The headlines in Colac and the Southern Grampians 🗞️

🥕 700 people pitched in to build a farm at Colac Secondary College. Six months later, it’s thriving

What was once an underutilised patch of land at the back of Colac Secondary College just six months ago is now 3.4 linear kilometres of lively garden beds, producing fresh vegetables for cooking classes and for sale to the wider community.

More than 700 volunteers, community members, teachers and students rolled up their sleeves to build the farm in just 24 hours in November, with some camping overnight to ensure the job was done.

Since then, school leaders say the farming project has transformed both student learning and how the community interacts with the school.

Community pride: Colac Secondary College principal Skye Bannan said the project had given new purpose to the school’s agriculture and horticulture curriculum, providing students with real-world learning opportunities across agriculture, science and food studies.

• “What it really did was create a sense of pride within the school and the community,” she told the Brolga.

• “The build has given purpose to having horticulture at the school, because the kids can see how important the production is, and that it’s actually going to an end point rather than producing vegetables and not seeing the whole cycle of that production.”      

• “To have a program or a group that can come in and actually take that responsibility on and maintain an area of horticultural production over the breaks is really important for viability.”

Fast-paced growth: Farm My School co-founder and chief executive James McLennan said the organisation was founded on the idea of transforming unused school land into commercial regenerative market gardens that could feed communities while supporting education.

• The Colac farm began harvesting produce within three months of construction and launched its veggie box program in February, selling weekly boxes of fresh produce to locals, including recipe cards. 

• Around 20 boxes are now being sold each week, with produce also used in school cooking classes. Current crops include garlic, rainbow chard, radicchio and rhubarb, while green manure crops are being planted to improve soil fertility through winter.

Farming with nature: McLennan said regenerative farming practices focused on building soil health, increasing biodiversity and reducing reliance on fertiliser.

• “For us, it means farming with nature,” he said. “This type of farming makes sense, we're on 1.5 acres here.” 

• “Once this farm is fully set up, we'll be able to produce anywhere from 250 kilos a week, right up to summer, sort of around 750-800 kilos a week, which is a lot of veg.”

Full story below.

🪏Southern Grampians council moves full steam ahead on Hamilton's multimillion-dollar revamp

Hamilton could soon get a new multimillion-dollar library featuring a podcast studio, music recording facilities and gaming spaces, as part of a major overhaul of the city's CBD.

What’s going on: Southern Grampians Council this week released concept designs for a new community hub and library, while also approving the next stage of the separate CBD Streetscape Revitalisation Project. 

The background: The community hub, CBD streetscape and related civic projects have been in the works for several years as part of a broader plan to redevelop Hamilton’s city centre.

• Earlier council discussions and budget documents have suggested the full Community Hub and CBD works could cost tens of millions of dollars, depending on the final design and how the projects are staged. 

• The council’s most recent budget, at about $56 million in annual spending, also shows the size of competing projects across the shire, with major developments expected to be delivered over several years and funding cycles.

What’s in the design? The proposed community hub includes an expanded library with children’s and youth spaces, study areas and flexible community rooms. 

A key feature is a proposed “Fab Lab” with potential for technology such as podcasting, music recording, gaming and design tools.

• A Civic Square is also included in the broader precinct, designed as a flexible public space for events, gatherings and everyday use with seating, greenery and open areas.

Full story below.

From Castlemaine to Ballarat 🗞️

🎞️ From Scottish porridge to love tapes: Castlemaine Documentary Festival draws international filmmakers and sold-out sessions

At Castlemaine Documentary Festival, the LOCALS sessions are always first to sell out. These screenings showcase the work of homegrown, regional filmmakers, both emerging and established. 

This year, organisers have already had to schedule an encore session in the face of big ticket sales.

The theme of the festival – running from June 26 to 28 – is LOVE: The Antidote. Festival Director Claire Jager told the Brolga the event gives locals the opportunity to watch art created by someone who might be someone they bump into every day, like a neighbour.

The history: Eleven years ago, Emmy-winning director Geoffrey Smith, Theatre Royal owner Maggie Fooke and film lover John Waldie decided to host the first ever Castlemaine Documentary Film Festival. 

🗣️ ”Fiction can do extraordinary things, but documentary makes a particular contract with the audience,” Festival Director Claire Jager told the Brolga. 

“It’s important in a time where truth feels contentious. It’s real people, real lives and real things at stake.

• “The best documentary filmmakers are reporters and artists.” 

📽️ Now showing: This year the festival line-up includes a selection of local and international filmmakers, hailing from across the globe including Australia, the UK, Afghanistan, the Dominican Republic and the US. 

🗣️: “Documentaries in particular have this ability to make the world feel both larger and more intimate at the same time.” Jager said. 

The local impact: Jager said the festival has given the community a reason to gather around stories that matter. 

🗣️: “We started LOCALS as a collection of regional and local work, and it’s been running for five years now. Some people have never made a film before, some are much more seasoned.” 

This is Jager’s favourite feature of the genre.

🗣️: “The highest compliment a documentary can receive is when people come in with one idea and leave genuinely unsettled but in the best possible way,” Jager said. “Feedback that stays with me is when a film has changed how someone sees something that they thought they already understood.” 

• “We live in a moment of fracture, socially, politically, environmentally, you name it. I’ve been attracted to films where love is the main operative force. Not romantic love necessarily, but empathy. The refusal to abandon.” 

Full story below.

☀️ Ballarat farmers prepare for looming El Niño declaration

Matt Menhennet has been farming in West Vic all his life. After extensive drought in the region through 2024 and 2025, more than half the dams on his farm are dry. 

“It’s a concern in the middle of June that there’s no water in some of those dams,” Menhennet told the Brolga. 

With an El Niño declaration looming, things could get drier - but it isn’t a guarantee of drought. 

An introduction: Menhennet is the Co-President of Ballarat Agricultural & Pastoral Society (BAPS), as well as an Angus beef farmer approximately 20 minutes outside of Ballarat. The most recent drought remains fresh in his memory. 

🗣️: “That was as bad as some of the droughts experienced over the last 50 years,” Menhennet said. “Probably because it was so widespread.” 

Menhennet’s experience prepared him for future occurrences, stocking a more robust fodder supply and creating a laneway between paddocks to utilise the one dam that is full. 

This preparation may be needed. Experts say a declaration of a 2026 El Niño event is potentially imminent. Indicators are present, and other world agencies are beginning to make the announcement. 

What is El Niño? Andrew Watkins, an adjunct professor with Monash University in the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, explained to the Brolga that an El Niño event isn’t a complete assurance drought will occur, but amplified by climate change it does create a “double whammy”. 

🗣️: “Some people think it means drought, but it’s actually a warming up of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean,” Watkins said. “Between Papua New Guinea and South America, when the waters in that area start to warm it’s like they drag the clouds and the rain with them.”  

• “It means less clouds for Australia, and you kind of need clouds for rain to happen so we go into these longer stretches of dry.” 

• “It’s like carrying a kettle around and you have the steam following you.” 

Essentially, El Niño raises the risk of extreme heat, bushfires and creates better conditions for coral bleaching and marine heatwaves. 

• “The sad thing about all that is that climate change does all the same things.”

Watkins previously worked with the Bureau of Meteorology in the long-range forecast team, declaring the 2015 El Niño event and going on to lead the National Climate Risk Assessment. 

Full story below.

On Your Feed 📱

A new report from the Victorian Regional Chamber Alliance (VRCA) shows that the reality of doing business in regional Victoria is a harsh one.

Watch the video below for Darcie’s explainer.