🦎 Where's my $6 million boardwalk?

Plus: February farmers market guide.

Author

Jacob Wallace
February 04, 2026

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

👋 Hello Gippslanders, it’s Jacob here.

🏝️ I hope you all had a splendid weekend. I drove down to Kilcunda beach on Saturday and went for a quick dip in the chilly water before strolling along the sand with my dog, Quigley. Here’s a picture I took looking down on the beach.

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

  • 🪧 The Victorian Teachers Union’s potential strike action;

  • 🚶 The long delay in building a boardwalk at Lakes Entrance;

  • 🎤 Whether you’ve noticed an increase in people suffering from homelessness around Gippsland;

  • 🏞️ A new $1 million grant to protect the Kugerungmome/Powlett River;

  • 🏥 How dangerous the increasing severity of heatwaves are to public health; and;

  • 🎥 My appearance on the National Account’s podcast.

🎤 A few weeks ago I visited Inverloch and interviewed a bunch of locals on the street about a range of issues. One of the questions I asked them was if they had noticed an increase in people suffering from homelessness in the area. Take a look at what they had to say below.

🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

🧺 FARMERS MARKETS 🥧

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

🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂

Teachers, education support staff and principals across Victoria are set to fight for better pay and work conditions later this year, after the Fair Work Commission (FWC) gave the green light for workers across the sector to launch strike action.

What happened: Earlier this week, the Allan Government bid to interrupt the union's request for a vote on industrial action.

  • However, FWC deputy president William Richard Clancy decided to approve the AEU Victorian branch’s bid, with matters between the State Government and the AEU Victorian branch discussed and resolved in a meeting on Wednesday.

🗳️ Why the vote? Before a union launches a request to take lawful strike action on behalf of a group of employees, they must first seek the approval of the FWC to undertake a vote, with all members eligible to either vote for or against the proposed strike action.

  • The proposed strike action can then only go ahead if at least 50 percent of members voted and more than 50% voted in favour of the industrial action.

🗓️ How’d we get here: The dispute between the government and education union dates back to July last year, when the AEU first called for the Allan Government to deliver a 35 percent pay increase and improved conditions over three years.

  • In May 2025, the State Government announced it would only contribute 70.43 percent of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) – an estimate of how much total public funding a school needs to meet its student’s needs – in 2026 and delay reaching the 75 percent target until 2031. This would leave a $663 million annual shortfall.

Gippsland MP Darren Chester has asked for “straight answers” from East Gippsland council, following the stalled development of a boardwalk in Lakes Entrance the federal government has already committed over $5 million in funding towards. 

What happened: While not particularly common for federal politicians to delve into local government matters, Chester released a statement on Monday expressing his frustration with the local council at the delay in the Krauatungalung Walk development.

  • 🗣️ “Council’s failure to deliver components of the project with the funding provided in a timely manner means cost escalations will see less of the work completed once tenders are finally called,” Chester said in a statement.

🚶 What is the Krauatungalung Walk? 

East Gippsland council received $2.2 million of funding in 2021 and $3.6 million in 2022 from the federal government to design and build a 4.5 kilometre all-abilities walking circuit around Cunninghame Arm, east of the Lakes Entrance footbridge.

  • In consultation with local Indigenous leaders, the development was named the Seven years on: Where's the $5.8 million Lakes Entrance boardwalk? after one of the five clans of the GurnaiKurnai First Peoples.

The banks of the Kugerungmome/Powlett River run 27 kilometres, from the southern slopes of the Strzelecki Ranges to Kilcunda. Home to many endangered species, the significant site is the focus of a $1 million protection grant that will be managed by a collaboration between landcare groups, Bass Coast Council and Bunurong Land Council.

What happened: In early January the Victorian Government granted $1 million to the Kugerungmome/Powlett Partnerships project to improve the health of the river and its estuary.

🗣️ West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority CEO, Martin Fuller, told the Monitor the river faces threats from “introduced species, cleared vegetation and changed land use, which impact on things like water quality and biodiversity loss”.

  • Fuller said the aim of this new grant is to protect, enhance and maintain the values of the Kugerungmome/Powlett River catchment.

Why is the wetland significant? The area is listed as a nationally important wetland due to its extensive saltmarsh, which provides habitat for the endangered Hooded Plover and Orange-bellied Parrot.

🍇 Gippsland markets provide a great opportunity to support local businesses and community endeavours while often paying less for produce and products than what you would normally pay in a supermarket.

LOOKING NATIONALLY 👀

I spoke to my colleague Archie Milligan about a recent story about AGL and the $250 million it will cost them to fill their open-cut mine at Loy Yang with 1,087 GL of water over 30 years.

Archie has been doing a range of interviews with experts and reporters from around Australia, which are then published on the National Account’s youtube page.

Check out my interview below and have a look at some of the other discussions Archie’s has had on the National Account’s channel.

🎥 Watch: How do severe heatwaves impact public health?

Last week I spoke to Doctors for the Environment Australia executive director and GP, Dr Kate Wylie, about the record breaking temperatures in Victoria and how it puts pressure on Australia’s public health system. Take a look at a video I made about that story below.

Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Monitor. I hope you enjoyed this issue of our newsletter. I’ll be back in your inbox on Friday morning with more local yarns, event guides and entertaining videos.

📧 If you’d like to share something with us, whether its a strange bit of local history or a photograph you’ve snapped of a scenic Gippsland view then feel free to drop us an email at [email protected]

Have a great week everyone.

Cheers,
Jacob & the Gippsland Monitor team

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