🦎 Put your money where your glass bin is

🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

• THU. 26/03 - SAT. 28/03 | Farm World

• SATURDAY, 28/03/26 | Playlunch

• SUNDAY, 29/03/26 | Sale Music Festival

• SUN. 29/03 - MON. 20/03 | Inverloch Running Festival

🧺 FARMERS MARKETS 🥧

• SATURDAY, 28/03/26 | The Mirboo North Market

• SATURDAY, 28/03/26 | Lions Traralgon Farmers Market

• SATURDAY, 28/03/26 | Yarragon Craft and Produce Market

• SATURDAY, 28/03/26 | Fish Creek Summer Market

• SUNDAY, 29/03/26 | Inverloch Lions Community Market

• SUNDAY, 29/03/26 | Kongwak Market

🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂

🐄 Leongatha beef farmer says counting your carbon is a cinch

Some Gippsland farmers come to Nick Dudley’s carbon counting workshops out of curiosity. Others are concerned about climate change or want to use the information to increase their farm’s profitability.

Dudley told the Monitor calculating the amount of carbon a farm produces is not difficult.

What happened: Dudley worked as lecturer at the Victoria College of Agriculture and Horticulture for 17 years before working for the Department of Agriculture for 15 years. 

He now owns a 39-hectare beef farm near Leongatha and wants to share his knowledge on how farms can lower their carbon emissions.

How do you calculate carbon on a farm?

The myriad ways in which farms produce and sequester carbon dioxide include the type of fertiliser used and the amount of cattle on the property.

Dudley said farmers should have access to the required information if they’re keeping a stock book to monitor cattle numbers and filing a Business Activity Statement (BAS) every quarter to the ATO.

Farmers can then input the data into an online carbon calculator.

Dudley said adding information about the types of fertiliser employed, and whether the property is powered by renewable energy, will provide a more accurate emissions figure.

• “What chemicals and fertilisers you've applied on your property, you really need to know anyway for compliance purposes,” Dudley said.

Read the full story here.

⛵️ “End of an era”: The man who helped design Sale waves goodbye to his Thomson River tours

Alan Lewis has spent the last 12 years explaining the history of Sale to tourists from the deck of his 112-year-old boat, the Rubeena, while floating down the Thomson River.

Lewis is an aficionado of the town’s history. He knows the tales from Sale’s early settler days, and helped design many of Sale’s public buildings while working as the city’s engineer for 16 years.

Recently Lewis decided to retire his cruise businesses and sell the Rubeena. This week he spoke to the Monitor about how the town he loves has changed over the decades.

What happened: Wellington Shire councillor John Tatterson described the closure of Lewis’ Port of Sale Heritage Cruises as “the end of an era” at the council meeting on Tuesday.

Tatterson said he worked under Lewis in 1984 as a young council engineer, and had been quite intimidated by his presence, given Lewis had been the City of Sale’s engineer for 16 years.

He landed the job in 1968 and during his time in the chair drew up the plans for many of Sale’s public buildings, including the shopping centre on Cunninghame Street, the railway station and the swimming pool.

“I was the city engineer, town planner, building surveyor, all of them rolled into one,” Lewis said.

He recalled his final task as a council draftsman was to draw plans for the swimming pool.

“Back then you designed it, sketched it and then drew up the plans to build it. Those days are gone now. People don't use a set square anymore.”

Looking back at his time spent shaping the city, Lewis said: “I felt I made the town a more pedestrian-friendly space. I tried to keep the urban scale and maintain the walking paths. I wanted to make it more people-friendly.”

After leaving council in the mid-1980s, Lewis launched the project management business Lewis McNaughton with his late wife, Lois McNaughton.

“She did the back office work and I worked as the project manager,” he said.

Read the full story here.

🗑️ Purple pushback: Bass Coast Shire one of 35 councils railing against glass recycling bins

At the Bass Coast Shire council meeting last week, councillors unanimously voted to oppose the Victorian Government's mandated kerbside glass service.

The council joins 34 others in taking the fight as a unified front to the state.

At the Bass Coast Shire council meeting last week, councillors unanimously voted to oppose the Victorian Government's mandated kerbside glass service. 

The council joins 34 others in taking the fight as a unified front to the state.

What happened: Bass Coast Shire estimates the service would cost millions of dollars to set up and operate, and would lead to an increase of up to $42 in council rates per household annually.

Councillor Jon Temby told the council meeting: “Not only is the process unnecessary, but it would be financially irresponsible to require us to implement it.”

Purple bins, sorry what? The state government has mandated that councils implement a home glass bin service from July 1, 2027. 

• This would mean residents would have four bins - one each for general waste (red), green waste (green), glass (purple) and non-glass recyclables (yellow).

The scheme aims to further Victoria's goal of diverting 80 percent of all material away from landfill by 2030.Bass Coast Shire estimates the service would cost millions of dollars to set up and operate, and would lead to an increase of up to $42 in council rates per household annually.

Councillor Jon Temby told the council meeting: “Not only is the process unnecessary, but it would be financially irresponsible to require us to implement it.”

Purple bins, sorry what? The state government has mandated that councils implement a home glass bin service from July 1, 2027.

• This would mean residents would have four bins - one each for general waste (red), green waste (green), glass (purple) and non-glass recyclables (yellow).

The scheme aims to further Victoria's goal of diverting 80 percent of all material away from landfill by 2030.

Read the full story here.

🌿 From Japan to Greece: This Drouin park celebrates Australia’s migrant culture

The Trees of Nations project at Alex Goudie Park in Drouin acknowledges and celebrates people from a variety of nationalities who have made Baw Baw Shire their home.

Take a look at a video the Monitor made about the park below.

LOOKING NATIONALLY 👀

I enjoyed this piece my colleague Archie Milligan from the National Account put together on whether Australia will be able to produce its own jet fuel in the future.

Take a look at the video below.