⏱️ This edition of the West Vic Brolga newsletter is a five-minute read.
👋🏻 Happy Wednesday Brolga readers 📰
Things are heating up in West Vic, both literally and figuratively. The sun is out, and the news is pumping. Let’s get into it ✍
Here’s the headlines:
🏘 Councils are advocating for more work on the Western Highway;
🛣 A recent, tragic death on that same highway has devastated the community;
🐮 A replanting program is helping a local farmer build future resilience;
🥕 Veggie boxes are being delivered to local mothers as part of a new health study;
❌ Ben Cousins is visiting Ballarat, and women’s advocacy groups say it’s a concern;
☘ And a local has kept his wetland property alive against all odds.
Plus, we’d love to see what our fabulous readers are up to. If you have a happy snap from around the region you’ve taken recently, send it through! We’d love to share it on our socials and in this newsletter 🫶
Quick hits: If you’re looking for a cheap buy at an op shop — where your dollars go back into the community — we' compiled a list of the best spots to hit.
And here’s a quick story of a couple that were stranded 300 kilometres from home after their prized Toyota Hilux was stolen.
In the Southwest 🗞️
Half the 1,100 western Victorian women in this trial will regularly receive a box of vegetables grown with the help of school kids from Colac Secondary College. The other half will get food shopping vouchers.
The goal? To discover the extent to which nutrition during pregnancy and after the birth of a child impacts the brain health of the mum and bub.
What’s going on: Deakin University researchers are teaming with Colac Secondary College’s Farm My School’s market garden - launched in 2025 - to supply the regeneratively grown veggies and track the results.
The trial is known as Farm PRT-E.
Regenerative farming involves focusing on soil health to grow diverse species of food, rather than relying on synthetic fertilisers.
Despite being hammered by fires and floods, the wetlands on Iestyn Hosking’s property are alive today with insects, butterflies, birds and plants.
Hosking’s 165ha plot near Natimuk is 60 percent wetlands. He originally bought the land in 2008 for cropping before pivoting to restoring the wetlands.
Eighteen years of effort: It’s been a long game of fencing, planting and learning which species can survive fire and flood conditions.
“We put in 26 hectares of revegetation in 2008, it grew really well, and then early 2009, it all died because of the Black Saturday week. It was a little bit disheartening, then in 2010, I ripped it, mounded it and planted it,” Hosking recalled.
Jordy Vallance has planted approximately 4,000 trees on her land in the last three years, and says it has improved the welfare of her cows, her soils and her creeks.
The dairy farmer is one of 20 applicants to receive thousands of seedlings since 2010 as part of Moyne Shire’s long-running carbon offset program.
The background: Vallance runs 800 cows on the dairy farm that was started in 1995 by her parents at Nirranda along the Great Ocean Road. Her involvement in revegetation and replanting schemes on the 720 acre property goes back almost as far.
“I remember planning a shelterbelt through a creek area with Mum and Dad when I was about 8 years old,” she told the Brolga. “And since then we've always been interested in how to do a bit more and give back.”
In the Central Highlands 🗞️
Former AFL star Ben Cousins, previously convicted of aggravated stalking and multiple restraining order violations, is speaking in Ballarat this week as part of a statewide tour, angering women’s health organisations and advocates in a city where the incidence of family violence not only outstrips the state average, but is rising at a faster rate.
What happened? Cousins is currently touring for the live show RAW: Ben Cousins - Live Like Never Before. He is scheduled to speak at the George Hotel in Ballarat tomorrow night (Wednesday September 16).
The show is advertised as Cousins opening up “like never before - sharing about life behind bars, exile from the AFL community, the turning point, and the unfolding journey to redemption”.
Why does it matter? In the past 10 years, Cousins has been convicted of several offences, including stalking. He was imprisoned in 2017 and 2020, with a magistrate in 2017 saying he had subjected a former partner to “nine months of terror”.
Reaction: Acting Women’s Health Grampians CEO Kate Diamond-Keith told the Brolga Cousins speaking in Ballarat would send the message that the community “is accepting of a perpetrator and of them being elevated”.
Motorcyclist dies on Western Highway in Trawalla with reports he “struck a pothole and lost control”
A motorcyclist has died while riding along the Western Highway in Trawalla.
A statement from Victoria Police said “emergency services responded to reports a motorcycle had struck a pothole and lost control”.
Councils within the Western Highway Action Committee have finalised an advocacy document pressing state and opposition figures for upgrades to the freight corridor, claiming the infrastructure is not keeping up with the region’s population growth.
Who? The Western Highway Action Committee is a collaboration of 10 councils from Melton through to the South Australian border, including the likes of Ararat Rural City Council, Northern Grampians Shire Council and Horsham Rural City Council. It was founded in 1999.
Moorabool Shire Councillor Rod Ward is currently the committee’s chair.
That’s a wrap! Zara will be back with more tales of the region on Friday 👋
As always, please get in touch with any thoughts, comments, feedback or news tips you have for us. Just reply to this email.
If you want to stay up to date between editions, you can follow us on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
Cheers,
Darcie