🚁 Is this Gippsland’s best museum?

🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

• WED. 13/05 - FRI. 15/05 | Saltbush

• SATURDAY, 16/05/26 | Where is the green sheep?

• SAT. 16/05 - SUN. 24/05 | Fish Creek Tea Cosy Festival

• SATURDAY, 16/05/26 | Snow Country Music Festival

• SUNDAY, 17/05/26 | Gippsland Symphony Orchestra

🧺 FARMERS MARKETS 🥧

• SATURDAY, 16/05/26 | Inverloch Rural Farmers Market

• SATURDAY, 16/05/26 | Drouin Craft and Produce Market

• SATURDAY, 16/05/26 | Warragul Farmers Market

• SATURDAY, 16/05/26 | Gormandale Craft and Produce Market

• SATURDAY, 16/05/26 | Prom Country Farmers Market

• SATURDAY, 16/05/26 | Sale Producers Market

• SUNDAY, 17/05/26 | Coronet Bay Market

• SUNDAY, 17/05/26 | Kongwak Market

🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂

🚢 Thirteen gas rigs in the Bass Strait are coming down and the work starts later this year

The removal and dismantling of Bass Strait offshore gas rigs is set to get underway this year, with the first stage removing the topsides (above-water components) of up to 13 offshore rigs.

Sitting between 21 and 77 kilometres off the coast of Gippsland, fossil fuel giant Esso owns 19 offshore platforms in the Bass Strait.

In early May, Australia’s offshore energy regulator approved an environmental plan for Esso Australia’s proposed first stage of decommissioning.

Removal of the infrastructure under the plan will commence in the third quarter of this year and conclude at the start of 2028. 

The process: Australia’s offshore energy regulator says ships will transport the topsides to a sheltered location closer to shore before they’re transferred onto a barge or a heavy transport vessel for further transit.

Barry Beach Marine Terminal will act as the main hub of operations for the dismantling of the rigs.

🪖 The Phillip Island museum packed with Vietnam War tanks, helicopters and memorabilia

Over the years, the National Vietnam Veterans Museum museum in Newhaven has received several donations from the Australian Defence Force, including a tank, an Armoured Personnel Carrier, two field artillery Howitzers and an enormous carrier plane.

Vietnam veteran and museum volunteer Russell Jackson showed the Monitor around the displays. Take a look at a video about the exhibits and the collection’s history below.

How did the collection get started?

In 1996, Vietnam Veteran John Methven and his wife Krishna joined a “Vets Connect” ride around Australia, where they toured the country in their Land Rover with a display trailer full of his personal memorabilia.

• During and after the tour, the Methven’s received a growing collection of donated memorabilia from veterans they had met on the road.

In March 1998, after they had retired to San Remo, the Methven’s decided to open a Vietnam war museum in an old shed.

• Donations continued to roll in so the Methven’s had to continue to expand.

In 2003, the museum moved to a space next to the Phillip Island airstrip. And that’s where it is now.

In 2019, the museum’s board decided to purchase land directly opposite the current museum where they plan to build a new exhibition space to house their historic collection.

LOOKING NATIONALLY 👀

Did the federal government try to bury this report?

My colleague Archie Milligan from the National Account looked into a report into gambling advertising on social media released by the Albanese government just before the federal budget.

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