EarthChat

Plastic Free July is only a few sleeps away! Now is the time to think about the small steps we can all take to reduce our use of harmful plastics. To help us, in this week's EarthChat, Tim is again chatting with Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, the founder of the global Plastic Free Foundation. Plastic Free July is a key initiative of the Plastic Free Foundation, inspiring all of us to work towards a vision o...

There are always interesting goings on at "the Arb", and, it’s always a joy to catch up with the passionate and innovative folk who work there. Ruth is delighted to welcome development manager, Cathy Olive, and grassy ground cover restoration coordinator, Bronte Haines to this week's EarthChat. Two remarkable people among many caring for the Arboretum, including a group of committed volunteers, wh...

This week, Tim Budge talks with Alex Kelly, an artist, organiser and filmmaker based on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Working across film, theatre, communications strategy and troublemaking, Alex purposefully connects the disciplines of art and social change. This EarthChat conversation is part of an ongoing series of programs with people who are seeking to be changemakers/ activists or just community...

This week, Marie Gerrard is chatting about a new group in our area. The group is currently setting up a store of donated medical and educational goods that are being discarded by our own health and educational institutions but are greatly needed by our International neighbourhood. Jenny Foster from the Rotary Club of Change Makers Cub together with a highly motivated group that will be sending con...

Friends of the Earth (FoE) is the largest grassroots federation of environmental activists in the world and currently active in more than 70 countries, with over 2 million supporters and members world wide. FoE began 56 years ago in the USA (San Francisco in 1969), and 53 years ago FoE set up its first Australian office in Adelaide (1972), and a year later (1973) the Melbourne office was set up. T...

This week Tim, Jill and guests will be discussing biodiversity. Biodiversity is a term that is used frequently today - but what does it really mean and why is it so important to many aspects of our lives?  Essentially it is all the variety and variability of all the different life forms on Earth ie plants and animals, insects, reptiles, amphibians, fungi and other micro-organisms such as bacteria....

This week Marie and Ruth chat with recently retired shire Councillor Rob Eldridge about some wonderful possibilities in Mitchell Shire for developing our opportunities to set aside significant areas of green space for the future. They start with the proposed Wallan Wallan  wetland park. This is an opportunity that must not be missed as the population of this area grows. There is also a great discu...

With Dutton and much of the Coalition voted out of parliament, we are saved from going down a fraught path of nuclear power, and the voters of Australia have strongly rejected Trumpism here. But there are some big challenges for Australia for the resurgent Labor Government. For starters, ramping up the transmission linkage of renewables, upgrading our environmental protection laws, and getting ser...

Nuclear power and nuclear weapons are policy realities in this current federal election. Both major parties support them in one way or another. The Leader of the Opposition has been open in saying a Coalition government would build nuclear reactors in Australia to replace “ageing coal power stations”. Both Labor and the Coalition are committed to AUKUS, which would see Australia supplied with eigh...

Have you ever been struck by the song of a bird and immediately found your curiosity and wonder has led you beyond what it is to be human to another realm? Or a sudden and elusive movement might have caught your eye, be it in your garden or out in the bush. And whilst looking up to the sky have you found yourself witnessing the miracle of birds defying gravity mid air? Birds offer a portal to the...

Sustainable House Day (SHD) is an Australian event showcasing (mostly) recently completed energy efficient houses. Be they owner-built or builder-built, there are lots of attractive and efficient and aesthetically stimulating houses to check out near you. What is a Sustainable House? Where does SHD come from? What can we expect from thousands of people checking out hundreds of houses across Austra...

This EarthChat, Marie and Ruth chat with to Norbert Ryan (President, Wallan Environment Group) about what we hope to hear in the policies being put forward by parties standing for our federal elections. The discussion includes our wish lists for a healthy environment going forward. Together they cover a wide variety of forward looking environmental policies and look at the very varied parts of a S...

Who started the war in Gaza? When did it start, 7 October 2023, or much earlier? What is the fighting about and who is involved? Why should it matter to us and what has it got to do with the environment and the global movement for climate justice? This week, Tim Budge and Ruth Yeatman talk to Dr Rachel Coghlan about this conflict. It is almost a year since she was last on EarthChat and in that tim...

Now more than ever is the need to foster and strengthen local social connections to create a sense of belonging and community, and to create easily accessible and affordable opportunities for people to enrich their lives through connections they might not otherwise make. This week’s EarthChat focuses on Community (or Neighbourhood Houses) which profoundly contribute to the overall strength and res...

Marie Gerrard and Ruth Yeatman interview Ian Dempsey about the plans to build the Inland Rail, especially through Broadford. Ian Dempsey is a local Broadford citizen with a long record of activism in Mitchell Shire particularly in environmental issues. He is an active member of the Rotary Club of Southern Mitchell as environmental chair. He is also involved in the Rotary Environmental Sustainabili...

Not many people may have heard about Footy for Climate, but it is a ground-breaking organisation. It was founded by two AFLM players, Tom Campbell (Melbourne FC, St Kilda, North Melbourne and Western Bulldogs) and Jasper Pittard (North Melbourne and Port Adelaide) in the wake of the 2020 Black Summer bushfires. Tom and Jasper were North Melbourne teammates when their training was forced indoors du...

Join Ruth and Phil this week as they continue their Treaty conversation with First Peoples’ Assembly North East Representative, Levi Power, who returns to update us on the Treaty process here in Victoria.  After years of careful consultation (Phase One of Three),The Allan Labor Government and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria have entered the Second Phase of the Victorian treaty process whic...

Four roadside bins to grace your kerbside. What is this, how will it work? Mitchell Shire begins the four-bin roadside collection system in March. A bin for glass only, another for other recyclables, one for green waste and the red bin for landfill. Four bins will take some thinking, and becoming familiar with timetables. Australia’s recycling per capita is not high: we can do better.  In Mitchell...

Mitchell local and BEAM committee member Peter Gaffney is an organiser for Rising Tide and he joins EarthChat again to talk about this amazing movement. Peter is dedicated to the well-being of both the planet and its inhabitants. He is both an impassioned environmental activist and palliative care nurse specialist. Throughout his career, the planet's welfare has remained a central priority. He has...

This week on EarthChat, Marie Gerrard and John Thompson explore the many and varied ways that our economic future will be affected by Climate Change. These include increased natural disasters, droughts, bushfires and health effects to name some. We can expect major rises in our expenses for recovery. Many homes and businesses will become uninsurable and governments will be expected to pay with our...

Horse studs are big around Seymour and indeed across all of Mitchell Shire. This is a big money industry. What are the opportunities to make this industry more environmentally benign? James Manning is Stud Manager at Godolphin Stud in Northwood Road, and he joins Peter Lockyer on EarthChat this week as we dig deep into horse manure, a BEAM study a decade ago “Stable Waste to Compost” and James's w...

Bertram Lobert, president of the Community Group, ‘Save Our Strathbogie Forest’ (SOSF), joins Nelly and Ruth on EarthChat Tuesday to tell us about their conservation efforts to improve the management of the Strathbogie Forest. A recent campaign with the Victorian Government successfully advocated for a halt to native forest logging in 2019. In 2024, in a legal case brought by Save Our Strathbogie...

You may not know the name Violet Coco, but you would have seen her on the news, arrested for protesting in different places, all to highlight the precarious state of our planet. Violet is a passionate environment and social justice activist. She has been arrested 49 times in 6 years as a non-violent, direct action, change maker. She recently spent two months in prison and is facing court again on...

A new year, a new podcast! On Earth Chat this week, Peter, Marie chats with Simon Millar who is the captain of a whale-watching boat that operates out of Eden, NSW. They discuss the very interesting  and well documented history of the interactions between Indigenous people and whales in the fairly recent past. We will also cover the return of humpback whales since the ban on whale slaughter, their...

It's been a big year! Lots has happened; some good but not everything has contributed to making our planetary home a just and sustainable place to live. On this EarthChat, Tim and Peter pull apart the year, separate out the good, the bad and the ugly and find some music to reflect the diversity of the EarthChat radio show over the last year. What have been your highlights? Which EarthChat episodes...