🟠 Festive feud & battery boosts

Also including: The best affordable food options in Hawthorn

Author

Matthew Sims
March 11, 2026

⏱️ The 118th edition of our newsletter is a seven-minute read.

Hi there 👋 

Matthew Sims here, your reporter at the Eastern Melburnian.

⚠️ I’ve driven through the Dandenong Ranges countless times over the years. It’s a landscape made unique by the remoteness of some of its regions. Turn down a road and you could find yourself twisting and turning down a valley and onto a dirt road and, within a couple of minutes, you might find yourself lost without a GPS or phone.

⚡️ The remoteness of the area is an attraction for those who call it home. However, the trees which give the area its beauty are also among the reasons locals face frequent power outages.

💡 I spoke with Upwey homeowner and Repower the Dandenongs secretary Daniel Wurm last week, who told me he and his family had to endure power outages ranging from 10 minutes to six hours at least once a month before he installed a battery a month ago.

Elsewhere:

🌳 I popped down to the Mont Albert Village Plaza earlier this week to speak with two locals who were among the joint effort to reinvigorate the area outside the former Mont Albert railway station.

🐕‍🦺 I’ll be publishing a piece on this work later today, but another highlight was getting to see a dog in a pram!

Here’s local 12-year-old poodle cross long-haired dachshund Quinton Bear, making his master work extra hard.

☕️ While I was there, I also popped into the cafe set to be opened at the old Mont Albert railway station building.

Run by disability support provider Cape Group, the cafe will be officially opened from 9.30am on Thursday, March 12.

Pop on in and you might even see me chatting with a barista or two.

Today we’re covering:

  • How comments over Christmas decorations landed a Knox councillor with a one-month suspension;

  • The details of a fire at Glen Waverley’s RSL sub-branch; and

  • How Dandenong Ranges locals are using home batteries to create a back-up system when storms lead to an unplanned power outage.

“The one positive we can take is that the building was unoccupied and that nobody was injured.”

Waverley RSL sub-branch president Neil Slaughter said the fire that tore through part of the Waverley RSL sub-branch on Sunday was “devastating” for the group and all local veterans.

WHAT’S ON THIS WEEK 🎟️

📰 THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES

A Knox councillor is set to be suspended over comments he made last July during a push for the council to spend its own money on Christmas decorations.

The debate first reared its head last March, with Knox councillor Robert Williams proposing a $50,000 budget commitment towards a range of decorations including red bows, bin coverings and an initiative encouraging local traders to decorate their windows.

Over the coming months, the item went back and forth between rejections and further refining, with the final motion at the September 8 meeting seeing Knox Council commit $15,000 towards installing red bows at selected retail precincts across Knox.

Knox councillor Peter Lockwood was on the side supporting the Christmas celebrations.

In August, a claim of misconduct was made against Lockwood by then-Knox mayor, councillor Lisa Cooper.

These claims were made by Cooper alongside councillors Glen Atwell, Meagan Baker and Parisa Considine.

Allegations included Lockwood being “very disruptive” during the council meeting and “liking” a social media post the four councillors allege was untrue and defamatory towards the council.

Other claims of misconduct related to councillor Lockwood calling certain councillors “a pack of grinches”.

Jo-Anne Mazzeo, an independent arbiter appointed by the State Government, made a finding of misconduct against councillor Lockwood and decided to suspend him for one calendar month from March 10.

Whether or not the bows will return this year – or the council’s decorations will be expanded – is yet to be seen, as the council has been busy shaping the budget for the next financial year.

The Glen Waverley veteran community is reeling after a blaze significantly damaged the local RSL sub-branch on Sunday morning.

Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) responded to the incident on Coleman Parade in Glen Waverley around 7:00am, finding the roof space of the premises ablaze due to a fire allegedly started in the kitchen.

Joined by Country Fire Authority (CFA) crews, FRV members donned breathing apparatus and fought the fire from the outside due to concerns about the structural integrity of the property and to ensure firefighter safety.

About 60 firefighters worked for around two hours to control the fire, with the incident declared under control at 9:14am.

Nobody was inside the building at the time of the blaze.

However, FRV crews worked closely with RSL members to save encased memorabilia, with the majority of memorabilia remaining intact and undamaged.

Read the full story here or view the video below.

Instagram Post

Dandenong Ranges locals are preparing to stay online during bushfires or storms by installing home batteries, as families wait with bated breath to see when the next storm or fire hits.

Mount Dandenong locals have been dealing with the impacts of severe storms for years, including being cut off from power and internet for weeks on end and having key exit routes cut off.

A major south-westerly gust exceeding 100 kilometres per hour in June 2021 caused widespread outages, leaving more than 3,000 homes without power and internet for more than a month.

The erratic weather destroyed 71 homes, damaged 129 properties to the point where they were uninhabitable, forced families from 120 households to seek temporary accommodation and closed eight schools.

Hundreds of roads were blocked for months, with full recovery taking more than two years to complete. Mount Dandenong’s William Ricketts Sanctuary still remains closed almost five years on.

The financial toll of the event stretched into the tens of millions of dollars, including more than $51 million from the State Government to impacted community members.

Severe weather conditions have continued to hit the region over the last five years, including destructive squalls in October 2021, June 2022 and February 2024, with the latter leaving 530,000 households and businesses across the state without power.

Upwey homeowner and Repower the Dandenongs secretary Daniel Wurm said he and his family had to endure power outages ranging from 10 minutes to six hours at least once a month before he installed a battery a month ago.

“During the month of February, it went off five times in one week,” Wurm told the Eastern Melburnian. “Everybody’s sick of it. Due to climate change, freak storms are becoming more and more frequent.”

Wurm said he was about to buy a generator to power his all-electric home when he heard about the Federal Government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program.

“I've been able to back up my entire house with a battery,” said Wurm. “The very first day after we got it installed, the power went off, and we just flipped the switch and we were the only people in the street that had power.”

68-year-old Ringwood East homeowner Les Corbett said he installed a battery to support his home’s solar system about six months ago.

“It’s better off not relying on anyone else and being self-sufficient,” Corbett told the Eastern Melburnian.

Green energy supplier Buffalo Stand-Alone Power Solutions entered the scene only two years ago, but founder Rob Oakley said the “appetite is growing” for energy resilience options.

“We’re so reliant on electricity and the internet for our day-to-day lives,” Oakley told the Eastern Melburnian. “Energy resilience is diversifying and preparing for the worst.”

Founder and chief executive of energy policy advisory firm Nexa Advisory Stephanie Bashir said there needed to be more government investment in systems that can withstand extreme weather conditions.

“The reality is we don’t need more investment in poles and wires,” Bashir told the Eastern Melburnian. "We’ve got to be very careful that there’s not overspending on the wrong thing.”

DID YOU SEE? 👀

The ultimate guide to affordable eats in Hawthorn under $20

Glenferrie Road definitely has its share of high-end dining options for the occasional splurge. 

But if you’re still a few days away from getting paid, there’s plenty of places along this iconic strip to spread the last bits of your budget while not going hungry.

Reader Connor also shouted out Kebabji — Unit 11/672, Glenferrie Road — for their “absolute banger” HSP with cheese for $18.50.

The ultimate guide to affordable eats in Hawthorn under $20

From Vietnamese soups to a classic fish and chips shop, check out where you can grab a quick meal without breaking the bank.

Thanks for reading this mid-week newsletter and we’ll be back on Friday to shine a spotlight on the under-reported issues in our patch.

Cheers,

Matthew