Most 18-year-olds in their final years of school are thinking about exams, work and what comes next. 

Hera Sheppard is doing those things, but already has an idea of what she’d like her future to be, after announcing her candidacy for November’s Victorian state election last Thursday.  

In such a busy phase of life, it begs the question: what leads a teen student at Warrnambool College to put their hand up to run for parliament?

Why she’s running: Speaking to the Brolga on Wednesday, Sheppard said the decision to run came from growing up in public housing in East Warrnambool and watching the system change around her.

🗣️ “'I've witnessed as state governments, both Liberal and Labor, have sold off these vital homes to the private sector… pretty much every year,” she said.

🗣️ “Homes have remained empty, falling into disrepair, while the government has done absolutely nothing.”

The seat: Sheppard will be running for the seat of South West Coast, which spans from the border to Peterborough in the south and Heywood and Macarthur in the north. It has been held by two Liberal MPs since it was created in 2002. 

The juggle: Sheppard is turning that lived experience into fuel for her campaign - no easy feat when paired with other commitments. A typical day can involve half a day of classes and five to seven hours of work before campaign commitments are added in.

🗣️ “I don't have any free time whatsoever between all of that,” Sheppard explained.

Election priorities: If elected, Sheppard hopes to push for a publicly-owned housing builder to erect upwards of 10,000 homes a year across Victoria, with a significant number in Warrnambool”. 

🗣️ “We've witnessed our perfectly fine train line receive the worst possible upgrade in these last couple of years,” she said. “We've got just secondhand interurban train sets now, whereas we should have had a good regional set of trains to run our three to four-hour service.”

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Warrnambool’s whale season has been unusually quiet, with Southern Right Whale sightings few and far between and very few mothers bringing calves into Logans Beach.

What’s going on: Fiona Van Kempen, who has run whale tours in Warrnambool since 2018, said sightings had become increasingly unpredictable this winter, despite strong interest from people hoping to see the whales.

🗣️ “As soon as the socials come up that there's whales, people always start making inquiries, but it's very difficult to be running the whale tours because this year they're very unpredictable,” she said.

Few and far: The business owner said the last Southern Right Whale sighting was five days before speaking to the Brolga on Wednesday, following a previous sighting on July 24.

🗣️ “A lot of them are out wide, so they're hard to see. You might just see the blow, the blow of the spout,” she said.

🗣️ “The one on the 24th, it went on to Portland. Then it was sighted there with its calf, and it's just been sighted in South Australia. So they're just moving around,” Van Kempen said.

Why are there less Southern Rights? Marine ecologist and researcher at the University of Tasmania, Dr Angus Henderson, said the quieter season could reflect a broader change in Southern Right Whale numbers and behaviour.

🗣️ “Now they've stopped recovering at that rate, and perhaps are stabilising or declining,” Henderson explained.

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For a human, the roof of a hot industrial park on a blazing summer day is not where you want to be. But for a solar panel, that’s prime real estate.

The rooftops of warehouses and industrial buildings in Ballarat are an untapped source of renewable power, according to a new report from the Smart Energy Council, the independent peak body for Australia’s renewable energy industry. However, high installation costs have been a barrier to businesses installing panels. 

Last week, the federal government announced it had a solution: it would expand its renewable energy rebate scheme to include solar setups for commercial and industrial properties.

This means more options are available to businesses in Ballarat considering making the switch to solar energy. 

❓What happened:  Last week, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced the government would expand its Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) to allow commercial buildings and farms to install larger solar systems with a price reduction of 20 percent. 

Why does it matter to the ‘Rat? Ballarat has a rich manufacturing sector, and it’s only set to expand as more construction projects unfold in Mitchell Park, Delacombe and the Ballarat West Employment Zone. 

What people said: Justin Kent from Ballarat Engineering Plastics said his solar panels “paid for themselves” after their installation more than a decade ago. Since then, the cost of electricity has been significantly lowered for the company. 

🗣️: “It’s bang for your buck,” he told the Brolga. He also said investment in businesses is “always a good thing”. 

Claire Wootton, co-owner of Sovereign Press, said about 90 percent of its operations are powered by solar panels installed in 2019. 

🗣️:“We just wanted to be conscious of the footprint we’re having as a business,” she told the Brolga. 

She said she hopes the changes make solar panel installations more “attractive” to other businesses. 

What next: Last year, Energy Action, an independent energy consultancy firm, released an analysis of the return on investment for businesses using solar. 

It found solar panels could protect businesses from “volatile” wholesale electricity prices, leading to possible savings of 20 to 50 percent on energy bills. 

Darcie recently asked Ararat business owners the contentious question of where the boundaries of West Vic lie. Check out the video below for their answers.

Contributor Brittany spoke to the man behind Birchip’s multi-award winning vanilla slice, Brad Sharp of Sharp’s Bakery, to ask what goes into crafting the country’s best snot blocks. Watch the video below to learn more about the slice’s success.