WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

• FRIDAY, 12/09/25 | Warrnambool Paint and Sip with Stacey Williams

• FRIDAY TO SUNDAY, 12/09/25-14/09/25 | Port Fairy Literary Weekend

• FRIDAY, 12/09/25 | Noodledoof Brewery Koroit’s AFL Murder Mystery

• SUNDAY, 14/09/25 | National Jack Russell Terrier Dog Show, Hamilton

🗞️ Latest stories

🐄 Could selective breeding hold the key to less hot air from the herd?

What if every new generation of cattle in western Victoria produced less methane than the one before? Researchers argue selective breeding can make that a reality, delivering permanent cuts to emissions in one of the region’s biggest industries.

When a cow breaks down feed in its four-chamber stomach, a small group of microbes called methanogens combine hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane, which is mostly released when cows burp.

According to non-profit World Animal Protection, cows burp about every 90 seconds. If an example cow sleeps for four hours a day, but still burps when it’s asleep, that is about 1,000 burps a day. 

“Methane traps around 120 times as much heat as carbon dioxide does moment to moment,” said the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But after about 12 years, it breaks down and doesn't trap heat anymore, unlike carbon dioxide, which stays in the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years.

Curtin University research estimates cattle produce between 50-120kg of methane per cow each year, with diet playing a major role. 

But farmers and researchers are now pointing to selective breeding as a promising way to bring emissions down. Selective genetic breeding chooses livestock with desirable traits so they become more common in future generations. 

CSIRO research points to scientists using a complex DNA breeding method called genomic selection to pick sires and dams - mothers and fathers - that pass on low-methane tendencies. Because these traits are inherited, the reductions are permanent and build with every generation.

There’s also a financial benefit in reduced feeding costs.

Read more

🌲 Over the Guilfoyle garden wall

Did you know the man behind Melbourne’s world-famous Royal Botanic Gardens also left his mark across our turf?

William Robert Guilfoyle, celebrated landscape gardener and designer, shaped not just the sweeping lawns and winding paths of Melbourne’s gardens, but the botanic gardens in Colac, Camperdown, Warrnambool and Hamilton.

By 1873 he was director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, where he transformed the grounds into the picturesque, romantic landscape that remains today. 

Within six years his major landscaping works were complete, but he would spend the next three decades refining and enhancing his vision.

Guilfoyle’s eye for design soon extended beyond the city. In 1877, Warrnambool Council invited him to create a new layout for the city’s botanic gardens. 

A few years later, in 1880, he provided guidance for the Koroit Botanic Gardens, shaping its path network and choice of conifer tree plantings.

From 1881, Hamilton’s councillors commissioned Guilfoyle to prepare plans for the local  gardens, while in Camperdown he was called upon repeatedly throughout the 1880s to suggest improvements. 

His redesign of the Camperdown Botanic Gardens, submitted in 1910, continues to influence the site today.

Colac’s gardens also bear Guilfoyle’s signature. Originally designed in 1868 by Daniel Bunce, curator of Geelong Botanic Gardens, the site was later remodelled under Guilfoyle’s plans in 1910.

Read more

TODAY’S DEAL 🔥

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🚀 On your feed

Last week, I attended a paint and sip workshop at Colac’s Studio 92, hosted by artist Stacey Williams, where I attempted to recreate a palm tree setting.

For $45, the three-hour workshop included all of the painting supplies as well as the canvas, and at the end of the night I took my artwork home.

Watch the video below for my full review.

If you’re more of a watcher than a reader, I’ve broken down selective breeding and methane emissions in under two minutes in the video below.