New details emerge after 152 koalas killed on private property: ‘Unacceptable’

“Embarrassing” is how the Victorian government’s approach to koala management has been described after a population living across a contaminated plantation became so sick over 150 animals were euthanised. Others determined to be in acceptable health were released back into the same forest. Concerns about the government’s handling of the situation at an industrial site […]

Update on drinking water fluoridation

Snowy Monaro Regional Council will be resuming fluoridation of the drinking water supply for Jindabyne and Berridale following cessation of the service due to equipment failure in 2017 and 2018. New fluoride dosing systems have been constructed at each site – East Jindabyne/Berridale, Jindabyne Barry Way and Jindabyne – thanks to a full subsidy provided […]

If peatland burns, water bodies and drinking water can suffer

Not only forests and dry pastures can burn, fires can also start in peatlands. However, due to the soil moisture and lacking oxygen in the soil, the land does not burn ablaze, but smoulders. These smouldering fires can release considerable greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, because peatland soils store much more carbon than other soils […]

Countless reports show water is undrinkable in many Indigenous communities. Why has nothing changed?

Tap water in more than 500 remote Indigenous communities isn’t regularly tested and often isn’t safe to drink, according to a water industry report released last week. In some communities, drinking water contained unacceptable levels of uranium, arsenic, fluoride and nitrate. While these findings are dire, they aren’t news to us. There have been myriad […]

Why fluoridate Heathcote’s water?

WHEN Heathcote Health CEO Dan Douglass took on the role in 2012, he didn’t realise the town’s water supply wasn’t fluoridated. Since then, there’s been almost a decade of oral health promotion and advocacy to the State Government led by the community. Mr Douglass said a few years ago students from La Trobe University completed […]

Fluoride ‘on tap’ in Dalyellup, with Bunbury, Capel and Donnybrook to follow

The South West community of Dalyellup will benefit from having fluoride added to drinking water this month, with Bunbury set to receive fluoridated water next year. The Department of Health announced today that Capel and Donnybrook will also benefit from fluoridated water supplies by November 2024. The move follows water fluoridation of neighbouring communities, Eaton […]