Your local and independent news from the Prom Coast and South Gippsland.
A big week of local news on the Prom Coast: thousands of property owners are digesting new flood overlay proposals, Fish Creek's football netball club takes a major step toward rebuilding their clubrooms, and South Gippsland Council pushes back hard on the State Government's glass bin mandate. Read on for all the stories, or grab this week's full digital edition here.
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Quote of the week
"From disaster, we look to build back better." — Councillor John Schelling, on Council's approval of the Fish Creek Football and Netball Club's land deal.
NEWS
New flood overlays to affect thousands of Prom Coast properties Around 2,600 properties across the region — including Foster, Tarwin Lower, Sandy Point, Venus Bay, Waratah Bay, Port Franklin, Toora, Welshpool and Port Welshpool — are affected by proposed new flood planning controls now on public exhibition. Community feedback is open until 6 July, and residents are already asking hard questions. Read the full story →
Popular Meeniyan toilets to close weekdays The toilet block closest to the rail trail in Meeniyan will be closed Monday to Friday from 10 June, after the Reserve Committee of Management said it no longer has the volunteers or funding to keep it open. Community members are urging others to contact Council before the budget is adopted on 17 June. Read more →
Fish Creek Football Netball Club on track with rebuild Council has approved a 50-year lease and a $170,000 land purchase at John Terrill Park, clearing a major hurdle in the effort to rebuild the Fish Creek FNC's facilities following the arson attack in November 2023. Read more →
Parks Victoria rangers take industrial action Frontline rangers and operational staff at Parks Victoria are taking protected industrial action in a dispute over pay and classification, with the AWU warning action could escalate to closing parks if management fails to respond. Read more →
Council fires back at glass bin mandate South Gippsland Shire Council has unanimously voted to oppose the Victorian Government's mandatory purple bin rollout, calling it a costly, one-size-fits-all policy that would slug ratepayers nearly $1 million in its first year for no measurable environmental benefit. Read more →
COMMUNITY
The South Gippsland Feral Deer Forum came to Meeniyan last week and drew a sold-out crowd, with some eye-opening statistics (up to one million feral deer in Victoria, growing at up to 50 per cent per year) and a powerful case for reclassifying deer as pest animals rather than protected game. Meanwhile, the Fish Creek Tea Cosy Festival wrapped up its biggest edition yet with 8,000 visitors, a lantern parade, and a burning teapot that left at least one eleven-year-old convinced their eyebrows were on fire.
Elsewhere in community news, Meeniyan's Rob and Lyndell Cope are gearing up for the Shitbox Rally in August to raise funds for cancer research, with a launch dinner this Friday 13 June. South Gippsland Hospital marked National Reconciliation Week with a moving gathering in Bunjil's Garden, featuring student voices from Foster Secondary College and Fish Creek Primary School. Rail trail users are being enlisted to help combat wombat mange, with new signage and QR codes making it easier to report sick animals. And if you fancy weeding as a social activity, Tarwin Landcare Group's Weedy Fridays might be exactly what you're looking for.
LIFESTYLE
There is plenty happening across the arts, food and culture this week. Fish Creek's La Guinguette pop-up bar hosts one last feel-good Friday before a winter break this Friday 5 June from 6–9pm. The Meeniyan Makers Market fills the Town Hall this Saturday 6 June with handmade gorgeousness, Devonshire teas and free entry. The Bacchus exhibition opens at Fleet's cellar door this Saturday before travelling to Coal Creek for a winter showing. And one of South Gippsland's most extraordinary unsolved mysteries comes to the stage at Tarwin Lower on Saturday 13 June, when The Lady of the Swamp brings Margaret Clement's strange and haunting story to life in song.
As World Environment Day approaches on 5 June, we're also taking a dive into the marine national park at Wilsons Promontory, one of the only places in Australia where protected land runs all the way from the top of Mount Oberon down into the depths of Bass Strait. Winter, it turns out, is one of the best times to explore it.
SPORT
The talk of the competition this week is Foster's extraordinary 221-31 demolition of Newborough, in which Brett Eddy kicked eighteen goals (over half his side's 35) in what coach Jake Best called "a great four quarter game." MDU kept their own winning run going with a 45-point victory over Boolarra, while Stony Creek held off a fast-finishing Toora in a nail-biter that went right to the wire. In netball, Foster remain unstoppable at the top of A Grade after an 82-25 demolition of Newborough, while Toora produced a 42-34 win at Stony Creek.
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