There was hope aplenty at the official opening of the Hope Restart Centre at Lucknow last Wednesday.  The drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre has been operating for two years but was forced to postpone formal proceedings be­cause of the pandemic.  Last Wednesday's opening was an opportu­nity for the founders of the centre, Margaret and Peter Down, to thank those who had con­tributed...

The toxic algae bloom currently permeating the Gippsland Lakes has turned Paynesville’s foreshore green. A local resident was horrified to see the green sludge polluting the sandy foreshore during a morning walk on Tuesday. “It’s like someone has tipped a tin of paint into the water,” Glen Luxford, told the Advertiser. “It’s staining the sand green.  “The swans have green stripes on them,”...

The Rural Doctors Association of Victoria concedes that the health system right across Victoria is under “enormous stress” following the death of a 72 year old local man who died while waiting to be seen in the emergency department at Bairnsdale Hospital.The man, who had arrived at the hospital in an ambulance at around midday last Monday, following a fall at home, was still waiting to receive...

Police have warned of a scam in Bairnsdale in which fake rental houses are being pedalled online in order to secure a hefty deposit. Bairnsdale police say they were alerted to the social media fraud whereby fake Facebook profiles are attempting to lease houses in the area. The scam involves people profiling homes on the Bairnsdale and Surrounds Community Notice Facebook page that they do not own.

Dinner Plain residents are pleading for a safety park to be established in the popular snow resort village in order to protect the community from a future fire event. Since 2003, the community of about 100 per-manent residents have stared down five bush-fires with forced evacuations on three occasions. Over the past two decades, the community has raised with the Alpine Shire the need to provide...