Newsletter: Is Gippsland haunted?

Plus: Where did all the fertiliser go?

Author

Jacob Wallace
March 18, 2026

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

👋 Hello Gippslanders, it’s Jacob here. 📸

🙌 I’d like to say a warm welcome to the 87 subscribers who signed up to this newsletter in the last week and welcome back the 11,838 subscribers already on our emailing list.

I hope you all get to learn something new about Gippsland while you read our weekly newsletters.

📸 Here’s a picture I took of two rosellas helping themselves to my peaches. There are more than enough peaches to go around, but I just wish they’d leave a few for me.

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

  • 👻 The mystery of Latrobe Valley’s Haunted Hills;

  • 🚜 Australia’s fertiliser shortage;

  • 🌊 The Silverleaves residents waiting on $2.8 million of coastal protection works;

  • 🇪🇺 How the Europe Union is asking Australian industries to decrease emissions, and;

  • 🥧 Drouin Golden Bakery’s chunky (or not so chunky) steak pie.

🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

🧺 FARMERS MARKETS 🥧

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

🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂

👻 Poltergeists or mythical creatures: The mystery of Gippsland's Haunted Hills

The Monitor dived into some old newspaper articles to get to the bottom of how a hilly area south of Moe became known as the Haunted Hills.

A 1947 article in the Advocate says the story goes that in the 1840s-50s, the track that ran through the Haunted Hills was a settler road. 

In the settler days, when cattle were taken from Melbourne to the regions, a drover was guiding their animals up the eastern slopes of the hills without difficulty, but on the way down the western slopes the animals became restless.

They broke away from the drover and his dogs, bolted down the hill through the scrub and were never seen again.

For the full story, take a look at the video below.

🚜 Gippsland farmers feel impact of Middle East war as price of fertiliser surges

The Persian Gulf is about 12,000km from David Johnson’s dairy farm in Neerim South, but that hasn’t stopped him and other Gippsland farmers from feeling the financial impacts of the Middle East war.

Twenty percent of the world’s oil - and many other products, including the nitrogen fertiliser urea - have to pass from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz into the Arabian Sea before being shipped east into Asia and to other destinations.

Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to attack cargo ships that attempt to run the gauntlet.

Nearly two thirds (64 percent) of Australia’s urea is imported from the Persian Gulf, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The blockage has caused the international price of urea to surge by about 25 percent compared to a month ago.

Take a look at a video on this story below.

🏝️ Silverleaves residents “praying for a mild winter”, free of storm surges

Silverleaves’ Ken Hailey reckons locals are fearful of another severe storm surge this winter.

“We’re all praying for a mild winter,” he said.

What happened: Silverleaves residents have faced an encroaching shoreline with the risk of severe flooding and water inundation from storm tides for decades.

A Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) report released in July 2024 stated the western shoreline at Silverleaves had receded about 77 metres since 1953.

  • The report also showed the erosion was accelerating. 

Works on the way

In October last year, the state government completed an adaptation plan for the suburb to protect it against water inundation and announced $1.4 million in funding for the works.

  • The plan outlined sea levee walls, dune restoration and groins (long structures built into the ocean to prevent erosion) as possible works to protect the coastline.

Then in December, the federal government announced another $1.4 million in coastal protection works for Silverleaves.

Silverleaves residents, naturally, are eager to see the job started and completed before the next big wet. But they may be waiting a winter or two more.

The $2.8 million funding will be spent by DEECA and Bass Coast Shire Council. The next phase in the timeline involves hiring a consultant, “developing concept and detailed designs and planning for the delivery/construction of these works”.

“People are frightened,” Hailey said. “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 is worried that another severe weather event will damage the rockbag wall at Silverleaves beach, built in 2024 to protect the suburb from further flooding.

LOOKING NATIONALLY 👀

My colleague Archie Milligan from the National Account put together a video on how a new European Union tax on products that produce high emissions could see Australian industries move further away from fossil fuels.

Take a look at Archie’s video on the story below.

🎥 Watch: Drouin Golden Bakery pie review

I’m an absolute sucker for a bakery pie, so I’ve been trying to locate Gippsland’s tastiest savoury pastry. Last week, I stopped by Drouin Golden Bakery and sampled the chunky steak pie. Take a look at the video review below.

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

If you’d like to share something with us, whether it’s a story from your town you think is underreported, a pie tip or a world exclusive, then send us an email at [email protected].

I’ll be back in your inbox on Friday morning.

Cheers,
Jacob & the Gippsland Monitor team

🤳 If you’re not already subscribed, you can keep up to date with everything we’re reporting on at the Gippsland Monitor on these platforms:
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
TikTok
or our website