Category Archives: Australia news

Hadi Nazari: hiker missing in Kosciuszko national park since Boxing Day found alive

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Hadi Nazari, 23, found after going missing two weeks ago, discovered two muesli bars at a hut while lost, police say

A 23-year-old hiker missing since Boxing Day in the remote Kosciuszko national park has been found alive.

Hadi Nazari stumbled into the path of a group of hikers at about 3.15pm on Wednesday, on the circuit walk near Blue Lake, police said.

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Bizarre Australian mole even more unusual than first thought, new research reveals

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Experts say marsupial mole DNA shows they are closely linked to bandicoots and bilbies and their ancestors likely evolved in a rainforest environment

New research into one of Australia’s most specialised and bizarre animals has revealed the marsupial mole’s biology is as unusual as its appearance.

University of Melbourne researchers, who led the study, extracted DNA from a museum specimen then sequenced and analysed its genome to uncover the evolutionary secrets of the golden-haired species, about which “almost nothing is known”.

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Berries, creek water and two muesli bars: how missing hiker survived in Kosciuszko national park

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After almost two weeks missing in the rugged Australian Alps, Hadi Nazari has been found alive

It’s some of Australia’s harshest, most unforgiving terrain.

In Kosciuszko national park, the bush can be so thick in places you can’t see far beyond what’s in front of your face. The ranges are steep and remote. Extreme UV radiation belts down throughout the day and winds whip at you in the afternoon.

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Victorian police officer who allegedly performed Nazi salutes won’t be charged with making banned gesture

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Sergeant was suspended and commissioner apologised after gesture was allegedly made at police academy on consecutive days

A police sergeant who allegedly performed two Nazi salutes in front of colleagues at the police academy will not be charged despite the gesture being banned in Victoria, the force says.

The 65-year-old woman, who has been in the force for 40 years, was suspended with pay last October, after police launched a criminal investigation into the two incidents in which she allegedly approached other employees, performed the salute and said “Heil Hitler”.

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Man accused of setting fire to Caulfield racecourse grandstand also broke into Jewish centre, court hears

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Alleged arsonist Travis Bird, 51, charged with nine offences over Tuesday’s blaze and another three grassfires at nearby Attenborough park

A man accused of setting fire to a heritage-listed racecourse grandstand before breaking into a Jewish community centre will remain behind bars after facing court.

Travis Bird, 51, appeared at Melbourne magistrates court on Wednesday after being charged with nine offences – four counts of arson, two of trespass and one each of burglary, criminal damage and theft.

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Foreign tourists among three dead after Rottnest Island seaplane crash

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Privately owned Cessna 208 Caravan 675 plane was carrying seven people when it crashed off Western Australia coast

Three people have died after a seaplane crashed near Western Australia’s popular tourist destination Rottnest Island with seven people on board.

The privately owned Cessna 208 Caravan 675 seaplane is believed to have struck a small limestone outcrop called Phillip Rock while taking off from Rottnest Island, off the coast of Perth, at about 4pm local time on Tuesday.

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Cockney influences found in Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, says expert

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Linguistics professor says London dialect is most likely to be spoken in Essex, but aspects have traversed the globe

The cockney dialect, as associated with the late EastEnders icon Dame Barbara Windsor, may not be as prevalent in today’s London, but it remains possibly the most influential English dialect across the world, according to academic research.

No longer the preserve of those born within earshot of the Bow Bells in the City of London, today cockney is more likely to be spoken in Essex.

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Three missing after private plane crashes off Rottnest Island in WA

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Four pulled from the water – three with serious injuries – but the search goes on for three other people on board

Four people have been pulled from the water – but three are still missing – after a privately owned plane crashed into the sea off Western Australia’s popular tourist site Rottnest Island.

Rescue efforts – led by police and emergency services crews, but also involving civilian vessels - was still under way on Tuesday evening.

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Number of children under 14 in adult watch houses in Queensland rises 50% in 12 months

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Report to parliament states watch houses are an ‘inadequate place to keep young people overnight’ and are ‘harmful and traumatising’

The number of children aged 13 or under in Queensland’s adult watch houses has increased by 50% in 12 months, according to new statistics.

The statistics – which were included in a paper tabled by the Office of the Public Guardian in Queensland parliament on Tuesday – showed 120 children aged between 10 and 13 spent at least one night in a police watch house in 2023–24.

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Australia’s housing market ‘buckling’ under widening gap between income and home values, report finds

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Housing prices fell by 0.1% in December but dip likely to be ‘shallow and short-lived’, according to CoreLogic

Australia’s housing downturn is being driven by a widening gap between income, borrowing capacity and home values, but the dip is likely to be “shallow and short-lived”, a new report has found.

In December, Australia’s property market eased with home values falling 0.1% after a flat result in November and a gradual slowdown over last year, according to CoreLogic.

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Record-breaking Sydney funnel-web spider dubbed ‘Hemsworth’ to be milked for venom

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Step aside, Colossus. Be gone, Hercules. The Australian Reptile Park has recorded its largest male specimen so far

First there was Colossus, then Hercules … now, Thor.

Among the Australian Reptile Park’s tributes to the gods, one is newly pre-eminent, bearing the title of “Hemsworth”.

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Australia news live: Dreyfus to spend a week in Israel, PM says; SA police shoot man dead during mental health incident

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The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, says “the firing gun has started” for this year’s federal election, which he predicts will be in March or April.

Speaking to ABC News Breakfast just earlier, he said he doesn’t think the government will deliver a budget this year:

I think we’re all ready for it. I think it will be in March, April, I don’t think they’ll do a budget, they don’t want to remind the Australian people with the sea of red ink in the budget. That’s my punt.

This road is of national significance but it’s also one of the most dangerous in our country. And I think it just needs a commitment, and we’re glad to see the government has finally adopted that, one we had, and one the state government can now get on with the job of delivering.

Labor can make up all the nonsense they like. They’re desperate. I mean, this is a government that’s been on the back foot, that got things wrong, that is sending Australians on a pathway to poverty, not a pathway to prosperity. And so they’re in a state of desperation, saying these sorts of things.

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Hadi Nazari’s camera and campfire found as search continues for hiker missing in Kosciuszko national park

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NSW police ‘hopeful’ of finding 23-year-old Hadi Nazari alive in remote national park as they track movements since he was last seen on Boxing Day

Police are hopeful a 23-year-old hiker missing since Boxing Day could still be alive in the remote Kosciuszko national park after a camera and campfire area were found.

The extensive search entered its thirteenth day on Tuesday.

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Caulfield Racecourse fire: suspicious blaze engulfs grandstand in Melbourne’s south-east

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Victoria police say nobody has been injured and a crime scene has been established

Major parts of a Caulfield Racecourse grandstand have been destroyed in a suspicious early morning fire.

Fire Rescue Victoria responded to the blaze at Station Street in Caulfield East in Melbourne’s south-east at 6.20am on Tuesday.

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Two men charged after young woman allegedly shot and killed in Brisbane

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The pair each face one count of murder after Chloe Mason was found dying in the street in Caboolture on 22 December

Queensland police have arrested and charged two suspects wanted for an alleged murder after a woman was chased and fatally shot in a Brisbane suburban street.

A 29-year-old Marsden man, Codye Thomson, and a 32-year-old Caboolture man, Kaine Thomson-Gleeson, were arrested without incident in Logan on Monday.

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Gina Rinehart and Pauline Hanson seen dining together in Thailand – as it happened

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Lambie says Albanese decision to campaign over holidays ‘bizarre’

Senator Jacqui Lambie has questioned whether Anthony Albanese would call an early election, amid his pre-election campaign blitz across multiple states this week.

Most people don’t want to see a politician over this … three weeks, you know, from about the 20th probably to about the 10th or 15th of January. So to be out there and campaigning now, I just I don’t know whether that will just annoy the people more or what …

Going out this early straight after Christmas, this would have to be a first, I reckon. This is phenomenal. So anybody would have to say that he’s going to call an election in late February or early March, surely.

You never see anybody running around campaigns during the Christmas period. This is really bizarre, so I’m not sure how that is going to go down with Australians. But quite frankly, the worst time to do it is the three weeks over the Christmas period. They just don’t like it very much.

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Anthony Albanese announces $7.2bn in funding for Queensland’s Bruce Highway in first major election promise

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Federal government to fund 80% of upgrades with state paying for 20%, despite previously vowing to split infrastructure projects 50-50

In the first major promise of the election year, Anthony Albanese has announced $7.2bn in funding for Queensland’s Bruce Highway.

The federal government will fund 80% of the upgrades, with the state funding 20%.

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Skull of child or small person may have been deliberately placed in Gold Coast park, police say

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Bushwalker’s discovery in Springbrook national park leaves Queensland police with ‘a lot of questions we need answers for’

A skull found in a national park may belong to a child and appears to have been deliberately placed in the rainforest.

Police are investigating after a bushwalker made the gruesome discovery about 10 metres from a track in Springbrook national park on the Gold Coast on Friday morning.

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Collection of rare Barbie dolls worth $15,000 stolen from Victorian town ‘difficult’ to sell off

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Police say Tatura owner is devastated after theft of more than 150 dolls stolen last month

It’s unlikely more than 150 collectible Barbie dolls stolen from their dream house will be sold on the black market, with the close-knit collectors community keeping an eye out for dodgy dealers.

The dolls, as well as Elvis memorabilia and a Jack Daniel’s esky, were stolen from a home in the country Victorian town of Tatura, near Shepparton, in early December.

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Invasion Day marcher stripped of $800,000 compensation as police duty of care ruling overturned

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Laura Cullen was among 5,000 people at a 2017 Sydney protest when she was knocked down and injured as NSW police tried to arrest a man

A landmark legal ruling that set out the duty of care New South Wales police owe people attending protests has been overturned on appeal, stripping an Invasion Day marcher of an $800,000 compensation claim and forcing her to repay $103,00 in legal costs.

The NSW court of appeal handed down the decision shortly before Christmas, overturning an earlier ruling that found police had a duty of care to a woman who attended a protest where she was a bystander to an arrest, and who was knocked down and injured during the arrest.

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