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The Long Burn: Hazelwood Minefire, Health and Defunding Prevention
The Hazelwood Mine Fire of 2014 left the Latrobe Valley blanketed in toxic smoke for 45 days. But the real story doesn’t end when the fire was extinguished. What came after was a reckoning: a landmark inquiry that exposed corporate negligence and health impacts. This episode asks: what did the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry change, and what did it leave unresolved? We’ll explore the creation of the Hazelwood Health Study and how it tracked the ongoing effects of smoke exposure, including heart, lung and mental health outcomes and key groups like infants and children, young people, and older people as well as broader community wellbeing. We’ll also look at how the fire forced recognition of a “health deficit” in the Valley, sparking the establishment of the Latrobe Health Assembly and Latrobe Health Innovation Zone and what the recent removal of these organisations funding means moving forward.
Season two has been made possible by the support of Federation University, the Victorian Government and the Morwell Innovation Centre
Show notes and sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xgEeGRpT2Me0Y07Y01v6Dwmor-U_W4CacrZHUcJYj4c/edit?usp=sharing
Guest Bios
Ellen-Jane Browne
Ellen-Jane is currently Executive Officer of the Latrobe Health Assembly, a place of community informed health innovation situated in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. Ellen-Jane brings to the role a long history of working in the university and government sectors. These include - Principal Advisor for the establishment of the Latrobe Health Innovation Zone, Director Portfolio Services at DHHS, Academic Register at RMIT, and many other senior officer roles spanning six government departments and two Universities. Ellen-Jane also tutored in the areas of Sociology, Political Science and Law. Away from work, Ellen-Jane has a love of the Strzelecki Ranges in South Gippsland, the CWA, her old school Land Rover Defender, and Antarctic History First Editions. Ellen-Jane holds a variety of graduate and post graduate qualifications in the areas of Sociology, Political Science, and Public Administration from Monash, RMIT and Melbourne Universities.
Matthew Carroll
Associate Professor Matthew Carroll is a researcher based at Monash Rural Health in Churchill in Gippsland, Victoria. Up until mid-2025, Matthew was the Co-Principal Investigator for the Hazelwood Health Study (HHS) with Prof Karen Walker-Bone. The HHS was an internationally significant 11-year longitudinal study looking at the health impacts of the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire. Matthew worked closely with community, including through co-design, participatory action and dissemination activities. The excellence of the HHS was noted through Monash Medical Faculty Dean’s awards in 2017 and 2025, and the study has led to a raft of policy changes locally and at the state and national Level. A/Prof Carroll’s research and engagement has always focused on building community, whether that be local communities (through his work with local government), rural communities (through his connections with the Australian Rural Health Education Network (ARHEN) Research Network and the Victorian Universities Regional Research Network), or the national research community (through his role as convenor of the Emerging Researchers in Ageing Network).
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By Josie Hess and Stephanie SabrinskasThe Hazelwood Mine Fire of 2014 left the Latrobe Valley blanketed in toxic smoke for 45 days. But the real story doesn’t end when the fire was extinguished. What came after was a reckoning: a landmark inquiry that exposed corporate negligence and health impacts. This episode asks: what did the Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry change, and what did it leave unresolved? We’ll explore the creation of the Hazelwood Health Study and how it tracked the ongoing effects of smoke exposure, including heart, lung and mental health outcomes and key groups like infants and children, young people, and older people as well as broader community wellbeing. We’ll also look at how the fire forced recognition of a “health deficit” in the Valley, sparking the establishment of the Latrobe Health Assembly and Latrobe Health Innovation Zone and what the recent removal of these organisations funding means moving forward.
Season two has been made possible by the support of Federation University, the Victorian Government and the Morwell Innovation Centre
Show notes and sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xgEeGRpT2Me0Y07Y01v6Dwmor-U_W4CacrZHUcJYj4c/edit?usp=sharing
Guest Bios
Ellen-Jane Browne
Ellen-Jane is currently Executive Officer of the Latrobe Health Assembly, a place of community informed health innovation situated in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. Ellen-Jane brings to the role a long history of working in the university and government sectors. These include - Principal Advisor for the establishment of the Latrobe Health Innovation Zone, Director Portfolio Services at DHHS, Academic Register at RMIT, and many other senior officer roles spanning six government departments and two Universities. Ellen-Jane also tutored in the areas of Sociology, Political Science and Law. Away from work, Ellen-Jane has a love of the Strzelecki Ranges in South Gippsland, the CWA, her old school Land Rover Defender, and Antarctic History First Editions. Ellen-Jane holds a variety of graduate and post graduate qualifications in the areas of Sociology, Political Science, and Public Administration from Monash, RMIT and Melbourne Universities.
Matthew Carroll
Associate Professor Matthew Carroll is a researcher based at Monash Rural Health in Churchill in Gippsland, Victoria. Up until mid-2025, Matthew was the Co-Principal Investigator for the Hazelwood Health Study (HHS) with Prof Karen Walker-Bone. The HHS was an internationally significant 11-year longitudinal study looking at the health impacts of the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire. Matthew worked closely with community, including through co-design, participatory action and dissemination activities. The excellence of the HHS was noted through Monash Medical Faculty Dean’s awards in 2017 and 2025, and the study has led to a raft of policy changes locally and at the state and national Level. A/Prof Carroll’s research and engagement has always focused on building community, whether that be local communities (through his work with local government), rural communities (through his connections with the Australian Rural Health Education Network (ARHEN) Research Network and the Victorian Universities Regional Research Network), or the national research community (through his role as convenor of the Emerging Researchers in Ageing Network).