time travelling around the region speaking with farmers and locals. One thing he’s noticed in the lead up to summer is an increase in bush growth – and a drier climate.
“This season has been drier than normal,” Schelling told the Monitor. “We've come off three or four very good seasons but we're having a bit of a dry season this year.”
In August, Fire Rescue Victoria said record low rainfall had been recorded in the state’s west over the last 18 months, “extending across west central and in south-west Gippsland”.
Due to this increased dryness, Victorian fire emergency services are expecting bushfire season to start earlier this year and believe south-west Gippsland is at increased risk.
Climate whiplash creates prime environment
Director of the transdisciplinary Fire Centre at the University of Tasmania, Professor David Bowman has been researching fires in Australia for over 40 years.
Bowman told the Monitor that rising global temperatures “have a lot of knock-on effects, but one of the biggest is fuel dryness – and drier fuels means more extreme fire behaviour”.
“It's all connected to the capacity of a warmer atmosphere to absorb moisture and dry dead fuels out,” he said.
“You're basically getting more energy in the landscape for longer because of these high temperatures.”
🍳 Chilli scrambled eggs at South Brew Cafe in Warragul
Over the weekend I stopped into South Brew Cafe on Smith Street in Warragul to grab some breakfast. Take a look at the video I made below.
🎥 WATCH: Leongatha locals on where they like to grab dinner
I spent an afternoon in Leongatha asking locals where their favourite spot to have dinner in town was. Here’s what they had to say.
🙌 Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Gippsland Monitor. I hope you enjoyed this issue and I’d love to hear from you. If you have any stories you think deserve more attention and you’d like to share then send us an email at [email protected] and it might end up in this newsletter next week.
🏉 I hope you all enjoy your public holiday today and make the most of your elongated weekend. I don’t have a dog in the fight this grand final but I think I’m barracking for Brissy.
📧 We’ll be back in your inbox next week with more informative chats, local tidbits and good times.
Cheers,
Jacob and the Gippsland Monitor team
