Rex Hunter teaches us all about the former ballast trade, carried out during the 19th century, and its vital role in enabling ships to leave Melbourne.

· ‘Blast Off’ is a fantastic surfing coaching program and competition for kids. In a great example of local leading to national leading to global, Blast Off is now celebrating its 15th year, and young surfers from all over the world are being encouraged to submit footage of them showing their stoke in the water. The competition finishes at the end of October, and to find out all about it we’ll catch up with Blast Off founder and former surfing world champion Barton Lynch.

· Can you believe it’s only 6 months until the Spider Crabs are set to return to the Mornington Peninsula to aggregate, moult and then breed? Jacqui Younger (Save Our Spidercrabs) brings us the latest on the campaign to bring stronger protection of Spider Crabs during their moulting and breeding cycle, and hopefully prevent a repeat of this year’s events.