🦎 The community at risk of washing away

Plus the ultimate family-friendly events guide for October.

Author

Jacob Wallace
October 10, 2025

⏱️ This Friday edition of our newsletter is a 6-minute read.

👋 Hello Gippslanders, it’s Jacob.

☀️ I hope you’ve all had a fantastic week and are making the most of the increase in sunshine throughout Gippsland.

Here’s a picture of my dog Quigley laying in the sun with a daisy crown on his head.

✍️ In this week’s newsletter we’re talking about the severe inundation facing a Phillip Island community. I’ve also put together a list of family-friendly events for October — and I asked Leongatha locals what they’re doing to prepare for an early bushfire season.

🎤 On Monday I travelled to Phillip Island to report on a few different stories. Whilst I was there I met up with Silverleaves resident Ken Hailey, who told me about the severe loss of beach that the community is experiencing, putting homes and lives at risk.

🌊 Hailey showed me the rock wall that was installed by DEECA as well as ongoing sand renourishment work — but said a more permanent solution needed to be found before Silverleaves homes are completely lost.

❝

“People are frightened. If the water comes in, not only have you got houses, you've got roads, electricity, septic tanks and a lot of other infrastructure damage.”

Ken Hailey, Silverleaves resident

🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

🧺 FARMERS MARKETS 🥧

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

🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂

🌊 “We’re the guinea pig”: Phillip Island suburb on the frontline of rising sea levels

Ken Hailey stands on top of a wall of sand on Phillip Island’s Silverleaves beach. He is gesturing up and down the shoreline, describing a combination of storms, erosion and a rising ocean that have removed six metre high sand dunes over the last four years and put a whole community at risk.

“You can see how much has been lost,” said Hailey. “If you've got a strong north or northwesterly, the waves start at the western end and build up momentum until they sweep out of the eastern end which has caused this massive erosion.”

A rock wall solution: In April this year the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) installed a 150 metre rock bag wall at Silverleaves as part of a $15 million package to address coastal erosion in the state.

As a short term solution DEECA has also been renourishing the sand dunes on the beach – but Hailey says it’s to little avail.

“The beach has been renourished three times in the last four months, at a cost of $30,000 to $40,000 per renourishment. The last one was done less than a week ago, and it looks like two thirds of it is already gone.”

The rock wall at Silverleaves beach.

Where’s it all going? A DEECA report released in July last year stated the western shoreline at Silverleaves has receded about 77 metres since 1953.

The report also shows that this erosion is accelerating.

The shoreline was retreating 1.8 metres a year between 2018 and 2022 but since 2022 that recession rate has increased to 6 metres a year.

“People are frightened,” said Hailey. “If the water comes in, not only have you got houses, you've got roads, electricity, septic tanks and a lot of other infrastructure damage.”

Hailey said Silverleaves has a large elderly population with a lot of residents looking to go into nursing homes.

“They cannot sell their houses and they’re in big trouble. This is the human cost of inaction.”

🧺 EVENTS LIST 🍺 

🎊 It’s always difficult to keep coming up with fresh ideas to keep the young ones entertained, so the Gippsland Monitor has done some investigating and put together a collection of family-friendly events in October across the region.

🕺 There’s plenty of live music, dancing and fun to be had in Gippsland this October, here’s our list of the best local gigs this month.

🎥 WATCH: Leongatha residents on

After reporting on the early start to the summer bushfire season the Monitor decided to ask Leongatha residents if they were concerned about the increased risk of fires — and what they are doing to prepare. Take a look at what some residents had to say below.

Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Monitor. I hope you enjoyed this Friday issue of the newsletter and I also hope you make the most of your sunny weekend in Gippsland.

I’ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday next week with more food reviews, informative stories, chats with locals and updates on Gippsland events.

If you have anything you’d like to share with us, whether it be an idea for a story, a scenic photo of your town, or something to add to our events lists then you can shoot me an email at [email protected] and maybe it’ll end up in this newsletter next week.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
Jacob & the Gippsland Monitor team