This week Tim Budge and Ruth Yeatman chat with the Joshua Waters about Indigenous Knowledge. Joshua is a First Nations K/Gamilaroi man, PhD student and Senior Research Fellow with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University. His work explores the critical role of Indigenous Knowledges in global higher education and institutional contexts. He is also a core member of Deakin University's Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Lab and a Director of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems...
Nov 27, 2024•46 min•Season 24Ep. 43
Euroa Arboretum workers, Bronte Haines, Charlotte Langman, and Nelly Watson join Ruth Yeatman to talk about the wonderful conservation work of the ‘Arb’, its many offerings, and why they love working in this truly beautiful natural environment. Spanning 27 hectares, the Euroa Arboretum offers a unique experience to spend time in the natural environment of northeastern Victoria. Working with traditional owners, from the Taungurung Land and Waters Council, the ‘Arb’ is restoring the natural enviro...
Nov 19, 2024•47 min•Season 24Ep. 42
This week Tim Budge and Peter Lockyer chat with the legendary Cam Walker about forests, climate change, supporting Traditional Owners and his enduring love of the High Country.Cam is the campaigns co-ordinator with Friends of the Earth in Melbourne. Friends of the Earth (FoE) is a grassroots, community-based environmental organisation and Cam is responsible for co-ordinating the various campaigns and projects of the organisation. FoE takes a community empowerment approach to its campaigns. He ha...
Nov 13, 2024•47 min•Season 24Ep. 41
This week on EarthChat, John Thompson president of Mitchell Community Energy joins Narelle Liepa from Mitchell Shire Council on EarthChat to share some of the good work happening in community renewables in Mitchell Shire. What is happening? - A Solar farm at the tip - Jeff's work on the old courthouse - Our proposal for a solar carpark at Chittick Park and Community Batteries - The proposed Energy Hub - And what about the FERA windfarm? It is an energising conversation, so listen in! Learn more ...
Oct 30, 2024•47 min•Season 24Ep. 40
Join Tim Budge and Jessica Morrison as they chat about Jessica's involvement in peace and social justice issues. Jess has been a passionate advocate for working towards peace in situations such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine and has been outspoken in her opposition to war. She discusses the impact of the war on Gaza on innocent people and how Palestinians (and Lebanese) are suffering. She was Executive Officer for the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) for 13 years. Jess now works f...
Oct 22, 2024•48 min•Season 24Ep. 39
Ruth chats with creative team members of the Seymour Performers Workshop (SPW) to explore the far reaching benefits of the performing arts, along with exciting news of their latest production and the creation of a Community Choir. They explore how creating music theatre along with the act of singing creates social, physical, and mental benefits, not only for the performers but also for the audience who is invited to interact and reciprocate through their attention, engagement, and reaction. This...
Oct 10, 2024•44 min•Season 24Ep. 38
Listen in to this week's EarthChat where Marie Gerrard and Ruth Yeatman chat to Wallan environment advocate Claudia James about managing growth while caring for the environment. They look at the challenges and opportunities for improving amenities particularly in our high growth areas and focus on the connections between health, wellbeing and nature and practical ways of planning these connections in new developments. Claudia will also be involved in the jointly organised Natural Treasures Walk,...
Oct 01, 2024•47 min•Season 24Ep. 37
Tim Budge and Peter Lockyer chat with Andrew Mahar, AM about taking practical steps to support climate action around the world. Andrew is an internationally recognised social entrepreneur, having spent the past 35 years seeding, nurturing, and mentoring over 15 successful social enterprises, both in Australia and Timor-Leste. This includes working with Timorese farmers to produce and market delicious coffee. Andrew was awarded an AM (a Member of the Order of Australia) in 2013 and has also been ...
Sep 25, 2024•46 min•Season 24Ep. 36
Peter Sawyer is a Seymour resident with a passion for watching birds. Birds in town, on the Goulburn River and recently at Borroloola in the Northern Territory. On EarthChat, Peter Lockyer teases out some of the delights of Peter’s birdwatching, and of threatened species still about, and what we all could do to assist in their conservation. It's been a wet year and birdlife is abundant. You can find Rainbow Bee Eaters along the Goulburn River, or a Red-Browed Treecreeper on stringybark trees in ...
Sep 18, 2024•49 min•Season 24Ep. 35
Ruth and Phil welcome Levi Power and Jarvis Atkinson from the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria who bring us the latest Victorian Treaty news. Treaty is an opportunity for First Peoples to have a greater say and control over matters that affect them. It is an opportunity to secure meaningful structural reform to ensure First Peoples make the decisions about their communities, their culture, and their country. Australia is the only Commonwealth country without a Treaty with its First Nation’s P...
Sep 11, 2024•46 min•Season 24Ep. 34
On this week's EarthChat, Vanessa and Ruth talk about landscape restoration and the pilot project Vanessa has coordinated this year with the Granite to Goulburn group (G2G), under the umbrella of the New Futures for Victorian Landcare program. Listen in and learn lots!
Sep 05, 2024•44 min•Season 24Ep. 33
This program originally went to air on 8th December, 2023. however, there has been lots of further developments in relation to a Treaty for Victoria and the First People's Assembly. EarthChat will have future episodes which bring us up to date with these developments, but this initial one is an important scene setter for the episodes to follow. Join us on this journey. Ruth and Phil are joined by Levi Power, a North East Representative of the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria , who brings us t...
Aug 28, 2024•42 min•Season 24Ep. 32
This week Marie and Tim talk to Una Hobday OAM from the Rotary organisation “Food Plant Solutions”. This group have developed a large data base of suitable plants for different countries and regions of the world with details of the nutritional values of different foods. There are also details for growing food plants in various areas of Australia. Food Plant Solution information is designed to meet the specific nutritional needs of children and families and to reduce the incidence of malnutrition...
Aug 21, 2024•49 min•Season 24Ep. 31
On this EarthChat, Chloe Fox, Brontë Haines, and Nelly Watson chat with Ruth of their passion, commitment and creativity in bringing yummy affordable local seasonal produce from farm to plate. To produce a healthy and creative feedback loop that ensures sustainable reciprocity means we must take care of the earth. And in the process we get to witness the beauty of how plants grow alongside the invaluable contribution made by micro organisms, insects, and birds in this marvelous reciprocal loop. ...
Aug 17, 2024•28 min•Season 24Ep. 31
Our guest on this week's EarthChat is the former Greens Senator, Janet Rice. For over 40 years, Janet has been a campaigner for people and the planet, including campaigning against trucks in residential areas, campaigning for forest protection, being a founder of the Greens in Victoria and being a Senator in the Australian Parliament for the last 10 years. She was the Greens spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Social and Community Services, Forests and LGBTIQ issues among others. She was also the c...
Aug 06, 2024•46 min•Season 24Ep. 30
What does this proposed Indigenous management mean now that the logging threat has subsided. Or has it? Is selective logging within this proposal? The Taungurung Land and Waters Council (TLaWC) believes that the State Government must put Country and people first when deciding on the future of the Central Highlands forests following direct involvement in the Eminent Panel for Community Engagement. TLaWC requests that forests within these cultural landscapes be designated as Cultural Reserves rath...
Jul 31, 2024•44 min•Season 24Ep. 29
This week Marie Gerrard and Peter Lockyer chat with Elyse Kelly, Mitchell Shire Council's Environment Coordinator about a range of plans to enhance the local environment in our beautiful shire. Elyse has worked at the Mitchell Shire Council for several years and during that time there have been many improvements in the protection of our very diverse area. In the coming months there will be a range of consultation opportunities for the public to comment on various Council plans related to the env...
Jul 24, 2024•48 min•Season 24Ep. 28
It's now the middle of Plastic Free July and this week's EarthChat gives us a good opportunity to do a plastic-free stock take. How is the month going for you? What have been the small steps you have taken to make a big difference in reducing plastic in your life? What's going well and what has been a struggle? So, this week, Tim and Ruth chat about plastics. They also have three different local guests who give their perspectives and share handy hints for reducing plastic. Some actions are harde...
Jul 17, 2024•39 min•Season 24Ep. 27
Turtles in the Goulburn Valley - ancient survivors under threat from foxes and vehicles. Ken Wallis lives on a property near 5 Mile Siding on the Goulburn River, on which he grows flowers with his partner TR but a healthy turtle habitat has sparked a new interest for them both. Ken’s turtle habitat includes billabongs along the Upper Goulburn Road east of Tallarook. Freshwater wetlands, swamps slow-moving rivers and farm dams are the favoured habitat. The Eastern Long-neck Turtle is in healthy n...
Jul 10, 2024•49 min•Season 24Ep. 26
Despite the recent referendum result the reconciliation journey continues - it is far from over as the need for recognition, justice, and healing is ongoing. 6.2 million Australians voted YES. And then there were many who voted NO who actually want positive change for indigenous people in this country but because of confusion and misinformation they heeded the outrageous advice from the Leader of the Opposition who counselled: “If you don’t know, vote NO..” What on earth happened to: ‘if you don...
Jul 03, 2024•45 min•Season 24Ep. 25
This week on EarthChat, Marie and Ruth chat with the Hon Kelvin Thompson about Birdlife Australia. The conversation is a great chance to learn about long-standing group and its work that makes the most of the power of citizen science. Marie and Ruth discuss the long term findings of the organisation's annual bird count with Kelvin who had a long career in politics but has also been a bird watcher since childhood He is a life member of Birdlife Australia as well as their Education Officer. It's a...
Jun 19, 2024•49 min•Season 24Ep. 24
The Rising Tide of community activism against the fossil fuel export industry has a local champion in Peter Gaffney. Rising Tide is an activist community group focused on real action to address the climate change challenge. Actions are direct and dramatic for this is the challenge of our time. “We are the rising tide of ordinary people, called by extraordinary times. We are a diverse movement demanding Australia honours our commitment to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. We are prepared ...
Jun 13, 2024•44 min•Season 2024Ep. 23
Plastic Free July is coming and we have an amazing guest to help us plan individual and local community activities! On this week's EarthChat, Tim and Ruth chat 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 of seeing a world free of plastic waste. From humble beginnings in 2011 with Rebecca and a small team in local government in Western Australia, it i...
Jun 04, 2024•51 min•Season 24Ep. 22
Tim and Ruth chat with Liz Downes about Deep Ecology. What is Deep Ecology? It is a way of life that supports conscious activism. It’s a sense of being part of the earth and called into action by the web of life. activism and facilitation work then involves creating a sense of community among like-minded people who want to explore this connection with the web of life. Liz Downes is a forest activist, researcher and campaigner. Her recent focus has been in Ecuador, where mining is threatening the...
May 29, 2024•53 min•Season 24Ep. 21
This week on EarthChat, Marie and Tim chat with Cath Rouse from the community group opposing the proposed Wollert waste to energy incinerator. They discuss and learn about the environmental dangers to the surrounding residents from the potential toxic emissions caused by burning among other things large quantities of plastic and other chemicals. They also emit large amounts of greenhouse gases while producing energy. Want to read more? Check out this website from Climate Action Merribek . You ca...
May 22, 2024•44 min•Season 24Ep. 20
Peter Mitchell joins Ruth this Tuesday, May14 at noon to give listeners a sneak preview into the latest edition of the ‘Natural Treasures’ in Mitchell Shire prior to its official launch next Sunday, May 19. This new edition offers 16 more sites for us to explore, and Peter has created reserve notes for every site. There are a lot more nature reserves, roadside wild nature corridors, rail trail reserves, and many more walking tracks, all of which beckon us to put on our boots and get out into nat...
May 15, 2024•45 min•Season 24Ep. 19
Vanessa and Ruth discuss the recent Landcare forum on soil health and sustainable farming, held at the Seymour Racecourse on the 2nd May, including a presentation by TV celebrity chef Matthew Evans and his book on Soil . Vanessa outlines the contributions by the various speakers invited to the forum, touching on soil health and productive soils, biology and plant pathology. There were lots of practical examples of soil health applicable to farms, as well as the connection between healthy soil an...
May 08, 2024•44 min•Season 24Ep. 18
Tony Richardson and his partner Rita have been growing trees on their two farms for 25 years. They invested their super (against advice at the time) and grew different eucalypt species hoping to log them for timber after about 25 years. However, Tony, a transport engineer by profession, had been captivated by the potential of biochar, and peeler logs for plywood. Growing trees for logs locks up carbon for maybe 50 years, and all of the upper tree and branches and leaves (75% of the biomass of a ...
May 01, 2024•45 min•Season 24Ep. 17
Over the last six months, the killing of over 30,000 people and the forced relocation of approximately 2 million people has brought global attention to the plight of people in Gaza and the wider conflict between Israel and Palestine. Our EarthChat guest this week is Dr Rachel Coghlan who completed her PhD on palliative care in Gaza and who maintains close contact with health workers and others there who are enduring the ongoing destruction talking place. Houses and hospitals have been damaged an...
Apr 23, 2024•47 min•Season 24Ep. 16
Marie and Tim talk to Phoebe Gardner from Bardee about their developments in using black soldier flies to transform very large amounts of food waste into protein, animal feed and fertilizer. Part of a truly circular economy. Bardee claim that their vertical farming system feeds and nurtures soldier flies through their natural growth phases and in their Grow Labs, larvae grow 3000x in size in just 7 days eating only food waste with no added water required. Larvae are processed into a high quality...
Apr 16, 2024•50 min•Season 24Ep. 15
