East Gippsland

That was Grassdale sheep and cattle producer Colin Smith speaking there with Angus Verley in Horsham.

Another part of the state that's looking for some spring rain is East Gippsland.

Royston Nettleton's family have been farming along the Snowy River near Orbost since the 1960s.

Royston told me they caught some good rain at the weekend, but they would love to have some more over the next month to really feel confident going into summer.

I guess, 5 to 15 millimetres for many parts, maybe a little bit less sort of up on the northern plains.

Although if we do get a thunderstorm, we could certainly get double digits pretty much anywhere, maybe a few places even looking at sort of 20 to 30 millimetres.

through some parts of particularly around sort of Gippsland and those sorts of regions.

So yeah, a fairly wet system coming through Thursday and then a cold front looks like it clears that moisture out on Friday.

And it was in pretty good nick like for what it was.

And you just think the dedication that people have to – being able to play golf the the sunken hours of volunteering presidents and captains these people organizing working bees it's it just shows how invigorating and how great the game is that I remember I played somewhere in Buckin Valley in the high country of East Gippsland.

It's like, oh, yeah, these two guys mow it and they've got synthetic greens in there now.

And it's like, and if these guys don't mow it after their long working hours, there's no golf.

So can you take us to this day we're going to talk about and place us geographically where we are?

So if you drive east of Melbourne, you end up in a place called East Gippsland.

Drive a couple of hours east to Bairnsdale, and then you come out of Bairnsdale a bit, and then you start heading up into the mountains.

And it's on the Mitchell River.

And they're more for tomorrow as the front comes through.

So we've got a gale warning for the East Gippsland Coast for tomorrow and strong wind warnings for the West Coast, Central Coast, Central Gippsland Coast and also for Port Phillip and Western Port.

Well, we thank you very much for the update.

No problem.

You're listening to The Country Hour.

Let's talk soils, or continue to talk soils, really, on the program right now.

Is East Gippsland Farmers, David and Ruth Reid... say they're paying attention to their underground livestock is just as important for their business as the above ground livestock.

For more than two decades, David and Ruth have been studying ways to improve their soils and pastures at their farm at Perry Bridge, east of Sale.

Ooh

... and runner-up East Gippsland champion."

Hooly dooly.

"I would love it if you could say hello to him on the show.

So there's over 100 years of connection to this land here.

I'm sitting in the one-time schoolyard in Foo Minor in the hills of East Gippsland in Victoria, right near the spot where this photograph was taken.

Foo Minor was once a thriving township, but is now just a cluster of houses.

I'm with Anne Kilner, the woman who sent me the photo.

And you could travel along the train in the Yarra Valley in the early decades of the 20th century and in an ordinary summer day you would see many fires.

People had come to live with fire without realising quite what the capacity of these forests were on certain days.

Environmental historian Professor Tom Griffiths from the ANU has written extensively about the mountain ash forests of East Gippsland.

I've come to ask him about why the country around Firmina was so vulnerable to bushfire.

Uh, as you know, I'm a member of One Nation.

I'm on a committee, uh, in East Gippsland for One Nation, so, uh, but it does not change my view on this because my view was formed a long time ago via the organization I'm involved with and the people I've met prior to that even, um, a young employee of mine, for instance.

I have enormous respect for people who go down the path of drugs and come out the other end and create a good life for, for themselves, their family, and contribute to a, to society.

So, um, I don't know Warren well enough to know, um, the full story, and I don't know him well enough to know that his, um, all his intentions are go- are good now, but I, you know, I have no reason not to believe that.

But in particular, if you're in sort of southwestern and central southern parts of the state as well, Those thunderstorms do have a risk of producing damaging wind gusts so keeping an eye out for any severe thunderstorm warnings that might be popping up across the weekend or particularly tomorrow.

As well as that we've got a warning out to sheep graziers for the North East, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland districts.

That's unsurprising with that weather that's coming through.

And I'd imagine, well, that's definitely for tomorrow.