🦎 Your local news in six minutes

Plus: Wriggling worms and offshore wind.

Author

Jacob Wallace
December 17, 2025

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

👋 Hello Gippslanders, it’s Jacob here.

Before we get started: It’s difficult to comprehend the senseless, devastating attack at Bondi Beach on Sunday.

Anti-Semitism has no place in Australia. It’s up to all of us to stand together in solidarity and speak out against hatred, violence and bigotry.

If you would like to help, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood has called for more donations following the attack. Donations can be transported interstate, so every bit from across the country can help.

I hope we can come together as a community and encourage compassion and communication rather than fear and division.

Take care of each other.

Onto the news: In this midweek edition of our newsletter we’re going to be talking about:

  • The federal government’s $4.9 billion boost to the home battery subsidy scheme;

  • The Gippsland offshore wind projects that are progressing to the next stage of development, and;

  • My previous reporting on the Gippsland Giant Earthworm and what it taught me about journalism.

First of all, here are some events that you might want to check out this weekend.

🎊 WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

🧺 FARMERS MARKETS 🥧

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🚀 Alright, let’s jump in.

🔍 HEARD THIS WEEK👂

The federal government’s solar battery scheme has been topped up with an extra $4.9 billion as homeowners across the country take up the subsidy, which can cut the price of a home battery by about 30 percent.

What happened: On Saturday December 13, the Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced a $4.9 billion top up to the government’s $2.3 billion battery subsidy scheme, announced in April. 

🔋 What is the battery subsidy scheme?

The Labor government’s $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries subsidy program came into effect on July 1 and aimed to cut the price of a home battery by about 30 percent, saving consumers around $4,000 when buying a typical 10kw storage system.

The government has said more batteries would add to grid stability and help reduce electricity bills.

💰 Gippsland battery sales “increase drastically”

The Monitor spoke to solar panel and battery installer Blake Edwards, who operates a Solar Run franchise in Drouin. Edwards estimated that prior to the subsidy, 60 percent of the houses he installed solar panels on were choosing to install a home battery.

🗣️ Edwards said those sales have “increased drastically since the battery rebate release”. He estimated that about 95 percent of the homes he installs solar panels on are now choosing to purchase home batteries as well.

Of the hundreds of stories I’ve covered this year, one of my favourites was about Gippsland’s strangest living creature - the Gippsland Giant Earthworm.

The rare invertebrate unique to Gippsland is recognised as a threatened species and has had a lot of attention over the years, including a visit from David Attenborough.

In May a census was launched by South Gippsland, Bass Coast and Latrobe Catchment Landcare Networks to try to figure out the population and habitat size of the threatened worms.

The census asked local farmers to keep an eye out for the Gippsland Giant Earthworm, and an ear out for the gurgling sounds the worms make when they’re slithering across the land.

For the story I talked to Dr Beverley van Praagh, who has been studying the worm for over 40 years.

van Praagh told me research methods to observe the worm have changed dramatically since she began studying them in the early 1980s. 

“Back then they weren't protected, so we were often digging them up,” she said. “Now we don't pick them up at all unless there's a real reason for it.”

Praagh said the census was asking local farmers to liste

n for a sound like water running out of a bath drain and report it online.

“The gurgling suction sound is made because their burrows are quite wet, and they move quickly from one pocket to another.”

A Gippsland Giant Earthworm moving through some dirt. Source: https://www.giantearthworm.org.au/

To me, this story represents one of the many reasons why I love working as a journalist and telling stories. I was able to learn about this local legend of the soil, and talk to a leading expert, who exuded such joy when discussing the huge worm.

The census is still ongoing and I’m very much looking forward to reporting on the results.

Last week the federal government announced that two of Gippsland’s offshore wind projects are moving to the next stage of development as construction of Australia’s largest offshore wind farm edges closer.

What happened: On December 5, the federal government announced it had renewed a major project status for Star of the South’s offshore wind farm and that a second company, Blue Mackerel, had also been granted major project status.

  • What does major project status mean? Major project status enables significant projects to get extra support from the government in navigating regulation, coordinated approvals and assisting in development.

What and where are the two projects?

Blue Mackerel Offshore Wind Project is in the Gippsland offshore wind zone, approximately 10km from Seaspray.

  • The 69 wind turbines in this development will have the capacity to generate an average of 1GW of renewable energy (enough to power roughly 550,000 homes).

  • It’s estimated the project will create about 1,500 construction jobs and 200 ongoing jobs.

Major project status was renewed for the Star of the South Offshore Wind Farm, located off the coast of Port Albert.

  • The 150 wind turbines in this farm are expected to generate 2.2GW of renewable energy (enough to power roughly 1.2 million homes).

  • This project is expected to create about 2,000 construction jobs and 300 ongoing jobs.

🎥 Watch: How Gippsland’s big wriggler wormed its way into my heart in 2025

It’s been such a pleasure spending my first year as a journalist working for the Gippsland Monitor and covering a vast range of stories across this region. As I look back on the year one of the stories that stands out to me is the research into the iconic Gippsland Giant Earthworm. Take a look at a video I made about the unique invertebrate below.

Instagram Post

Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Monitor. I’ll be back in your inbox on Friday with more informative news, local stories and event guides in our last newsletter before the holidays.

If you have something you’d like to share with us, please send it through to [email protected]. And if you like what we do and are able to chip in to back local news in Gippsland, hit the button.

Jacob & the Gippsland Monitor team