Coal Face

It's our season finale and we’re going beyond coal!   After a century of digging, burning, and extracting, we ask the question: what actually happens next? Between election jitters, fringe politics, and the slow-motion chaos of public sector cuts, the future feels… complicated. Join Dr. Rosemary Joyner (MLRA) who talks storytelling, community voice, and what people really want: a future that’s fair, secure, and not just another c...

This is episode is all about looking forward to Offshore wind. More specifically, the Australian Centre for Offshore Wind Energy AKA ACOWE’s Technical symposium, which happened back in September 2025. The ACOWE Technical Symposium was the first of its kind, and was presented in collaboration with the Gippsland New Energy Conference.

Join us as we learn from expert guests Tamara Al-Hashimi the Technical Director of Marine Science a...

Yallourn was a much loved company town built to house power industry workers and their families. It was much loved by resident's and a showpiece for the state of Victoria. After the Second World War, many migrants arrived to help run and expand the power station, mine and some took up residency in Yallourn. Unfortunately, the industry that helped build Yallourn also ended up being the reason for its downfall.

In this episode hear f...

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 tr...

Radical Valley? Power struggles, unions, the SEC & economic geography.

Hear from our guests Naomi Farmer, Luke Van Der Mullen & Sally Weller as we learn about economic geography discuss the SEC in its heyday, the radical history of the Latrobe Valley, power struggles. And how union actions in the Valley influenced the broader workers rights movement across Australia.  

Season two has been made possible by the support of Fed...

For episode 2 we pick up the story in the 20th century, when Gippsland’s brown coal fields were transformed into power stations, company towns and modernist dreams. From Purvis Plaza to Hazelwood’s hot-water pondage, the Valley was sold a “golden age”... but golden for whom?

Along the way, we speak with historian Erik Eklund about Gippsland’s twin booms, company towns like Churchill and the overlooked roots of environmental activis...

We kick off Season 2 by going back, WAY back. From prehistoric swamps that became Gippsland’s coal seams, to Cloggs Cave and its 12,000-year-old stories, to the giant earthworms squelching under our feet, this episode digs into the ancient ground that shaped the Latrobe Valley. Along the way, we talk with botanist Ian Sluiter about coal’s ecological origins. Poet, environmental advocate and educator Electra Green about bugs, caring...

Coal Face covers the 2023 Gippsland New Energy Conference. Get all the juicy details about how the billions of dollars of new energy are going to impact the next generation of workers in Gippsland. We spoke to the Chair of the Australian Renewables Academy, Bernadette O'Connor, the Director of Emerging Industries at the Latrobe Valley Authority, Bodye Darvil, the founder and CEO of Green Lab Futures, Scott Douglas, the Regional Sta...

Josie and Steph speak with local Gunaikurnai artist Ronald Edwards Pepper about everything from creativity to cul-de-sacs. We learn about the power art has to change spaces, and how Ronald's sexuality and connection with the land intersect with his work.  Find Ronald here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1590978367 Show notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aN6mIyvXmcYb0UBu5Uad80C2S_P99D-5SA0_J9_agl0/edit?usp=sharin...

Josie and Steph speak with Environment Victoria's Bronya Lipski and Environmental Justice Australia's Chloe Babcock on the newly released draft of the Environmental Effects Statement scope for the Hazelwood Mine Rehabilitation project. We learn what an EES is, what this one gets right, and wrong, and why it's important for people to have their say during the submission window. (or you know, we might end up living next to an acidic ...

Join Josie & Steph as they speak with special guests Darren McCubbin, Ashley Hall, Edwina Vega, Dr Jarra Hicks, Mayor Kellie O'Callaghan & Marianne Robbinson as they discuss the Gippsland New Energy Conference, what community-owned renewable energy projects could look like and what a 40 billion dollar renewable energy sector could mean for Gippsland and the Latrobe Valley.

This episode was sponsored by T...

Josie and Steph take you on a whirlwind recap of the Hazelwood Exhibit that was on display at The Latrobe Regional Gallery. The Coal Face team discuss the role of art in shaping collective identities, how space can facilitate conversations around trauma and a Morwellian myth about the Hazelwood landowner who would drive his Rolls Royce around the paddocks of the power station.   Show notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PF0N...

Water feeds the arteries of all life on earth, what is that truly worth? Josie & Steph chat with activist, chef and mushroom farmer Hayley Sestokas about growing up in the Latrobe Valley, coal ash dams, mine rehabilitation, and the important advocacy work of Friends of Latrobe Water & Environment Victoria.    

Show Notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VC4K2o1lksVa4F-2eQybOGFzI9_OC0jmf3...

Your voice will be heard. You control the capital. You can do something for your community even as you keep succeeding. Sounds pretty good right?

Josie and Steph chat with worker, musician and Weet-Bix enthusiast Dan Musil about cooperative workplaces. Could cooperative energy manufacturing help to rebuild the Latrobe Valley as we move towards a life after coal?

Resources/ Show Notes:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F_tnrEO7...