While the election campaign for state parliament might be over, the real battle in Gippsland is just about to get started! 

Landholders around the Rainbow Creek near Heyfield and Cowwarr, supported by the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (WGCMA) are taking on Google to right a wrong. 

“All we want is our Rainbow back,” said David Stork of the WGCMA. 

“Google Maps insists on labelling the Rainbow Creek as the Thomson River when in fact they are two separate waterways. 

This is more than a petty annoyance, rivers and other waterways are major landmarks in Gippsland so having them labelled correctly for visitors and locals is important.” 

The Rainbow formed as a breakaway from the Thomson River in the 1950s and at the time caused major erosion, loss of productive farmland and a loss of flow into the Thomson River. 

The flood event that saw the Rainbow Creek formed even led to a secessionist movement for landholders to declare a separate state within Victoria. 

“If it was a case of clicking our heels three times and wishing the Rainbow were correctly named, that would be lovely. Unfortunately, this is Google we’re dealing with, so we need to try another tack. 

“What we need and would be grateful for is members of the community to join the fight by going to the Google Community Groups page at bit.ly/gippsrainbow and either voting the comment up or leaving a commentin support of the name correction. 

Let’s hope that this campaign can work and that dreams that we dare to dream, really do come true,” concluded David.