In the shadow of Monash University’s Clayton campus landmark Menzies Building to its north and with the affluent bayside Melbourne suburbs to its south and west lie the flat lands of the federal seat of…
Nutty, comforting, wintery parsnips: good luck growing them without a Tenosol.
di.wineanddine/Flickr
Australia has some of the world’s most ancient soils, many of which grow delicious produce. In this series, “The good earth”, soil scientist Robert Edis profiles some of those soils and the flavours they…
Glorious green lentils from a grim grey soil.
Jørgen Schyberg
Australia has some of the world’s most ancient soils, many of which grow delicious produce. In this series, “The good earth”, soil scientist Robert Edis profiles iconic soils and the flavours they bring…
The Barmah-Milewa forest is an ephemeral landscape of unique biodiversity.
Flickr/Parks Victoria.
Australia is famous for its natural beauty: the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Kakadu, the Kimberley. But what about the places almost no one goes? We asked ecologists, biologists and wildlife researchers…
Victorian Treasuer Michael O'Brien has delivered an action budget for Victoria, but is it too late?
The Napthine government kicked up the political tempo in Victoria yesterday, courtesy of the latest state budget. Delivered confidently by the new Treasurer, Michael O’Brien, the budget has let loose a…
The announcement this week of funding for Victorian TAFEs won’t make up for previous cuts.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
There might be a new premier in Victoria, but it seems there’s still no good news for TAFEs. The $200 million in structural adjustment funding announced this week is certainly welcome, but it is simply…
Former Victoria Premier Steve Bracks was one of Australia’s most successful and longest serving premiers.
Alan Porritt/AAP
Stephanie Brookes: We’re here for The Conversation, I’m from the University of Melbourne Media and Communications program and I’m here in Conversation with former Victoria premier Steve Bracks. Thanks…
Last time around, the Victorian Government made too many decisions predicated on a stereotyped idea of Australian drought.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
The notion that Australia is the driest inhabited continent on the planet has created a persistent stereotype. Recent weather shows it to be misguided. It suits embarrassed planners, myopic politicians…
Melbourne MP Greens Adam Bandt is up for re-election at this year’s federal election.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The battle for the seat of Melbourne at this year’s federal election will be nothing short of a bruising affair. Melbourne is of enormous symbolic importance to both Labor and the Green Party. For Labor…
Jeff Kennett has long been an advocate of joining Tasmania and Victoria.
AAP/Joe Castro
Is Tasmania at a tipping point? Over the next two weeks The Conversation, in conjunction with Griffith REVIEW and the University of Tasmania, is publishing a series of provocations. Our authors ask where…
If Victoria keeps logging the way it is, the Leadbeater’s Possum is doomed.
ccdoh1/flickr
We have studied the effects of current widespread clear-felling in Victoria’s Mountain ash forests for almost three decades. Clear-felling now loses large amounts of money for the state of Victoria, degrades…
When it comes to fighting corruption, there’s plenty Victoria can learn from other states.
AAP/Joe Castro
2012 has been a big year for anti-corruption in Australia. High profile cases came before the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Callinan review of Queensland’s Crime…
When shot and injured but not killed, ducks will be left to fend for themselves under new Victorian laws.
oblivion9999/Flickr
Just before dawn on the third Saturday in March, the first shots will be fired, and the 2013 Victorian duck hunting session will commence. But 2013 will be unlike previous years. You are probably unaware…
Amendments to the Victorian Planning Framework appear to be thwarting the pursuit of Australia’s clean energy goals, according…
Israeli chocolatier Max Brenner in Sydney in 2009. A Victorian court has ruled people do have a right to protest his support for the Israel armed forces.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is controversial on at least two levels. First, it targets businesses, which some (including the Victorian Government) see as an illegitimate…
Sign of things to come: a depleted Lake Hume in 2007, when the big dry still had a couple years to run.
Flickr/Tim J Keegan
Victoria has entered a critical decade in the race to adapt for the stresses of climate change, according to a new report from the Climate Commission. Following the release of Victorian climate impacts…
Greens candidate Cathy Oke and deputy leader Adam Bandt will be hoping for a win this Saturday.
AAP Image/Juolian Smith
Thanks to the hubris of Bronwyn Pike, the Victorian Labor party is forced to contest a byelection this weekend it did not want or need. After years of opportunities provided by the Labor party to the former…
Is next week’s Melbourne state byelection a test for federal Labor?
AAP Image/Joe Castro
The looming byelection in the state seat of Melbourne is set to have a national impact. With Greens candidate Cathy Oke strongly tipped to beat Labor’s Jennifer Kanis on 21 July - the first time the ALP…
A Google Earth screengrab shows the the location of the magnitude 5.3 earthquake that struck near Moe, southeast of Melbourne.
AAP
A magnitude-5.3 earthquake that shook the Latrobe Valley just before 9pm last night was one of the most severe to hit Victoria in the past century, seismologists said. The earthquake, which had its epicentre…
Cutting TAFE funding effects the people that need education and training most.
The phrase “class warfare” has been thrown around a lot in the media and within political circles recently – usually without much basis. But in Victoria it is very real; the current Liberal Government…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne