Category Archives: Australia news

Soaring air fares between Melbourne and Sydney see travellers take 11-hour train

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Exclusive: Seats on Sydney-Melbourne train service regularly sell out over holiday period, as one-way flights to Tullamarine average almost $500

The 11-hour Sydney-Melbourne train has become so popular services are selling out – even with extra carriages added – as travellers seek alternatives to an aviation duopoly that is stronger than ever, with carriers charging $900 for one-way economy tickets.

Ridership on the Sydney-Melbourne rail corridor has exploded in recent months, with 203,000 passenger journeys between July and December. Data for the 2023-24 financial year revealed 393,000 passenger journeys, a 14% increase on the previous year and just 7,000 shy of the annual record.

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Giant pink slug makes a comeback on extinct volcano in NSW national park

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Exclusive: The kaputar slug, which can grow longer than a human hand, was almost wiped out in the black summer bushfires of 2019-20

A giant, fluorescent pink slug’s comeback on Mount Kaputar has been mapped by eager citizen scientists.

The kaputar slug grows up to 20cm long – outstripping the average human hand – and 6cm wide. The only place it exists in the entire world is on an extinct volcano in NSW’s Mount Kaputar national park.

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‘The worst way of dying’: scientists urge coordinated effort to stop whales getting tangled

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Experts recorded 45 entanglements off Australia’s east coast in 2024 – but believe that’s ‘the tip of the iceberg’

At least 45 whales were entangled by fishing ropes and line on the east coast in 2024, and experts are calling for better management of fishing gear in Australia to prevent marine suffering.

Dr Olaf Meynecke, a marine scientist at Griffith University, said the issue of preventing whale entanglements was “largely ignored in Australia”.

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‘We want the whole truth’: residents of Queensland city plagued by foul odours fear inquiry won’t clear the air

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After years of enduring fetid smells from waste plants, some in Ipswich are sceptical of a freshly announced inquiry into the health impacts

Residents of a city who have endured years of noxious odours from waste plants are divided over the announcement of an inquiry into the health impacts.

For the last six years, residents of Ipswich, southwest of Brisbane, have been complaining of smells they described as raw sewage, ammonia, ethanol, rotting compost, sour milk and decaying animal bodies.

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Australia weather: rainy week forecast for Sydney and Brisbane – but BoM says summer isn’t over yet

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Bureau of Meteorology says showers and storms a regular feature of Australian summer but warm and dry periods still to come

Showers are expected to continue for Sydney and Brisbane throughout much of the coming week but summer isn’t over yet, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

In fact, the senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said showers and storm activity were a regular feature of the Australian summer, especially for northern Australia, as well as south-east Queensland and eastern New South Wales.

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Lego links up with TV hit Bluey for toy sets to be launched this year

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Partnership ‘a long time coming’ and is latest expansion of Australian-made animated series

The global hit children’s TV show Bluey is to make its Lego debut with the first sets due to hit shelves later this year.

The world of Bluey, which has proved such a small-screen hit a film is to be made for global release in 2027, is to be brought to life in plastic brick form with six sets to be revealed this spring before going on sale later this year.

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Average renter would take 8.3 years to save enough for a house deposit, new Victorian analysis shows

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Exclusive: PBO report based on wage growth, house prices and rent rises says nearly a decade needed if 20% of gross income is put aside

It could take almost a decade for the average Victorian renter who puts aside 20% of their gross income to save enough money for a home deposit, according to analysis from the state’s independent Parliamentary Budget Office.

But if rents were to increase in line at the historically high rate seen in 2022 and 2023, the time needed to save for a deposit could blow out to more than 65 years.

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Man extradited to Queensland from NSW over alleged 1997 murder of former partner initially ruled as suicide

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Keith Lees charged with murdering Meaghan Rose whose body was found at the base of cliffs at Mooloolaba

A 72-year-old man has been extradited to Queensland and charged with the alleged murder of his former partner almost 28 years ago.

Keith Lees was arrested in Dural, in Sydney’s north-west, last week after spending about 18 months on the run and was handed over to Queensland police on Thursday.

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Hiker who left muesli bars in Kosciuszko hut praises Hadi Nazari’s survival skills

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Sherman left two muesli bars in national park’s most remote hut while Nazari was lost in wilderness – along with a short logbook message: ‘enjoy’

Sydney hiker Sherman left two Uncle Tobys muesli bars inside a hut in dense bush on the side of a steep range in the Kosciuszko national park just after Christmas.

He didn’t know it at the time but Victorian man Hadi Nazari had gone missing a day earlier in the remote New South Wales park. Sherman now believes the bars Nazari found and consumed during his two-week ordeal could be those he left behind on 27 December.

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Mornington Peninsula beach box’s $910,000 to $1m listing higher than median Melbourne home

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High asking price for boat shed a contrast to struggling housing market in the region, expert says

A beach box on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula has gone on the market with an asking price of up to $1m – higher than the median value of a home in Melbourne.

The owners of Beach Box 28, on Shelley beach in Portsea, are selling the blue boat shed with a price guide of $910,000 to $1m.

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Sydney teenager allegedly used AI to create deepfake pornography of students

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Police are investigating after schoolboy allegedly circulated images of female students using fake social media accounts

A teenage boy at a south-western Sydney high school has been reported to police after allegedly using artificial intelligence platforms to create pornography featuring other students.

The student is alleged to have created explicit deepfake images of female students and circulated them using fake social media accounts.

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Andrew Forrest fires back at ExxonMobil’s claims of ‘smear campaigns and lawfare’

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Iron ore billionaire says he is ‘personally delighted’ at lawsuit as fossil fuel giant has ‘opened themselves up to cross-examination’ in a US court

Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest is among a group accused of orchestrating “smear campaigns and lawfare” against the global oil and gas sector “for politics, publicity, and private gain” in a dramatic defamation claim launched in US courts by fossil fuel company ExxonMobil.

But the iron ore billionaire, who is not himself a defendant in the case, said he is “personally delighted” at the court action and that “Exxon has walked themselves into the court and opened themselves up to cross-examination”.

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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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