🟠 EMO...is not a dirty word

WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

• SATURDAY 18/10/25, 9AM-5PM | Dandenong Ranges Literary Festival

• SATURDAY 18/10/25, 6.30-9.30pm AND SUNDAY 19/10/25, 10AM-3PM | SaJo Ceramics Staff and Student Pottery Exhibition

• SUNDAY 19/10/25, 10AM-3PM | Monash Council’s 2025 Family Fun Day

• SATURDAY 18/10/25, 7-11.30PM | The Basin Music Festival fundraiser

• SATURDAY 18/10/25, 3.30-5PM | World Singing Day - Vocal Vibes

• SATURDAY 18/10/25, 10AM-12.30PM | Montrose Flower Festival

• SUNDAY 19/10/25 11AM-4PM | St Luke’s Community Fete

📰 RECENT HEADLINES

⛰️ “More susceptible”: How will new development restrictions decrease Kalorama’s landslide risk?

Natalie and Lee Guest thought they’d found their “forever home” in Kalorama, a eastern Melbourne suburb on the north-western slopes of the Dandenong Ranges — until one night in June 2021, when four trees crashed through their house during a storm that tore through the Dandenongs.

“We’d lost everything,” Natalie told the Eastern Melburnian.

“We were then told a year later by council that our land was worthless.”

In the wake of her home being destroyed, Natalie soon discovered she was unable to rebuild her home as the property was listed as having a “medium” landslide risk within Yarra Ranges Council’s Erosion Management Overlay (EMO).

With no other option, the mother of one and small business owner spent months pushing the council to change its EMO rules – a fight that eventually paid off. In March 2024, the rules were changed and she and her husband have since rebuilt their home.

Now, the council is preparing to roll out another major EMO update aimed at preventing future disasters.

The new draft EMO maps are based on LiDAR radar mapping and geotechnical surveys, replacing data from the 1990s that relied on contour maps and aerial photos from the 1960s.

The proposed changes would include adding 290 properties at risk of debris flow or mudslides to a new sub-section known as Schedule 2, with properties in Montrose and Kalorama among new additions.

Overall, 13,724 properties in total would be covered by the new EMOs — a net increase of 2,365.

Submissions on the proposal close Sunday, October 26.

Dr Milton Speer, a meteorologist from the University of Technology in Sydney, said rising temperatures caused by climate change have pushed storm conditions further south and made them more erratic.

"It's very hard to predict when and exactly where these little pockets of extreme rainfall will hit the hardest,” he told the Eastern Melburnian.

“However, more often they will occur on higher topography that faces directly into the wind or from thunderstorms.”

Speer also said droughts “can make the topsoil lighter”, making it more at risk of erosion via wind or heavy water flows.

Bushfires, land clearing and construction also add to the problem.

Engineering geologist Darren Paul said the Dandenongs have become especially vulnerable to landslides and mudslides.

“Whilst we're able to work out where landslides can occur, we cannot predict when,” he said.

“Humans have made the Dandenongs more susceptible to landslides because we've altered the natural landscape.”

Kalorama Country Fire Authority captain Bill Robinson has lived in the area since 1982 and led the local response after the 2021 storm, which destroyed 44 houses and damaged around 110 more.

While he supports sensible development, Robinson worries the new EMOs could stop people from rebuilding after another disaster.

“My insurance company is not going to pay for the block of land, my insurance company is only going to pay for the house,” Robinson told the Eastern Melburnian.

Despite her own long fight, Natalie Guest said residents should stay calm about the changes.

“Don’t rush into selling,” she said.

“Don’t let it be detrimental to how you live.”

Yarra Ranges Council’s director of Planning and Sustainable Futures, Kath McClusky, said the council was “really pleased” with the level of community engagement and encouraged residents to ask questions or make submissions.

👩‍🎓 Eastern Melbourne councils fight to save 27-year-old youth support program facing the axe

Two more eastern Melbourne councils have hit out at a recent decision from the Victorian Government that will kill a program which has supported vulnerable students for 27 years.

The Department of Education recently told councils it would not renew funding contracts for the School Focused Youth Service (SFYS) at the end of January.

First introduced in 1998, the SFYS is a State Government-funded and council-run program, which provides targeted interventions for year 5 to year 12 students who are missing out on too many days due to a range of factors, including mental health, poverty and family violence.

The program also aims to support the school community, i.e. teachers, parents and peers, to encourage vulnerable students.

Last week, Knox councillors passed a motion to send letters to Education Minister Ben Carroll, Premier Jacinta Allan and local MPs, requesting a review and reversal of the decision.

A Department spokesperson said the decision to cease funding was “made to minimise duplication and preference evidence-based programs”.

The Eastern Melburnian understands government schools have access to an ongoing $86 million Schools Mental Health Fund, contributing $25,000 per school to pay towards schools programs listed on the “Menu” — a list of “evidence-based programs” including animal-assisted, art and music therapy.

A Whitehorse Council spokesperson said the council was “disappointed” with the decision and would be writing a letter to the Education Minister requesting the funding be reinstated.

Maroondah Mayor Kylie Spears said the council was “concerned” about the impact the funding cut would have on students struggling to remain engaged with their education.

“While the School Mental Health Fund Menu has a suite of programs schools can select from, they are prescribed and not bespoke to meet local needs,” Spears told the Eastern Melburnian.

Spears said the council has supported a motion to reinstate SFYS funding, as it has “no resources to fill the gap for students in 2026.”

Professor Lucas Walsh, from Monash University’s Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice, said 2024 attendance rates continued to worsen, with an 88.6 percent overall rate and 40 percent of students “chronically absent”.

“Dedicated, targeted resources need to be ramped up by governments, rather than phased out,” said Professor Walsh. “Schools in disadvantaged areas often need extra support for students struggling at school and/or at home.”

🏟️ An “eastern sporting hub” in Box Hill? New partnership floated between local footy and cricket clubs at $28 million oval

The Box Hill Hawks Football Club (BHHFC) and the Box Hill Cricket Club (BHCC) have reached an agreement to move ahead with the management of Box Hill City Oval.

At Monday night’s meeting, Whitehorse councillors unanimously voted to endorse the new precinct management model.

A joint project between Whitehorse Council, federal and state governments, and AFL Victoria, the $28 million invested into the oval would include reconstruction of the sports field and cricket nets, the demolition and reconstruction of the western pavilion and a refurbishment of the southern pavilion.

During the September council meeting, three options were put forward to decide the future of how Box Hill Oval would be managed.

Cricket club representatives hit back at the proposed option being dropped at their feet “at the eleventh hour”, leaving them about two days to discuss their stance.

Following the September meeting, council met with representatives from both clubs and provided a detailed summary of all options, resulting in a joint submission requesting an amendment.

The preferred option includes:

• an annual lease for the Hawks of the west pavilion and a seasonal licence of the southern pavilion for the changerooms and warm up zone; and

• A seasonal licence of the southern pavilion’s function space, changerooms and warm up zone for the cricket club.

Another request from the clubs included the construction of two separate shower/toilet spaces in the southern pavilion’s umpires and doctors’ room at a cost of up to $125,000, which would be accommodated within the current project budget.

BHCC president Lisa White said the club was “really happy” with the changes made to the management structure, which will sit alongside a Memorandum of Understanding with the Hawks VFL club in terms of usage of the gym and the west pavilion function space.

“It just gives us confidence that we're still able to use the west pavilion. The Hawks are going to have the lease over a lot of the spaces, but we've got an arrangement that we're still going to be able to use them,” White told the Eastern Melburnian.

Hawks FC general manager Pat Clancey said he hoped the new partnership would help create an “eastern sporting hub” for the community, realise plans which began in 2016 and set up both clubs to prosper over at least the next 30 years.

Whitehorse councillor Blair Barker said he hoped the facility would become more than just a sporting oval and would host recreational activities like yoga and social clubs.

“This is going to be an incredible community facility,” he told the chamber.

“This is good for the football club, good for the cricket club and most importantly, it’s good for the community.”

SEEN THIS WEEK 🤓

📺 One person’s trash is another’s treasure. So why did “Neighbours” producers just give away the show’s props?

Who gave the greenlight for one or more people to take truckloads of props from the Nunawading set of iconic Australian TV soap Neighbours and drop them off unannounced at op shops in eastern Melbourne?

The mystery surrounding the decision to dump the potentially valuable items has deepened in recent days, as Neighbours fans from around the world discover that props used in the show were - bizarrely - being sold via charity shops in eastern Melbourne.

More than 9,300 episodes of Neighbours - a soapie created by Reg Watson and set in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough - were made between 1985 and 2025.

The BBC in the UK ultimately dropped the show about 17 years ago, and it was picked up by Channel 5, but in 2022 the axe came down, with the final episode airing on July 28, 2022.

In true soap style, that was not to be the end of it.

Amazon and Neighbours producer Fremantle Media cut a deal to relaunch the show again, and regular production resumed in April 2023, with the show returning to air in September 2023.

By February this year the luck had run dry, and Neighbours was again cancelled. Production concluded in July and the final episodes will screen in December. Fremantle Media vacated the site in August ahead of its ongoing decommissioning.

What is known about the prop haul - which includes a fake driver’s licence; a medical satchel full of fake patient files, used by Dr Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher), an Erinsborough High bag, fake Medicare cards and a spa key ring for the fictitious Lassiters Hotel - is that it was delivered to This N That Community Store at Forest Hill’s Brentford Shopping Centre shops a few weeks ago by workers who said they were dismantling the Neighbours sets.

“We have no idea who they were, they told us they worked on the sets and production that's all I know. To us it was just a donation, so we don't ask questions,” store manager Michelle told the Eastern Melburnian.

Mitcham-based op shop influencer Rebecca Brewin visited the This N That Community Store at Forest Hill’s Brentford Shopping Centre last Friday and videoed the props for a post that has attracted more than 240,000 views on Instagram.

“I thought a video about the pieces might do well, but I didn’t anticipate a global response,” she told the Eastern Melburnian.

Michelle said interest “blew up” recently, with a number of Neighbours-obsessed podcasters offering to buy the lot.

“I’ve had phone calls and emails from the UK, New Zealand, even Sierra Leone,” she said.

The Eastern Melburnian understands the Neighbours production team donated the goods to local charities, schools, soup kitchens and op shops after dismantling the sets. Goods were first sold to the cast and crew working at Nunawading.

One industry source said that people involved in the decision to offload the items in bulk may not have realised the potential demand, but that the Neighbours team was pleased the donations were being covered by the media.

Michelle said a lot of the shop’s customers had “fond memories” of living near where the show was filmed, as Vermont’s South Pin Oak Court acted as the fictitious Ramsay Street in some external shots.

“We’ve never had anything like this before, so I don’t know how much to put on items. It’s good for us because the die-hard fans actually get to have a piece of Neighbours in their house and it brings in money for our charity.”

For Michelle, it’s all been somewhat of a whirlwind, fielding endless enquiries from Neighbours fans and the media while trying to make sense of what she’s got and how best to monetise it for the charity.

On Friday, she told the Eastern Melburnian she was going to hold an online auction open to bidders globally. She has passed on the offer of assistance from the auction house, and said the items will not be accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity.

As for the Neighbours episode scripts that were bundled in with all the other stuff, Michelle says she was urged by someone involved in the production to shred them, and she has.

🪡 Meet the Ringwood volunteers reviving old fabric

Have you ever thought your old dresses or shirts could serve another purpose but you can’t be bothered taking them to an embroidery place?

Well, there’s a group of Ringwood volunteers who can use your old fabric to help others.

The Wonderful Upcycling Program (WUP) takes donated fabric and old clothes and fixes them up to be gifted to charities - including Vinnies and Women for Impact - or sold at community days.