A COVID-19 crisis has engulfed Lakes Entrance.The town’s busiest trade season has been thrown into more chaos 12 months on from last year’s bushfires after two COVID-positive people attended numerous venues and businesses over two days on December 29 and 30.The positive cases were travelling through to New South Wales, where they were tested and received their results. They are linked to an...

Wiseleigh residents, Jane and Mark Oakley, are upset that their plans to rebuild on their 10-acre plot following the bushfires, have been stymied.The couple has lived in Howards Road for 28 years without any problems, until fate intervened in the form of the 2019 bushfires.“The fire went through here, burnt down the gully and took out my workshop, my business and everything, and then went across...

The Orbost Christmas Eve Festival was a little different than usual, but far more normal than it could have been given most of the state has been locked away from their loved ones for the majority of the year. “The community responded incredibly positively to being able to gather and come together with large beaming smiles and laughter filling Nicholson Street,” festival committee member,...

Lakes Entrance police are expecting large crowds to swarm on the streets and foreshore for tonight’s New Year’s Eve celebrations.While no fireworks are planned, as has been the case for many years, the carnival will be operating and many families are expected to enjoy a picnic celebration on the beach and lawns.Restaurants are also anticipating a big night with most establishments already fully...

For Sarsfield residents, Milusa and Kevin Giles, the past 12 months have been the most horrendous they’ve ever had to endure.The bushfires, 12 months ago yesterday, not only wiped out their home, but completely obliterated their flower farm business, which they’d spent years establishing.Yet, they feel lucky to have celebrated Christmas with family in their newly built home, completed just in...