EarthChat
EarthChat presents in-depth conversations and views on the many environment issues affecting our community. EarthChat is brought to you by BEAM Mitchell Environment Group. You can listen live each Tuesday on Seymour FM at 12noon AEST, with hosts Ruth, Peter, Marie and Tim. Time to tune in, listen up and get active. Don’t forget to like and follow.
Episodes
From our "best of EarthChat series"
You may not know the name Violet Coco, but you would have seen her on the news, arrested for protesting in different places, all to highlight the precarious state of our planet. Violet is a passionate environment and social justice activist. She has been arrested 49 times in 6 years as a non-violent, direct action, change maker. She was the first person sentenced under controversial new anti-pro...
In the State of Victoria, Australia’s first Treaty has been negotiated, legislated, and signed by the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, the Victorian State Government and the Governor of Victoria. Treaty aims to build a new, just relationship, acknowledging history, respecting culture, and creating pathways for prosperity and self-governance, moving beyond past injustices t...
It's 10 years since the first program, and with EarthChat is in good health, Peter Lockyer is pulling up stumps. So this week, Peter shares how EarthChat started, its objectives, and some highs and lows. EarthChat is a child of BEAM Mitchell Environment Group, and Peter Lockyer has also retired from the BEAM committee too, after about 15 exemplary years. He stays a life membe...
On this week's EarthChat, Jill and Tim talk with Andrew Kelly, a writer and waterways' advocate. As a writer, his focus is on children’s picture books, authoring and co-authoring many award-winning books, mainly with environmental themes. His most recent book is ‘Prayer for a River’ written with Uncle Glenn Loughrey.
This week we are talking weeds starting with Serrated Tussock Grass. We will learn how to identify and control it. We will also chat about the severe damage it can cause, its economic effects caused by productivity damage. We will also explore other significant weeds that affect our local farms, the damage they do and eradication approaches.
Has it been a good year for the climate and our environment? Is the glass half-empty or half-full and is the water polluted in the glass anyway? Is there any good news? Well, yes! To explore this topic Jill Grant and Tim Budge review the year, highlighting the events which cheer us up and bring us hope, while also noting those areas where things may have gone backwards. We will also be talking ab...
We’ve heard a lot over the past year or so about our housing crisis. The commentary has dominated governments, and yet the suburban sprawl continues over farming and grazing land, over wetlands and precious green belts are disappearing. Blocks are too small to grow big trees for shade, and the “heat island” effect is real in our new suburbs with black roofs. The sprawl grow...
This week we will be exploring our wonderful planet and why we need to act to protect it. We will attempt to unravel the complexities of nature and what we need to do for it to flourish.
We will be explaining concepts like biodiversity, symbiosis and ecosystems
‘Othering’ is the process of viewing and treating a person or a group as "other," because they seem different, alien, or inferior to us. This "us vs. them" mentality often involves creating a dominant social group identity resulting in exclusion and stigmatizing another group due to assumed perceptions about the other’s race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. It can...
This week Marie chats with Paul Lloyd about their recent trip to Madagascar on a Rotary International project. The aim was to deliver aid to a very poor school in rural Madagascar. “We arrived in Anatarrivo, the capital, as street demonstrations broke out and we had an eventful time getting to our hotel. We spent three days under curfew before being able to fly south to ...
Did you know that renewables produced more electricity than coal across the world in the first half of 2025? What a huge shift in a short amount of time. More change is to come, with projects like this photo, of an orchard in Switzerland (does the sun even shine there?) where panels produce 300MWh per year in electricity. What a harvest! The good news is that Australia is a ...
Legislation for Australia's first Treaty between the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria and the Victorian Government has just been introduced in the Victorian Parliament. An historic moment built on over 200 years of First Nations' advocacy.
North East Representative of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, Levi Power, returns to EarthChat to chat with Ruth and Phil about this latest ...
Join Peter Lockyer, Vanessa Malandrin and Janice Mentiplay-Smith in a great discussion around the value of old trees, hollows and understory - each part of a local ecosystem which has a valuable contribution to the whole. The strength of this Web of Life is the sum of the parts - the more diverse, the greater the health. Hear from Vanessa, Facilitator at South-West Goulburn...
This week, listen in to Jill Grant exploring the importance of our oceans and chatting about some great organisations that are working to protect this amazing global resource and habitat. Oceans cover 70% of the Earth’s surface and they provide a vital regulator of global climate and weather through their currents that transfer heat from the Equator to the Poles and dictate rainfall and wind syst...
This week on Earth Chat our guest is Sean Dooley from Birdlife Australia. Sean has been involved with Birdlife Australia for many years and is an expert on our local birds and ways to accurately identify them. Sean and Marie will be discussing Birdlife Australia's impressively large citizen science project, their annual Aussie bird count which has just been launched. This yea...
This week's guest is the amazing Sally Quinn, who for over 20 years has been on the cutting edge of social enterprises in the circular economy. Sally is the CEO and Co-founder of Green Collect, a pioneering social enterprise in sustainability and inclusive employment and training practices. Over 20 years she has led the enterprise as a provider of resource recovery services t...
Nagambie locals and Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority are celebrating 30 years of revegetation work with local native grey box trees grassy woodlands (trees and understory) on Friday. Classified as an endangered environmental community in 2010, Grey Box and derived Grassy Woodlands are iconic. This is our vegetation backyard in the Goulburn Valley. They have enjo...
Renewable Avenel Energy is hosting a half day expo on 22/8 “Take the heat out of climate change with home-based solutions & renewable energy“. The informative and entertaining Dr Karl Kruszelnicki headlines an impressive line-up of guest speakers. This Tuesday, Dr Karl joins EarthChat. Peter Lockyer captured Dr Karl in a recorded interview during the week, and this will b...
The fashion industry has been revealed as a major source of waste especially those fabrics which contain a high proportion of synthetic and plastic compounds which take a very long time to degrade and leave a toxic legacy, often far from where they are manufactured or purchased. So called “Fast Fashion” is placing a huge burden on waste streams and the natural environment and while consumer behav...
This week, we discuss the proposal to develop tracks and trails throughout Mitchell Shire. We chat about the possibilities of developing links within the shire and also with neighbouring shires. We will look at the health benefits of walking and cycling in the environment. We will also examine the need to protect our natural treasures. The planned growth in the population in...
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