Roy Swan was sitting in the lounge room of his Wy Yung home watching television with his wife, Sylvana, last Friday evening as strong winds battered about outside. As the winds had been raging most of the afternoon, Mr Swan admits he didn’t pay much attention to them. “It had been windy all day really,” the Bairnsdale mechanic told the Advertiser. Mr Swan remembers hearing what he thought was...

Victoria’s COVID-19 commander, Jeroen Weimar, was in East Gippsland last week to confer with Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Co-operative (GEGAC) on its response to the pandemic. Mr Weimar met with GEGAC’s chief executive officer, Jamie Williamson, to explore how the State Government could further assist in its COVID-19 response. GEGAC has been working with the Health Department, at both...

Wiseleigh’s Ian Cane is the kind of man who can identify tree species even as he’s driving along the highway at 100 kilometres an hour. The third-generation beekeeper and successful honey businessman has spent decades in the bush and knows what type of trees bees have fed on by the taste of the honey. But the management of East Gippsland’s and Victoria’s state forests is a point of never-ending...

A new community foundation has been launched in East Gippsland.  The East Gippsland Community Foundation will provide a new way of ensuring the region’s long-term bushfire recovery initiatives are driven and delivered by its own communities. The foundation is independent, locally run and able to fund initiatives that meet the needs of communities across the region. Inaugural chairperson,...

When Lena and Vince Zagami inspected their lemon tree farm at Wairewa following the Black Summer Bushfires they were staring at huge financial losses. The heat from the fires in the surrounding forest had burnt the leaves of their lemon trees to a crisp. It was painful for them to look at the trees and assess the long road ahead to recovery. Mr Zagami and his team of workers set to work planting...