Dr Michael Holland is currently the sitting member for the seat of Bega in the NSW Parliament. He has a long and respected career in the world of medicine and hopes to bring his expertise in that regard to improve health services in the region. He will be down in Eden this weekend for the opening of the 'Grand Old Lady'- The Australasian Hotel , an important historical building in the area. 

After several years of sustained economic pressures, the costs to maintain services by local councils across Australia has reached a tipping point. The Bega Valley Council has recently been consulting with the community about the need to increase rates in order to keep the current services intact. One of the proposed increases is a 90% rate rise. The CEO of the Shire Anthony McMahon joins Bertie to explain why such a steep rate rise in necessary.  

Anna Lindstrand is the director of the native animal sanctuary located 8 km north of Merimbula- Potoroo Palace. The park has garnered a reputation as a successful example of educating the public about the need to protect our native animals. Their slogan is conservation, education and community. At the park is are a wide range of animals including dingoes, wombats, wallabies, and many reptiles and birds. Their most recent success includes the successful breeding of a very rare and endangered Bush Stone Curley.  

Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action group was formed after the Tathra District Fires in 2018. Founder and President Jo Dodds has been instrumental in the groups success in challenging the NSW Government and the NSW EPA to consider climate change in their policies. They recently had a landmark victory in the courts which has proven just how much change grassroots local campaigns can have at the state and national level. Jo is about to take her message to COP 27 in Egypt which gets underway in November. 

Reboot in Bermagui is Back ! One of the most family friendly, fun-filled community events on the coast returns for its seventh year. Everything from fun runs, swims, stand uo paddle boarding, surf-lessons, tug-o-wars, barefoot bowls, the festival will have it all. In this episode I chat to Julie Rutherford who is one of the wonderful and generous humans helping organsie the big event. 

The Bega Valley Innovation Hub, along with other major partners including Bega Cheese, are striving to make the Bega Valley a truly sustainable local regional economy. They are doing this by aiming to become a 100% circular economy. In support of this idea they are reaching out to the public to come up with good idea. This is called  the Bega Circular Valley Challenge and has a prize pool of $35000. Samantha Avitaia explains. 

South Coast health Sustainability Alliance (SHASA) are a grass roots, community orientated organisation that aims to make the Eurobodalla a better place to live work and play. They do this by championing renewable energy, sustainability and community resilience projects  across the coast. Kathryn Maxwell is the president of the organisation and she talks about SHASA's latest project involving a mobile power generator assisting with power requirements for bushfire rebuilds, power outages and extreme weather events. 

The issue of logging our native forests has never been more controversial. Forestry Corporation is under immense pressure after posting consecutive annual losses and attracting millions of dollars in fines. Environmentally, the practice threatens our native species such as the koala who are critically endangered. In this conversation, Dr Holland outlines his thoughts on the issue before the matter is brought before parliament next month. 

Dr Matthew Nott is a Bega Valley orthopaedic surgeon and  also the founder of clean energy for Eternity. The idea for this organisation occurred on Tathra's hottest ever day in January 2006. It has since grown into a fully fledged and well supported community organisation that assists local groups and homes tap into renewable energy. On October 16 they are putting on a 9 hour music festival in Matthews home town of Tathra to raise money for further investment in the local community. 

Astronomer at ANU, Dr Brad Tucker travelled to the South East over the weekend to view the discovery that sheep farmers Mick Miners and Jock Wallace made at Dalgety and south of Jindabyne. He says the space junk reportedly from a SpaceX mission are some of the largest pieces of space junk to ever be found in Australia.