Long standing Bairnsdale SES member, Roger Neal, was recently honoured with a prestigious Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) life membership, one of just 77 VICSES volunteers to be awarded life membership across the state since the award’s introduction in 2014.Roger joined the VICSES Bairnsdale Unit as a volunteer in December 1991. Since then he has attended many callouts and continues to...

Richard Pelz, a haulage contractor working near Orbost, says dwindling timber supply bought on by the State Government’s inaction to safeguard Victoria’s $7.3 billion timber industry has left his business on the brink of collapse.Mr Pelz is just one of thousands of signatories to a petition calling on the Government to safeguard more than 20 regional Victorian communities from imminent collapse...