Category Archives: Melbourne

Taylor Swift Eras tour Melbourne concert: relive the pop star’s biggest ever show – as it happened

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This blog is closed. The once-in-a-lifetime show has finally come to Australia. For the millions who couldn’t get tickets, might a slightly chaotic blog be the next best thing? The night 1 setlist (spoilers), all the surprise songs, the atmosphere of 96,000 people at the MCG – if you missed it you can read it all again! Start at the beginning.

Taylor Swift sing-along on board Qantas flight to Melbourne

The Taylor Swift hype reached new heights earlier today.

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Rebuilding of Melbourne heritage house on cards as police investigate fire at the property

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Boroondara council moves to order the rebuilding of ‘Shenley Croft’ as condition for any bid to develop the property

The Edwardian-style house boasts a private ballroom and cellar. Located in Melbourne’s affluent, leafy south-eastern suburbs, the heritage-listed Canterbury house was last sold in 2019. A real estate advertisement at the time touted its potential for renovation as one of the 1,320sqm-property’s many selling points.

Within four years of its sale, the house – named Shenley Croft – mysteriously caught fire in December. There is an active police investigation but no charges have been laid.

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Summer heat bakes south and west but Melbourne will have dramatic cool change midweek

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Hot weather with 30C-plus temperatures forecast for three mainland state capitals, plus Canberra and Darwin, on Monday

Southern Australia is in for a hot, sunny start to the week, with three state capitals plus Canberra forecast to record temperatures in the 30s.

The Bureau of Meteorology was warning of extreme fire danger for parts of South Australia and Victoria on Tuesday before a cool change sets in midweek.

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Man shot by officer in Melbourne CBD made threats with broken glass, police allege

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Shooting one of two separate incidents on Friday night after second man allegedly attacked four people with glass bottle

Police have alleged a man shot in the abdomen in the centre of Melbourne on Friday night had threatened and pursued protective services officers with broken glass.

It was one of two separate incidents in Melbourne’s CBD on Friday night after a 27-year-old man allegedly attacked four people with a glass bottle after a reported botched handbag robbery on a tram.

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‘Someone must know’: family’s plea for answers 40 years after Melbourne woman was murdered in her home

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Victoria police launch fresh appeal for information on anniversary of death of Boronia woman Nanette Ellis

The family of a single mother murdered in her own home say their pain has been made worse by not knowing who killed her, as they launched a fresh plea for answers on the 40th anniversary of her death.

Melbourne woman Nanette Ellis was stabbed in her Boronia home by an unknown offender or group of offenders on the evening of 10 February 1984.

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Flinders Street incident: man shot and injured by protective services officer

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A man allegedly attacked people with broken glass before he was shot once by PSO working with police at the scene in Melbourne

A protective services officer has opened fire on a man who confronted them with broken glass after reportedly trying to rob people on a tram in the centre of Melbourne.

Police say the officers were responding to an incident on the Princes Street Bridge just after 5.30pm on Friday when they were approached by the man.

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Council debate on ‘cancel culture’ erupts over future of St Kilda’s vandalised Captain Cook statue

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The council narrowly voted against a community consultation on the ‘location and context’ of the explorer’s Port Phillip memorial

A Melbourne council has narrowly voted against asking local residents whether it should restore or permanently remove a Captain Cook statue that was sawn off at the ankles just before Australia Day.

There was heated debate at a Port Phillip council meeting on Wednesday night over a motion to consult the community on the statue’s future, before it was voted down five votes to four. Some councillors were reprimanded and a member of the packed public gallery was asked to leave after several interjections.

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Man who scaled 55-storey Melbourne tower without harness taken for questioning by police

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Climber, identified by police as a 29-year-old Newry man, believed to have reached top of 163m-tall residential building about 7.30am

Police say they have spoken to a man who scaled a 163m-tall residential tower in Melbourne’s city centre without a harness, while another person filmed him using a drone.

According to Victorian police, the man was seen climbing the side of 60 A’Beckett Street about 7.30am. He did not appear to be using any safety equipment.

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Scorching weather forecast for western Sydney, Melbourne and northern Victoria

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Heatwave warnings as ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily continues to dump heavy rain across parts of outback Queensland

Much of southern Queensland and eastern New South Wales will be gripped by heatwave conditions over the weekend as western Sydney and Melbourne brace for temperatures in the high 30s on Sunday.

Ex-tropical cyclone Kirrily has continued to dump heavy rain across parts of outback Queensland but the system was forecast to track south, taking a route across NSW, before finally leaving the continent on Tuesday.

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Melbourne weathers its first January without a ‘hot’ day since 1984

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Temperatures have not topped 35C since March last year as summer heatwaves skip Victorian capital

Melbourne is about to mark an unusual milestone. So far this summer the Bureau of Meteorology has not classified any single day as “hot” – that is, above 35C.

While other parts of the country have sweltered through severe heatwaves, the first month of 2024 has recorded no days above 35C, as observed at the BoM’s Melbourne Olympic Park weather station. On 12 January it was 33.4C and on 13 December it was 34C, but the last time the city’s mercury nudged over 35C was 18 March last year.

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Victoria’s Robinsons Bookshop apologises after owner’s call for more ‘white kids’ on book covers

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Susanne Horman’s comments have been ‘taken out of context’ and ‘misrepresented’, business says

Victoria’s oldest independent bookshop has apologised after its owner called for more picture books with “just white kids on the cover” and claimed that the chain would stop stocking “woke agenda” content that divided people.

Susanne Horman, the owner of Robinsons Bookshop chain, posted a series of tweets in December where she called for an “substantial shift” in Australian publishing, arguing the focus should be in line with public opinion, requests for books and “for what is good”.

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Captain Cook statue sawn off and Queen Victoria monument defaced in Melbourne on eve of 26 January

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Both monuments reportedly spray-painted with ‘The colony will fall’ in apparent protest against Australia Day date

Victoria police are investigating “criminal damage” to a century-old Captain Cook statue in St Kilda in an apparent protest over the Australia Day public holiday.

Another statue, of Queen Victoria near the Melbourne city centre, was doused in red paint.

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Alleged Russian organised crime suspect charged over explosives and firearms cache in Victoria

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After a lengthy, multiple-agency investigation, officers unearthed guns and ammunition at a Mornington Peninsula property

Three men, including an alleged Russian organised crime suspect, have been charged after a cache of explosives, guns and drugs were seized from a rural Victorian property.

A lengthy investigation led officers to a property at Tyabb on the Mornington Peninsula on Wednesday where they dug up six storage cases of sophisticated explosive devices.

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Tabcorp banned from accepting cash in unsupervised Victorian machines after teen gambles almost $100,000

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Exclusive: Boy’s mother says she had to withdraw her super and re-mortgage home to pay off his debts to criminals

Betting giant Tabcorp has been ordered to stop accepting cash at its machines in Victorian pubs and clubs unless they are properly supervised by staff after a teenager – with gambling debts of nearly $100,000 – placed bets at multiple venues.

According to the state’s gaming regulator, the 16-year-old was able to gamble on more than 30 occasions between May 2022 and October 2023 at multiple venues across Melbourne’s northern suburbs. The matter is the subject of ongoing court action against venues.

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MDMA overdose: nine people hospitalised after Melbourne music festival had severe hyperthermia

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Authorities believe extreme heat and physical activity, rather than a single bad batch, exacerbated drug’s impact at Hardmission

All nine people hospitalised after a mass drug overdose at an electronic music festival in Melbourne last weekend suffered severe hyperthermia, with three people remaining in a critical condition.

Another woman in her 30s was hospitalised on Friday after a suspected drug overdose at a separate music festival in the Melbourne suburb of Flemington. She remains in a critical condition.

Victorian health authorities believe the overdoses at last weekend’s Hardmission festival were not caused by a single bad batch of the drug MDMA as originally feared and that extreme heat and physical activity exacerbated the drug’s impact.

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Three men allegedly linked to bikie gang arrested after Melbourne tobacco shop torched twice in two days

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Police allege the men are connected to fires at the Altona business, as well as an arson attack at a Croydon tobacco shop

Three men allegedly linked to a bikie gang have been arrested after a twice-targeted tobacco shop was destroyed by fire and another was set alight on Christmas Day.

The first blaze broke out at the shopfront on Pier Street in Altona just before 4am on Thursday.

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Police on alert for potential violence at Eritrean festival in Melbourne

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Supporters of the African nation’s dictatorial regime have clashed with opponents in the diaspora at similar events in other countries

Australian federal police and government officials have met representatives of the Eritrean community in a bid to avoid potential violence during a planned cultural festival in Melbourne’s western suburbs this weekend.

Similar events held in Europe and North America in recent months have ended in violence and arrests, as supporters of the African nation’s regime clashed with members of the pro-democracy youth movement Birged Nhamedu.

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Australian capital city rents up 13% over year as further hikes predicted for 2024 amid housing shortage

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Housing advocates call for urgent reform to address growing crisis as capital rents hit average of $600 a week

Australia’s record shortage of rental properties will continue to drive prices up for tenants, analysts say, with a new report revealing combined capital city rents rose 13.2% year-on-year.

Data from PropTrack, the property analytics division of REA Group, has revealed national rental prices rose 11.5% over the past year, with combined capital city rents up 13.2% to an average of $600 a week, driven by large increases in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

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Calls for nationwide pill testing after suspected MDMA overdoses at Melbourne music festival

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Eight people were in induced comas after the Hardmission event at Flemington on Satuday

The suspected MDMA overdoses at a Melbourne music festival that left eight young people in medically induced comas over the weekend has sparked renewed calls for nationwide pill-testing programs.

Harm reduction and social justice advocates, and the Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA), were among those urging state governments to legalise pill-testing, saying the scale of the overdoses highlight the urgency of the issue.

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This article was amended on 8 January 2024 after Ambulance Victoria clarified that eight people were in induced comas, not seven.

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Man charged after four stabbing attacks in Melbourne overnight that seriously injured victims

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Victoria police say random attacks were not terror-related with 31-year-old man facing 15 charges

A man is facing more than a dozen charges after he allegedly stabbed four strangers in Melbourne overnight in what police say were “completely random” and unprovoked attacks.

Officers on Sunday arrested the 31-year-old Melton man who allegedly used public transport to travel across the city when committing three separate attacks on Saturday night.

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