🟠 Rush for batteries after boost

Also including: Thousands of Victorians donate blood in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack

Author

Matthew Sims
December 19, 2025

⏱️ The 103rd edition of our newsletter is a seven-minute read.

Hi there 👋 

Matthew Sims here, your reporter at the Eastern Melburnian.

🩸 I rolled up my sleeves yesterday morning to donate blood to support Lifeblood’s overall supply in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack, and I was not alone — 90,561 people made an appointment in the first 72 hours following the shootings, with 26,021 donations made in that time.

The whole process took less than 20 minutes.

🚛 As part of my continuing reporting on the local opposition to the Montrose quarry, I highlighted the development of the Victorian left adding their voices to the push, with North-Eastern Metropolitan MP Aiv Puglielli (Greens) and Victorian Socialists North-East member Jack Gardner speaking on the need for the proposal to either be ditched entirely or for Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny to seek an Environment Effects Statement.

🪧 For locals, this is not a political issue, but one based around health, environmental biodiversity and overall amenity.

If our reporting has helped you feel more connected to Melbourne’s eastern suburbs this year, and you're able to help, I'd love it if you'd consider making a donation. Even $10 genuinely moves the needle for a small newsroom like ours.

According to Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, in the first 72 hours following the shootings, more than 22,000 Victorians made new appointments to donate blood, with close to 7,000 donations made.

The one thing you must know

THE BEST CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN MELBOURNE’S EASTERN SUBURBS 🎟️

📰 THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES

As the horrific footage of Sunday’s Bondi Beach attack flooded the airwaves and social media feeds, the response from locals across the country – including in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs – in boosting blood supply was swift.

A Lifeblood spokesperson said demand for blood and plasma will remain high between now and January 2.

My blood type – O-negative – is a universal blood type, meaning it can be safely given to anyone.

After hearing that Australian Red Cross Lifeblood needed O-type donations, I made an appointment and went on Thursday morning to the Lifeblood pop-up donor centre at the Lilydale Baptist Church to make a deposit.

Shaun Cowley’s Bayswater North company was used to about one in five jobs requiring the installation of a battery to store power.

But since the federal government began tipping billions of dollars into subsidising the rollout, things have changed significantly.

“Now pretty much every job is a battery job,” the Cowlec Electrical and Solar founder and director told the Eastern Melburnian.

He said government rebates and finance plans made the leap to battery storage “financially viable for nearly everybody”.

In April, Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced a $2.3 billion investment in the Cheaper Home Batteries program, and on Saturday Bowen said the Federal Government would invest a further $4.9 billion.

"This is expected to see more than two million Australians install a battery by 2030, delivering around 40 gigawatt hours of capacity, doubling our election estimate of one million batteries and increasing the expected capacity by almost four times,” Bowen said of the boost.

According to data from the Clean Energy Regulator, under the first four months of the Cheaper Home Batteries program, there were 230 batteries installed in Glen Waverley, 142 in Wantirna and 129 in Ferntree Gully.

Bowen said half of the households installing a battery around the country were also installing or upgrading existing solar systems.

About 175,000 batteries are expected to be installed nationally in the scheme’s first six months (July 2025 to January 2026).

Home batteries allow households to store their own solar power and avoid buying electricity at peak prices.

The Victorian left has joined the voices campaigning against Boral’s attempt to extend the lifespan and boundary of its Montrose quarry.

In October, Boral announced the plans, which would increase the boundary by about 30 acres and provide access to about 26 million tonnes of rock over about 32 years.

On December 3, North-Eastern Metropolitan MP Aiv Puglielli (Greens) urged Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny to “stand up” to Boral and refuse the plans.

“The local member [Monbulk MP Daniela De Martino] does not want the expansion,” said Puglielli. “What is the point of having a government MP if they are being ignored by their own government?”

Labor’s De Martino says she is “strongly opposed to the expansion of the Montrose Quarry” and is hosting a “Back off Boral” petition on her website.

Victorian Socialists North-East member Jack Gardner said the party believed the Montrose community “should make decisions about what happens in its own community”.

“I think it's a classic case of a massive corporate giant just running roughshod over an entire community,” Gardner told the Eastern Melburnian.

Looking back on 2025, the federal election seems like it was years ago.

But at the time, it was a massive part of the daily news cycle for me at the Eastern Melburnian. Covering it was something that took a lot of work, but was incredibly rewarding and was also the start of me regularly hearing from you, the readers, about what you wanted me to look into.

Approaching an election as a journalist can be daunting – with often an ever-growing number of candidates reaching out to spruik their election pledges.

And if you’re not focused on the major players or party leaders, it can be hard to know just who is trying to get your vote.

So, after realising there wasn't a lot out there specifically about the sitting MPs and candidates from the eastern suburbs, I made a comprehensive list of every candidate I could find that had all the available information on their background, plans, and promises.

As the saying goes, it never rains, it pours: The guide was widely read and I even started getting tips from candidates and locals about what issues mattered - childcare, climate, energy, jobs and healthcare, to name a few.

I was then able to report on all of these issues throughout the election campaign through a local, eastern Melbourne lens, reaching out to candidates in my patches about what they thought about a given issue.

From a personal level, and having covered elections before, I tried to ignore the PR spin and let locals know how policies would impact them.

And, in amongst all the positive feedback you sent in, I realised how much your tips, messages and ideas could help my reporting.

SEEN THIS WEEK 🤓

Lilydale’s flour production roots

Did you know Lilydale used to be one of the region's key wheat farming hotspots?

Visitors to Lilydale Lake can still view the remnants of the Cashin Brothers Flour Mill – two sections of the walls standing about five metres high.

Check out the video below.

Instagram Post

Lilydale toilets closed due to vandalism

Yarra Ranges Council has closed the Lilydale toilet block on Main Street at the Lilydale Recreation Reserve, an infamous vandalism magnet.

In the wake of an attack last weekend, council closed the facility for the foreseeable future.

“These senseless acts of vandalism have destroyed an important community facility, costing ratepayers tens of thousands of dollars,” said Yarra Ranges Mayor Richard Higgins.

Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Eastern Melburnian.

This is our last edition for the year, so if you’re lucky enough to be having a break, we hope it’s a happy and safe one. Feel free to send me any holiday snaps, or photos from across Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

We hope you enjoyed this issue and all of our bi-weekly issues this year. And if you can chip in to help us keep making the news for free, it would mean a lot.

Cheers,

Matthew