News

Community spirit has come through for students and teachers at Yinnar South Primary School after fires forced them to relocate without any books, equipment or other school materials.

Access to health services and concerns about environmental assets, including the transport and disposal of asbestos, were key issues community members raised with Latrobe Health Advocate Jane Anderson and EPA chief environmental scientist Dr Andrea Hinwood during a consultation session on Friday.

Kernot Hall in Morwell has been a home away from home for hundreds of fire-affected people over the last week.

This week was not the first time Yinnar South residents Tessa and Thomas Libreri had come under threat of bushfires.

There is no correlation between industry closure and a high rate of family violence in the Latrobe Valley, a Morwell-based agency says.

'Who would like to do weeding?'

The Latrobe Valley has been praised for its generosity and support of fire-affected families in the Yinnar South-Budgeree blaze following donations worth "tens of thousands of dollars" to the relief centre at Kernot Hall in Morwell this week.

Works to upgrade 44-year-old rooms at Yallambee Traralgon Village for the Aged will commence in July thanks to $1.88 million in funding from the federal government.

The Traralgon Community Development Association is calling on authorities to take action against owners of derelict properties in Traralgon.

A police officer charged with assaulting a person in custody has been found guilty of two counts of unlawful assault in the Latrobe Valley Magistrates' Court.

Yinnar South resident Suze Benson describes it as a metaphor for "new hope and new life".

Moe SES unit member Eileen Laidlaw is among the 33 per cent of female volunteers within the emergency service organisation and she encourages more women to sign up.