🟠 Hot wax, better brews

WHAT’S COMING UP 🎟️

• FRIDAY 22/05/26, 7.30PM | Lehmo – Camper Van Go

• SUNDAY 24/05/26, 10AM-5PM | Japan Festival

• SUNDAY 24/05/26, 4PM | False Morels

• SATURDAY 30/05/26, 3-9PM & SUNDAY 31/05/26, 3-9PM | Unmarked Melbourne

• SATURDAY 30/05/26, 8PM | The Choirboys

• SATURDAY 06/06/26, 10.30AM-8PM | Dragon Boat Festival

• SATURDAY 06/06/26 & SUNDAY 07/06/26, 10AM-5PM; MONDAY 08/06/26, 10AM-4PM | Waverley Model Railway Club Exhibition

• SATURDAY 06/06/26 & SUNDAY 07/06/26 | The Witch Market

• EVERY DAY TO SUNDAY 12/07/26, 10AM-5PM | Play School: Come and Play!

📰 THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES

A teaspoon of healthy soil contains 10 billion organisms. These Yarra Valley growers have got the dirt.

A new biochar facility in Melbourne’s east has processed more than 3,000 cubic metres of organic waste since opening in 2023, with the final product helping Yarra Valley farmers battle soil erosion.

In recent years, increased rainfall and severe weather have accelerated erosion across Australia, with some NSW soils eroding at more than 10 times the normal rate.

In some of Australia’s major wheat-growing regions, about 13 tonnes of soil is lost through erosion for every tonne of wheat produced.

Not-for-profit charity Soils for Life supports farmers in regenerating soils and landscapes.

“We’re effectively mining soil in the production of our food,” chief executive Eli Court told the Eastern Melburnian.

Made by heating organic material such as forestry waste or manure, biochar is a carbon-rich charcoal that improves soil water retention and nutrient storage.

In late 2023, Yarra Ranges Council and environmental engineering firm Earth Systems launched a biochar facility at the Cleanaway Lysterfield Resource Recovery Centre.

The facility has processed more than 3,000 cubic metres of organic waste, creating more than 900 cubic metres of biochar.

Yarra Ranges Council director of planning and sustainable futures Kath McClusky said turning storm debris into biochar was more sustainable than burning it on site.

“Biochar only needs one application over the course of the soil's life,” McClusky told the Eastern Melburnian. “The carbon is stable in the soil for thousands of years, with one gram of biochar boasting a surface area the size of a tennis court.”

The Yarra Valley Ecology, Community, Sustainability Centre (ECOSS) runs a native plant nursery and market gardens in Wesburn.

Biochar program co-ordinator Kylie Barnes said biochar sourced from Lysterfield had increased their crop yields by up to 21 percent.

“Healthy soil improves the climate by sequestering carbon dioxide and improving landscape resilience to extreme weather,” Barnes told the Eastern Melburnian. “Urban development has likely caused the most damage to soil health in eastern Melbourne.”

Wine producer Chandon Australia operates a 41-hectare vineyard in Coldstream, with regenerative practices including diverse soil cover and circular composting.

Estate director Susan Caudry said the changes had allowed the winery to stop using synthetic insecticides two years ago.

Court said recent global fertiliser supply disruptions due to war in Iran had highlighted the need for more resilient farming.

“Industrial systems are very vulnerable to disruption and crisis, and we’re heading into a world full of disruption and crisis,” he said.

Locals save 109-year-old store as heritage buildings find new life across Melbourne’s east

Historic buildings across Melbourne’s east are being given new life as community spaces and hospitality venues, with Ringwood’s 109-year-old Blood Brothers Store frontage the latest example of heritage preservation winning out over demolition plans.

The general store, first opened on Bedford Road in 1915, was taken over by Maroondah Council in 2020.

While initial plans were floated to develop a multi-level car park on the site, the Ringwood and District Historical Society pushed back against the proposal, with the council restarting the heritage assessment process and deciding to relocate the building instead.

It’s just one example of a growing campaign to keep the area’s history alive, as business owners and historical societies battle to protect the brick and corrugated iron look that remains across Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

Sitting on Maroondah Highway, the Ringwood Fire Station’s 1929 brick frontage is protected under a Heritage Overlay, but opened as a hospitality venue in the mid-2000s. Husband and wife Nick and Beth Allardice took over and launched the Firehouse restaurant in 2019.

Allardice said Ringwood had a special place in his wife’s family’s heart, with the suburb serving as a refuge after they fled from Poland during World War II.

“One of the key drivers for moving to the area was our love for the community and our desire to give back to it after it gave her family so much,” Allardice told the Eastern Melburnian.

Around the corner, in Lilydale, a historic church on Castella Street is now home to the Harrow and Harvest Cafe, with original floors, stain glass windows and cathedral ceiling among features retained.

Co-owner Vish Patel said he and his business partner took over the business two years ago, after realising how special the place was to locals.

“There’s lots of cafes in Lilydale, but there’s not much of an aesthetic connection to history,” Patel told the Eastern Melburnian.

 🎧 EAST SIDE STORIES ☕️

The “vinyl revolution”: The Hawthorn record store mixing coffee with electronic deep cuts

French expat DJ Max Le Bras thought his Hawthorn record store would be killed by the digital revolution.

Now, 19 years after taking over, he said Alley Tunes Records is seeing healthy interest as vinyl sales surge among young collectors.

The Eastern Melburnian spoke with the co-owner, who emigrated from France in 2003.

Tucked away in an alley off the Glenferrie train station, Alley Tunes Records opened in 1994 as a vinyl and CD store catering to DJs and collectors of electronic dance music.

Working as a DJ in France, Max Le Bras first visited the store in 2001 during a holiday.

He took over the business alongside his business partner Fabrice Lemoyne in 2007, with the pair quickly deciding to open a cafe to supplement their revenue as collectors and DJs alike were switching to digital.

“There was no way we could pay the rent with record sales,” Le Bras told the Eastern Melburnian.

Le Bras said the “vinyl resistance” first started to drive sales back up around 2010.

“I think what people love about vinyl is that they can hold something in their hand,” said Le Bras. “It’s like painting with a brush and canvas. It’s the original art form.”

Le Bras said there was no end in sight for records in the near future, with interest now supported by young people getting into collecting and learning how to DJ.

“Kids and their parents are connecting with each other with something they both enjoy,” said Le Bras. “For the kids, it's something totally new.”