Key forward Jack Taylor has been instrumental in the Islands resurgence in 2018, booting 37 goals and clunking plenty of strong marks. Z273718

Since returning to the club this season, Phillip Island coach Beau Vernon has brought a winning culture back to the kennel and hopes to place some silverware in the trophy cabinet. m732718

PHILLIP Island has the chance to walk away with three of the four football premierships on Saturday, with the Seniors, Thirds and Fourths all fighting it out on that one day in September.
Koo Wee Rup is the only team to defeat Phillip Island twice during the West Gippsland Football Netball Competition senior home and away season in 2018 but the Bulldogs performance in the second semi-final suggests they are the firm favourite for Saturdays grand final.
The Bulldogs under new coach Beau Vernon have been the constant improvers all season, with early losses to Koo Wee Rup, Garfield and Nar Nar Goon all distant memories as they marched into the finals with an eight-game winning streak.
The Island has a great line up right across the ground with league best and fairest Brendan Kimber and club stalwart Jaymie Youle patrolling the midfield, Zak Vernon providing plenty of run and carry off half back and big man Nic Higginson in the ruck.
But perhaps the most surprising combination for the Bulldogs this season has been the work of young guns Aaron Edwards and Jack Taylor up forward.
The pair have kicked 29 and 37 goals respectively and really put their mark on the Demons defence in the second semi-final, Edwards putting on a clinic with a bag of four goals.
The pair were barely 18 when they played in the 2014 Alberton premiership and now maturing in their early 20s the boys will be keen to kick some snags on the big day.
But premierships never come easy and the Demons showed exactly what theyre capable of with a solid 10-point victory in a hard-fought battle with Nar Nar Go...

A SIMPLE solution by a passionate nurse at Gippsland Southern Health Services Koorooman House aged care facility has sped up treatment and diagnosis for its residents.
Enrolled nurse Faye Hancock, whose career in aged care has spanned more than 12 years, was recognised for her professionalism and initiative last week at the Victorian Healthcare Association Annual Awards.
To reduce delays in treatment and clinical review of skin tears and pressure injuries, Mrs Hancock developed the practice where she would take a picture of the wound on a mobile device and send those images directly to a specialist.
This initiative combined with her professionalism and concern for residents resulted in her receiving the VHA Celebrating Aged Care Passion for Aged Care Award.
Mrs Hancock, who said she regards working with aged care residents as a privilege, was at the aged care forum on Thursday where the winners were announced.
To be honest I was blown away and very honoured to be receiving this award. I work with a team of passionate people and we love what we do, she said.
My philosophy for our aged care residents at Koorooman House is to treat them how I would like to be treated.
Gippsland Southern Health Service invested in us to gain our qualifications as enrolled nurses and had faith in us. I also feel very lucky that I love everyday that I go to work.
This week marks Celebrating Aged Care Week which along with the Victorian Healthcare Awards, acknowledges the contributions of Victorias thousands of public sector aged care workers.

Privileged to serve: Gippsland Southern Health Service Koorooman House enrolled nurse Faye Hancock received the Celebrating Aged Care Passion for Aged Care Award last Thursday.

A NEW junior secondary school will be built on Phillip Island.
Both the State Government and the Opposition have committed to the school.
The governments election promise came last Friday, with a total of $24.7 million promised, which would build the new campus and a new gymnasium for Cowes Primary School. The Coalition promised $25 million yesterday (Monday).
Fridays announcement was made by Premier Daniel Andrews, and Deputy Premier and Minister for Education James Merlino.
Wonthaggi Secondary College principal Darren Parker was thrilled and said the school would support a campus on Phillip Island. It is uncertain whether the school will be a new campus of Wonthaggi Secondary College.
The new campus would reduce travel time to our junior campus, particularly for those students coming to us from beyond Anderson. We believe Wonthaggi Secondary College could support this campus in a practical and meaningful way, he said.
It would be a fantastic opportunity for us to be flexible with where we appoint our teaching staff and would ultimately feed into our new sensational senior campus facility.
Wonthaggi Secondary College is anticipating 750 students at its junior campus in 2019, with 1400 across the entire school. The new campus would ease some of the pressure on the Dudley campus and would be closer to home for students living in Phillip Island, San Remo, Coronet Bay, Corinella and Grantville.
Having 1400 students across three campuses would allow us to have the numbers to run significant programs without losing sight of individual needs, Mr Parker said.
Mr Parker said San Remo or Newhaven would be an ideal location for the new campus to increase convenience for students from the Waterline area. The Victorian School Building Authority and the community would be consulted before a site was chosen.
Bass MP Brian Paynter said, The funding for this new school campus is a massive boost for local education so I will ensure we get it right. Ive been working hard with local families to provide better education opportunities, including arguing the case for a new Wonthaggi secondary school. The Coalition also promised to build a new indoor facility at Cowes Primary School.

BASS MLA Brian Paynter has rejected claims by the State Government that the Coalition will permit fracking if elected at the November state election.
He told Parliament last Wednesday, It is clear that Victorian gas consumers are now paying the highest prices in the country because of the Premiers mindless bans on conventional and unconventional gas exploration.
The government yesterday (Monday) issued a statement saying Mr Paynters statement indicated the Liberal would allow fracking a method of extra coal seam gas with possible environmental impacts.
But Mr Paynter told The Star yesterday, Im completely 100 percent against fracking and always have been and will be, and so have the Liberals and Nationals.
The only ones who have issued a fracking licence are the Labor Party.
Mr Paynter said while in Parliament, he mistakenly read a direct quote from the former federal Minister for the Environment and Energy, Josh Frydenberg.
Mr Paynter said, The Liberal-Nationals do not support fracking and in fact placed a moratorium on fracking licences in Victoria when they came to government in 2010. The Liberal-Nationals support the ban on fracking in Victoria.
He said a Coalition Government would support and maintain the existing ban on fracking.
Mr Paynter said all governments, including Victorian Labor, were looking at onshore conventional gas.
The cost of living electricity and gas is a massive issue for all of my constituents, he said.
We do need to look at safe, conventional means of extracting gas. The government is looking at it and we will look at it.
Victorian Minister for Resources Tim Pallas said, Labor introduced the fracking ban, and only Labor will keep the ban in place.
The Liberals have always been soft on the ban and once again theyve confirmed theyll reverse it if given the chance.
Anna Hall, of Coal and Gas Free Mirboo North, asked if the community could trust the Liberals to respect the fracking ban legislation.
Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has declared that he wants to see as much gas exploration and mining as possible. We need to value our agricultural land and keep it safe from this dangerous industry, she said.
Do we want our beautiful, precious part of the world to become like Queensland where there are now over 7000 gas wells?

THE latest council rates bills have sparked cries of exasperation in households and businesses, leaving ratepayers frustrated by rising rates and claiming they see nothing extra for their money.
South Gippsland Shire ratepayers reported rates increase of up to $1000 in 12 months.
Changes in property valuations are responsible for most of the rates changes, said Faith Page, South Gippsland Shire Councils director of corporate and community services.
The latest rates notices to hit letterboxes are the first to use the 2018 property valuations on which rates are based. Valuations will now be undertaken annually instead of every two years, meaning ratepayers can expect even higher bills.
South Gippsland council increased rates by two percent this financial year, less than the rates cap imposed by the State Government of 2.25 percent. Bass Coast rates lifted by 2.25 percent.
Korumburra ratepayer Cheryl Denman is on a disability pension and said her rates bill had increased by $100 this financial year to $2238.55, for her four acre property and house. In 2008, her rates for the same property were $1400.
How do I find the money to pay these exorbitant rate rises? she said.
Ms Page said council offers a hardship policy and encourages ratepayers facing financial difficulty to contact it. Council also offers payment options to assist ratepayers.
Ms Page said in South Gippsland, the fewer properties results in a higher proportion of rates being distributed amongst ratepayers, adding the only way to lower rates would be to reduce services and/or spend less on capital works.
Bass Coast Shire Council CEO Paul Buckley said councils capped average rate is the third lowest across the group of 19 large rural councils in Victoria.
Some ratepayers will pay more and some will pay less, depending on the value of their property relative to the other properties in their municipality, he said.

AFTER making the Leongatha Bair Street Development Project a big deal, South Gippsland Shire Council is unlikely to start construction of the development of one of Leongathas major commercial streets until 2019-2020.
That delay is frustrating the community.
Im sceptical as to whether it will even happen, Leongatha business owner Anthony Walls said.
Council needs to pick just one project, come up with a short term plan and do it.
They spend too much money on feasibility consulting and were frustrated that its all talk.
Council has prepared a master plan for Bair Street that guides road and footpath improvements, new landscaping, street furniture and other upgrades to revitalise the town.
We want things to happen in this town, Leongatha business owner Kristy Walls said.
Its just disappointing.
Councils major projects and emergency management coordinator Penni Ellicott said council is actively campaigning for funding for the project.
The project is now listed in the 2019-2020 Capital Works program and even if funds were approved in the coming months, it is unlikely construction would commence until 19-20, she said.
Mr Walls said he would like to see some form of development to Bair Street in the meantime, such as 90 degree parking spaces, similar to McCartin Street.

Disappointed community: Leongatha business owners Kristy and Anthony Walls are frustrated by the uncertainty of the wait the community is enduring for the start of the Bair Street Development Project.

A BUSINESS park in Korumburra worth in the vicinity of $50 million could create 200 jobs.

The energy of Korumburra businessman John Kennedy coupled with the experience of his business partner Alistair Jack are behind the purchase and development of the new industrial site.

With the ink barely dry on the sale contracts, the Korumburra Gardens Business Park is expected to be the new face of industry for the area.

The site covers almost 20 hectares (47.9 acres) of land at the western end of the existing industrial estate in the town, accessible via 5 Adkins Street.

Mr Kennedy said the site will be developed into an attractive, sustainable and carefully designed location for enterprise.

As the owner of the Korumburra Bicycle Fitting Store and developer of The Borough cafe and food store, Mr Kennedys vision is to make full potential of Korumburras proximity to Melbourne.

There are so many people moving to this area but there are no jobs. The businesses on the existing industrial estate have already got all the people they need, he said.

Youve had three shops open on the main street in the past few months that are creating new jobs but there are no heavy duty jobs in the area.

On the completion of the business park, we estimate 200 jobs will be created and many more during the construction period.

The property has two creek systems which will be cleared of environmental weeds and designed with walking tracks and ponds for public use.

According to the business park development manager Nigel Hutchinson-Brooks, the layout design and new permits will be obtained following expressions of interest from end users.

Feedback from real estate agents in the area is that there is not a lot of industrial land available in Korumburra, he said.

We are approaching universities who may need research facilities and government departments, as well as businesses in Melbourne seeking development in regional areas.

Whats important is that we will be using local trades wherever possible in the construction phase.

It is understood South Gippsland Shire Council chief executive officer Tim Tamlin has been briefed on the development to request the site be given priority and council resources due to its potential for significant economic impact to the area.

Committee for Gippsland chief executive officer Sophie Morell, who visited the site last week, said it was exciting to see a local business person driving development in the area.

When development is driven by locals, it is more likely to create long term sustainability for the region and that is really encouraging,...

Aid programs are increasingly called on to be flexible, adaptive and to think and work politically. In DFAT, barely a program is approved without this terminology being peppered through the design document. But what do these ideas mean in practice? How can implementers, tasked with bringing designs to life, deliver on their promise meaningfully? And how do donors need to manage adaptive programs differently to conventional ones?

In a series of three blogs over the coming weeks, the Institute for Human Security and Social Change will set out some ideas about what it take to program adaptively. These are drawn from our experience of working alongside primarily DFAT and DFID funded programs in the Pacific, Africa and Southeast Asia that have sought to integrate adaptive ways of working. Most recently, this includes working with the PNG-Australia Governance Partnership and the Solomon Islands Resource Facility, but also extends to domestic work with organisations like the Central and Northern Land Councils.

Each blog will deal with a different component of the challenge first adaptive implementation; then adaptive monitoring and evaluation; and finally the role of research and learning.

A lot has been written already on what examples of adaptive programming look like (see here, here and here, for instance). In requires hiring the right staff, putting in place regular sessions to reflect and redesign, increased risk appetites, and so on. But when the rubber hits the road, programs that seek to be adaptive run into several areas of confusion, which we try to clarify here.

1. Adapt theories of change, not (just) activities

There is often confusion about the level at which adaptation is to occur. Often, programs point to changes in their activities as demonstrating adaptation. For instance, participant fee...

The Hazelwood Health Study has completed an investigation of the impacts of the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire on wellbeing, educational outcomes, and teaching practices for students and staff at a specialist school which relocated during the smoke event. We would like to thank all teachers and administrative staff who gave their time to describe their []

With many months of travel in foreign countries coming up fast in 2019 one of our main worries was being understood and understanding others. This is hugely important with everything from ordering food, taxis, booking hotels, train tickets and especially getting a toilet for our youngest. Travel can be stressful, but feeling stranded and not understood can make this much worse. To help us out with all of this we were on the lookout for the best translator device for travel.

When I came across the pre-advertising for a new product called the Langogo, I was intrigued, to say the least. The Langogo pocket translator was boasting a myriad of features that seemed too good to be true. Such things as

• 60 different languages to translate
  • Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Hindi, Croatian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese
• Langogo access 24 different translation engines to get the best results
  • Langogo adopts Neural Machine Translation (NMT) Technology and Fusion Translation Engines to optimize the process of speech recognition and translation between the languages, ultimately providing a fast and accurate solution to translations.
• Translates in 1 second
• Real-time display
• Superior voice recognition
  • Langogo adopts Neural Machine Translation (NMT) Technology and Fusion Translation Engines to optimize the process of speech recognition and translation between the languages, ultimately providing a fast and accurate solution to translations.

Can the Langogo be the best translator device?

All this is exactly what we need. What really attracted me to the Langogo is that it does not need to run through a mobile phone app, it runs independently. Langogo will connect to 3G/4G networks as well as wifi in up to 72 countries. Just switch it on and it will automatically connect to the best local network with its built-in Cloud-Sim Card. This is amazing, it will allow us to use just about anywhere from the beaches of Krabi to the footsteps of the Great Wall of China to Ancient sites in Greece. I am hoping this could be the best translator device we could use.

...

There has been a long process which will see a major development in the northern end of the Cradle Mountain Lakes St Clair national park in Tasmania. The state government has now released the Dove Lake Viewing Shelter Development Proposal and Environmental Impact Statement (DPEIS) for public comment.

This is the first release of plans for the shelter which is planned for Dove Lake. Other key components of the proposal are a redevelopment of the tourist gateway facilities to the north and the building of a gondola/ cable car between the new tourist centre and Dove Lake (the cable car component of the plan got the green light in May when former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced $30 million for the project). The DPEIS will be on display for six weeks. According to the government, feedback from the community will help refine the Development Approval that will be submitted to the Kentish Council. Once all approvals have been obtained, the construction works will be tendered late this year.

The DPEIS can be found here. The consultation period closes on 21 October 2018.

The DPEIS covers proposed improvements to the Dove Lake experience include a new viewing shelter blended into the landscape at Dove Lake, a kiosk and associated infrastructure at the northern end of Dove Lake, within the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park.

The Advocate reports that:

The viewing platform has been designed to blend into the Cradle Mountain landscape and features earthy colours, seating and wall-to-ceiling glass panels.

The structure will be joined by a new bus shelter and amenities building, outdoor viewing area, parking, turning circle and connections to the Dove Lake walking tracks and Glacier Rock viewing platform.

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The walls of Cait and Peter Ghyss straw-bale house are half a metre thick and it has just received a 10-star energy rating.

As Cait and Peter Ghys approached retirement, they decided to fulfil a long-held dream and build a straw-bale house. Next week they will join more than 200 homeowners nationwide in opening their home to the community as part of Sustainable House Day. They will pass on tips and advice, including on solar power, straw-bale building and design. The house, which was designed by their friend and architect Sue Mitchell, has a passive solar design and is rated at 8.3 stars. It has just been evaluated against the Victorian Residential Efficiency Scorecard, and received the maximum rating of 10 stars.

Peter says the house is not just energy efficient but beautiful to live in. Its lovely and cool in summer and warm in winter. Theres no cooling other than ceiling fans, and the only heating we have is a wood heater, which we largely use because we like looking at it!

We wanted to minimise our ongoing costs as we get older Im retired, whilst Cait is still working. We also wanted a house that was environmentally responsible.  Some things are easy; correct orientation of the house means the sun does a lot of the hard work in winter to keep the house warm.  Some things are harder, but worth it; the windows and doors are all double glazed uPVC, which were expensive, but wonderful and Ill never need to paint them!  We are very proud of the ten star rating that we got recently!

We started thinking about building with straw bales soon after we met in the early 90s, but didnt really do anything until we bought our retirement block outside Inverloch. Not sure if youve been in a straw bale house, but they are beautiful.  The external walls are around half a metre thick, allowing us to have very deep rounded reveals around the doors and windows.  The walls are lime washed on the inside. This looks really beautiful sort of like buildings on the Greek Islands, or on the west coast of Ireland.  Being so thick, and dense, they provide fantastic insulation a big reason why the energy rating is so high.  Its warm in winter and cool in summer.  I could go on

I learned how to do straw bale at a workshop in Natimuk, so it was natural that we would use the same option for our...