Newsletter: Best yarns of 2025

Including swamps, spans and snot blocks.

Author

Jacob Wallace
December 19, 2025

⏱️ This final 2025 edition of our newsletter is a six-minute read.

👋 Hello Gippslanders, it’s Jacob here.

🎊 This is the last Gippsland Monitor newsletter before the end of the year. To start with I just want to say thank you so much to all of you who signed up. It’s been a pleasure to write these emails twice a week and I’m still so surprised there are 9,703 people who have agreed to receive them.

🙌 It’s been such a blast telling Gippsland stories and talking to so many of you throughout the year, and I’m already pumped about covering this region next year.

📸 Instead of the usual weekly roundup, I thought it’d be fun to cover a handful of stories I wrote this year. They’re not necessarily the most impactful or the most read but they’re articles or videos that I enjoyed making.

✍️ FIVE STORIES FROM 2025 🎤

The 1,016-acre Tullaree estate in Buffalo.

When a pioneering South Gippsland estate came on the market my editor and I did a little digging and quickly discovered a fascinating tale about two women who owned the property in the early 1900s.

The Clement sisters were rudely referred to by local papers at the time as “the old ladies of the swamp” and their tragic end at the Tullaree estate is still shrouded in mystery.

Solar panels and the milking shed on Alister Clyne’s Tinamba West farm.

In September I visited Alister Clyne’s farm in Tinamba West as part of a bus tour run by the Gippsland New Energy Conference. Two years ago Clyne moved from a 50-unit rotary dairy to become one of Australia’s largest robotic milking facilities.

Clyne was kind enough to show us around the farm which has been in his family for over 140 years. He showed us the 16 DeLaval VMS V300 robots that milk the 1,150 cows on his dairy farm 24-hours a day.

Unused farmland on Venus Bay.

This story was published earlier this month and it received a very positive reaction online, quickly becoming the Monitor’s most viewed story on Instagram.

At a South Gippsland council meeting on November 26, the council unanimously voted to send the state government a feasibility study which looked into restoring 324 hectares of the Venus Bay peninsula’s farmland to salt marsh and mangroves.

For the story I spoke to South Gippsland councillor and Venus Bay resident Sarah Gilligan who told me the restoration works will help protect the peninsula from flooding and isolation.

“Mangroves and salt marsh are a fantastic way of absorbing storm surges. It's a natural way of building a wall,” Gilligan said.

🎥 The history of Kilcunda Bridge

Built in 1911, the Kilcunda Bridge is a striking example of early 20th century timber engineering. Take a look at a video I made about the history of one of Gippsland’s greatest spans below.

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🍰 Too many vanilla sllices

Filling my gob with pastries at least once a week has been a huge highlight of 2025. Part of the reason I love this job is I get to make silly videos like this while also working or more important and impactful reporting.

I’m not sure I’m ready for all the chicken parmi, bakery pie and vanilla slice reviews in 2026. I might have to sign up to a local gym.

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🥂 Here’s a list of Gippsland events taking place this weekend.

🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

🧺 FARMERS MARKETS 🥧

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🚀 Alright, let’s jump into the Monitor’s latest yarns, local interviews and fun videos.

🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂

A Traralgon church that's been relocated twice since 1879 won't be making its final journey to the tip after all, with Latrobe City councillors backing a community-led rescue plan.

What happened: At a council meeting on December 15, Latrobe City Council unanimously voted to sell the Old Methodist Church at 41 Princess Street to the Traralgon and District Historical Society, ending years of uncertainty. 

The church had been slated for demolition after a council vote four years ago, which cited high restoration costs and lack of operational need.

  • The previously allocated $86,000 in council funds for the demolition will now go to the historical society to kickstart restoration of the building.

Who owns the church?

The church building is owned by council, however the land the building is on is owned by the Victorian Department of Transport, for which the council had a lease agreement in place.

Now that council is seeking to sell the property, a new lease agreement will need to be negotiated with the state body VicTrack.

What is VicTrack? VicTrack is a state government body that manages Victoria’s rail land, buildings and infrastructure, and makes underused land and other assets available to lease.

Council votes in favour of historical society plan

🗣️ Howe spoke in favour of the amended motion saying: “The future of the old Uniting Church has been uncertain for several years now; I hope that tonight’s decision will provide the certainty and peace of mind for our community.”

  • “The community made it clear that demolition was not an acceptable option,” Howe said.

🎥 Watch: Can you guess which Gippsland beach this is?

Have a crack and leave a comment on the video letting us know which local beach you think this is.

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🙌 Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Monitor. I hope you all have a fantastic break with plenty of good food, relaxation and quality time with family and friends.

I’ll be back in your inbox next year with more local yarns, so stay tuned.

Cheers,
Jacob & the Gippsland Monitor team