Category Archives: Melbourne

Taking the Mickey: is a Melbourne Disneyland anything more than a fantasy?

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Many locations – from Frankston to Fishermans Bend – have been proposed as sites for the famous theme park. But will the dream ever become reality?

In what has become a recurring theme in many Disney films, Jiminy Cricket sang “When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true” in the 1940 film of Pinocchio.

Pinocchio wishes to be a real boy, Peter Pan wishes to never grow up, Ariel, the Little Mermaid, wishes to become human. And – in what can also be described as a fairytale desire – Melbourne, Australia, wishes to host the next Disney theme park.

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Hard cell: Melbourne prison bar where patrons and staff dress as inmates described as ‘grotesque’

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Alcotraz, where patrons pay to drink cocktails in a bar designed like a prison, draws criticism

It’s advertised as an “immersive cocktail experience like no other” in which bar staff cosplay as prison inmates, actors play crooked guards, and the patrons don orange jumpsuits to drink in mock prison cells.

But the bar, which is scheduled to open in Melbourne in June, has been condemned by a charity as a “disturbingly” insensitive concept that capitalises on suffering.

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Almost 40,000 homes across Australia waiting to be built as interest rates and building costs hit developers

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KPMG analysis reveals 15,593 dwellings in NSW and 7,897 in Victoria are yet to break ground despite planning approval amid higher cost of materials and finance

Developers have yet to begin work on almost 40,000 new homes across Australia – including 11,170 in Sydney – despite being granted building approvals, with stubbornly high interest rates and construction costs being blamed.

According to KPMG analysis released on Tuesday, 15,593 dwellings with planning approval were yet to break ground across New South Wales by December 2023. It was only a slight improvement on the state’s figures a year earlier, when there were 15,818 approved dwellings across NSW where work was yet to commence.

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Melbourne man told Maryam Hamka ‘wait until I get my hands on you’ in months before her death, court hears

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Toby Loughnane has admitted to negligent manslaughter but is fighting murder charge in Victorian supreme court

A Melbourne man was in a brief but violent relationship with Maryam Hamka before he murdered her and disposed of her body in bushland, sending her a series of threatening messages in the lead-up to her death, prosecutors allege.

Toby Loughnane is fighting a murder charge in the Victorian supreme court, after instead admitting to Hamka’s negligent manslaughter – a charge prosecutors say does not go far enough.

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Melbourne Fringe drops the Butterfly Club over allegations of verbal abuse and threatening behaviour

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Exclusive: Fringe investigation finds complaints from two performers about Simone Pulga’s behaviour to be substantiated

Melbourne Fringe will not use the Butterfly Club as a festival venue this year, after complaints alleging verbally abusive, intimidating and threatening behaviour made against its owner by two artists were found to be substantiated in an investigation conducted by the festival.

Since the club opened in 1999, it has been renowned as a home for new and alternative performers, making it a popular Fringe venue. The club, where the likes of Tim Minchin, Sammy J and Eddie Perfect started out, estimates that it hosts about 1,200 performances each year.

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Melbourne boxer Sam ‘The Punisher’ Abdulrahim survives second shooting in two years

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Victoria police confirm man, 32, was not wounded when shots fired in Thomastown on Friday morning

A former Mongols bikie has survived a shooting in suburban Melbourne, two years after an assassination attempt outside a cemetery.

Shots were fired at Suleiman “Sam” Abdulrahim, a professional boxer who goes by the name “The Punisher”, as he left his Thomastown home early on Friday morning.

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Kylie Kwong quits restaurant business, adding to growing list of high-profile eateries to close

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Sydney chef to close Lucky Kwong, saying she wants to focus on ‘sharing other people’s stories’

Kylie Kwong has announced she is quitting the restaurant business after 24 years as a restaurateur and will close her Sydney eatery Lucky Kwong in late June.

The news comes after other Sydney closures by high-profile chefs including the long-running fine-dining restaurant Tetsuya’s by Tetsuya Wakuda, and Fish Butchery and the takeaway shop Charcoal Fish by Josh and Julie Niland.

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Budget replies reveal Coalition ‘all over the shop’, PM says, labelling Dutton’s nuclear policy ‘shocking’ – as it happened

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Crowdfunding campaign launched for Namatjira portraits

Australian presenter and comedian Dan Ilic has launched a crowdfunding campaign to have Vincent Namatjira’s latest exhibition, Australia In Colour, projected on to a billboard in Times Square.

This is an invitation to help get as many people to know about Australia In Colour as possible by putting the highlight of the show on a huge billboard in Times Square the week of the 27th May. We need to raise about $30,000 by Thursday. Any excess money raised will be donated to a charity of the artist’s choice.

Every Victorian deserves to have a roof over their head and that’s why we’re pulling every lever we can to enable 800,000 homes to be built over the next decade.

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University of Melbourne and protesters fail to resolve deadlock as pro-Palestine camp ends at Monash

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Encampment at Arts West building continues as tensions simmer at other university campuses

Pro-Palestine protesters and University of Melbourne administrators remain in a deadlock despite a warning that police could be called to enter the campus at any time.

As tensions simmer between university administrations and student activists across the nation, those camped inside the Arts West building have defied the University of Melbourne’s demands and the threat of police intervention.

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Police hunt man who allegedly abducted woman and baby before forcing her to buy laptops in Melbourne

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Woman told to buy MacBooks after being threatened with knife at the Stud Park shopping centre on 10 May, police say

A mother and her baby were allegedly abducted from a Melbourne shopping centre by a knife-wielding man who then forced the woman to drive to electronic stores to buy laptops.

Victoria police are hunting for the man after the incident in Rowville, in Melbourne’s south-east, on 10 May.

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Just 2% of male-only Melbourne Savage Club members surveyed support allowing women to join

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Exclusive: Report says members are strongly against admitting women on an equal basis, but are open to having more ‘lady guests’

Just four members of the exclusive male-only Melbourne Savage Club say they support women being admitted as members, according to a “members’ satisfaction survey”.

But more “lady guests” could visit for “mixed dining”, breaking a 130-year tradition, if suggestions included in the survey were taken up.

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‘Crossed a line’: students threatened with police action over pro-Palestine sit-in at University of Melbourne

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University of Melbourne cancels classes as activists at Deakin defy directives on encampments

Students occupying a University of Melbourne building have been threatened with “disciplinary action and police action”, as at least three other universities seek to crack down on pro-Palestine encampments.

In a video released more than 24 hours after activists “crossed a line” by starting a sit-in at the Arts West building, the University of Melbourne’s deputy vice-chancellor, Prof Michael Wesley, said management’s patience was “now at an end”.

Wesley said some protesters could be disciplined under the university’s codes of conduct and may face police action.

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Albanese heckled at Canberra rally to end violence against women – as it happened

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Dai Le says funding for domestic violence prevention more important than a royal commission

Asked about social media platform Twitter and Elon Musk’s claims that efforts to ensure a video of a stabbing of an Assyrian priest be taken down globally would constitute a threat to “free speech”, Dai Le says supports the government’s effort but has concerns about potential overreach:

Honestly, how can we not stop images of violence?

What I think government needs to do is to get the funding and target that to communities. Communities are experiencing high domestic violence. Getting it implemented … ,making sure that we don’t alienate one group from another [is important].

It’s just not something people can take. It is very emotional for people and me as a person who escaped Vietnam and being a child who ran from the war, it’s very traumatic for me and very traumatic for people in my community.

I think that everybody, from my understanding, would like a two-state solution.

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‘Will cost lives’: addiction experts condemn decision to scrap proposed safe injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD

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Government claims no appropriate location could be found for long-mooted second facility

A proposed safe injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD has been rejected by the Victorian government, with addiction experts warning the decision will “cost lives”.

The government on Tuesday announced that a trial facility, recommended by a former police commissioner and which would complement the existing service in North Richmond – will not proceed, after concluding there was no site that could balance the needs of drug users with the broader community.

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Nimbys v Yimbys: the affluent inner Melbourne suburbs that aren’t pulling their weight on housing

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Exclusive: Housing advocacy group says amenity-rich eastern suburbs must be rezoned to accommodate thousands of new homes

They’re close to the city, public transport, schools and parks – and Melbourne’s leafy eastern suburbs should be shouldering the burden when it comes to new housing, according to a new report.

The report, by housing advocacy group Yimby Melbourne and published on Thursday, recommends introducing enforceable housing targets for the 19 local governments in inner Melbourne, as well as an overhaul of restrictive zoning rules.

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Mona loses Ladies Lounge anti-discrimination case with ‘persons who do not identify as ladies’ to be allowed entry – as it happened

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A search will resume this morning for a woman who went missing while bushwalking at Belmore Falls in New South Wales.

Just after 1pm on Sunday, emergency services were called to Belmore Falls near Robertson after reports a woman had slipped and fallen down a cliff. An extensive search was initiated, but the 20-year-old was not located and the search was suspended at dusk.

We’ve got large multinationals in the supermarket ring who aren’t captured. So I’d like to see this expanded over time.

Woolworths, I think, makes a good point, and that is the code to be extended should be expanded to cover rivals Amazon, Costco and even Chemist Warehouse.

We’ll have more to say on that in coming weeks and months.

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Asbestos confirmed in seven Melbourne parks after latest tests

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PA Burns Reserve and the Altona Coastal Park the latest sites to have ‘small amounts of asbestos’ discovered

Victoria’s environment watchdog and a Melbourne council have confirmed traces of asbestos at seven parks and reserves across Melbourne, as the regulator probes the sources of the contamination.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, the Environment Protection Authority confirmed small amounts of asbestos-contaminated material had been discovered at PA Burns Reserve in Altona, in Melbourne’s west. The EPA said its inspection over the weekend found “good quality mulch laid over industrial waste”.

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Asbestos found in recycled mulch next to playground in Melbourne’s west

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Local council confirms material was found at the Donald McLean Reserve in Spotswood

Asbestos has been discovered in recycled mulch at a park in Melbourne’s west, prompting the closure of a playground and inspections of other public places.

A resident had reported items found in tanbark near a new playground at Donald McLean Reserve in Spotswood to the local council earlier this week.

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‘One of Melbourne’s big characters’: youth worker Les Twentyman dies aged 76

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Twentyman spent more than four decades campaigning on youth homelessness and social welfare

The prominent Melbourne youth worker and social justice campaigner, Les Twentyman, has died aged 76.

The Les Twentyman Foundation announced his death in a statement on Saturday.

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Fine weather forecast for most of Australia’s capitals across the Easter long weekend

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A weather system moving in from the south-west will bring rain across southern regions from Monday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology

The long weekend has brought fine weather to Australia’s capitals – but most cities will see a soggy return to work on Tuesday.

Despite a foggy start to Saturday morning in Melbourne and rain across Brisbane and Darwin, sunshine is forecast for Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide with similar conditions to continue through Saturday and Sunday.

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