Category Archives: Melbourne

Coronavirus school closures: dozens of Australian private schools move to online learning

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New South Wales teachers union warns it is ‘impossible’ for schools to practise social distancing measures recommended by the government

Dozens of independent schools across Australia are going ahead with shutdowns as the New South Wales teachers union warns it is “impossible” for them to practise social distancing measures recommended by the government.

On Tuesday, Pymble Ladies College in Sydney joined dozens of private schools in Victoria when it announced it would move to online classes from Thursday.

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Melbourne professor quits after health department pressures her over data breach

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Vanessa Teague reported on a dataset of Medicare and PBS payments that was supposed to be anonymous but wasn’t

A prominent university professor has quit after the health department pressured her university to stop her speaking out about the Medicare and PBS history of over 2.5 million Australians being re-identifiable online due to a government bungle.

In 2016, Vanessa Teague, a cryptographer from the University of Melbourne, and two of her colleagues reported on a dataset, published on an open government data website by the federal government, of 2.5m Australians’ Medicare and PBS payment history dating back to 1984 that had supposedly been de-identified so people were anonymous.

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White Island volcano survivor out of coma and told of deaths of husband and daughter

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Australian victim Lisa Dallow awake in a serious but stable condition two months after New Zealand volcano erupted

An Australian woman has come out of her coma, two months after the volcano eruption on New Zealand’s White Island, to be told the blast killed her husband and daughter.

Adelaide woman Lisa Dallow has woken from her coma in Melbourne’s Alfred hospital and is in a serious but stable condition.

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Most of George Calombaris’s restaurant empire goes into voluntary administration

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Move follows underpayment scandal that resulted in staff being back-paid almost $8m in wages and superannuation

Celebrity chef George Calombaris has put much of his restaurant empire into voluntary administration.

Advisory and investment firm KordaMentha has been appointed as administrators of 22 companies in the Made Establishment Group, which KordaMentha says operates 12 restaurants and food venues in Melbourne.

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Wuhan coronavirus grown by scientists in Melbourne – video

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Scientists at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne have grown the novel coronavirus from a patient sample, which they plan to share internationally under advice from the World Health Organization to provide data to fight the virus.

The virus has also been grown in cell culture in China, but the breakthrough in Melbourne will allow accurate investigation and diagnosis of the virus globally. The project comes from a collaboration between the Royal Melbourne hospital and the University of Melbourne

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Huge hail batters Canberra as severe thunderstorms hit south-eastern Australia

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Hail smashes into Parliament House and brings down trees in the ACT, with heavy rainfall hitting NSW, Queensland and Victoria

Australia’s south-east has been lashed by severe thunderstorms and large hailstones that destroyed buildings and cars in Canberra and left two tourists in hospital after they were injured by lightning.

Two supercell thunderstorms brought hail and heavy rain to cities and towns across the east coast on Monday, battering the outer suburbs of Sydney about 3pm, with 4.5cm hailstones recorded and strong winds bringing trees down over cars in the Sutherland area.

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George Pell reportedly moved to regional prison after drone flown over Melbourne CBD jail

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Drone reportedly flown over visitors’ garden where disgraced cardinal’s job was to weed and water

Disgraced Cardinal George Pell has reportedly been moved from his central Melbourne prison to a high security facility in regional Victoria after a drone was flown over the jail.

“Corrections Victoria can confirm an incident involving a drone flying over the Melbourne assessment prison on Thursday,” a justice department spokeswoman said on Sunday.

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Frustrating cities: behind Australia’s urban design fails

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Sydney’s pedestrian bottlenecks, Brisbane’s barren streetscapes and Perth’s freeway fiascos: cities across the country are making classic mistakes

In every city there are places where the road should be just a bit wider, where the bus stop would be better a few metres down or, perhaps, a multi-lane highway simply should not exist.

Bad urban design is a barrier to what should be the smooth flow of life in cities. It ruins commutes and can make daily life unnecessarily difficult for the disabled or elderly.

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Australia fires: record-breaking temperatures fuel bushfires across the country

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Temperatures top 40C in Victoria’s north as up to 11 properties hit by fire in South Australia, while NSW and Tasmania face difficult conditions

Record-breaking spring temperatures helped spark and fan bushfires across the country on Thursday, forecasting a potentially devastating bushfire summer.

In Victoria, 100km/h winds fanned more than 60 blazes, as an unprecedented heatwave moved north to south, drawing comparisons with the “worst conditions you’d see in February or March” from the state’s emergency services minister Lisa Neville.

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Australia braces for electric scooter boom as confusion reigns over state laws

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Some retailers are giving inaccurate advice to shoppers in states where it is illegal to ride e-scooters on public roads or footpaths

Retailers are preparing for a Christmas boom in the sale of electric scooters, even though it is illegal to ride them on public roads or footpaths in several states.

Federal and state regulation has struggled to keep up with the technology, leaving consumers at risk of inadvertently breaking the law.

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Melbourne Anglicans vote to express ‘sorrow’ over blessing of same-sex marriages

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Melbourne synod’s vote comes days after Sydney archbishop said Anglicans who back same-sex marriage should leave church

Melbourne’s Anglican church has formally voted to record its “sorrow” over a regional Victorian diocese’s decision to bless same-sex marriages.

The nod of approval given by the Wangaratta diocese in August has angered the Melbourne church’s governing body.

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Helena Broadbent on triple zero call before being flung from ute, court told

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Pregnant Melbourne woman told emergency services her partner, William Wilson, had a hammer, police say

A triple zero operator heard an argument, screaming and then silence during a call from a pregnant woman killed when flung from a ute allegedly driven by her partner, according to police.

Helena Broadbent, 32, suffered a “catastrophic brain injury” when she fell backwards out of the Mitsubishi Triton in suburban Melbourne on Saturday and died in hospital after delivering a baby girl by caesarean.

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Iran confirms it has detained three Australian citizens

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Cases of British-Australians Kylie Moore-Gilbert and Jolie King, and King’s Australian partner, Mark Firkin, were revealed last week

Iran’s judiciary has confirmed it has detained three Australian citizens, alleging they were arrested for spying and taking images from sensitive areas.

Judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Esmaeili confirmed the arrests in a press conference in Tehran.

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Eurydice Dixon’s father says he hopes killer ‘gets better’ after receiving life sentence

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Judge sentences Jaymes Todd to a non-parole period of 35 years for crimes described as crimes as ‘sadistic’ and ‘categorically evil’

Eurydice Dixon’s father said he hoped the man who raped and killed his daughter “gets better,” shortly after the killer was sentenced to to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 35 years.

Jaymes Todd stalked Dixon, 22, for more than an hour before attacking her as she walked through Princes Park following a comedy gig ‪on 12 June‬ last year.

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Biloela Tamil family’s deportation to Sri Lanka prevented by last-minute injunction

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Peter Dutton says family of four ‘not owed protection’ after they were removed from deportation flight in Darwin thanks to court injunction

A Tamil asylum-seeker family whose deportation was halted in mid-air on Thursday night do not deserve protection from Australia, Peter Dutton has said.

The family of four were put on a non-commercial flight from Melbourne bound for Sri Lanka about 11pm on Thursday.

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Vatican invokes Cardinal George Pell’s ‘right to appeal’ after child sexual abuse conviction upheld

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Former Vatican treasurer, and most senior Catholic cleric in the world to be convicted of child sexual assault, maintains innocence after losing appeal

The most senior Catholic cleric in the world to be convicted of child sexual abuse, Cardinal George Pell, has lost his appeal against his conviction, but maintains he is innocent.

In a brief statement issued after the decision the Vatican reiterated that Pell maintained his innocence, and that it was now “Pell’s right to appeal to the high court”.

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Cardinal George Pell loses appeal on child sexual assault conviction – live

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Appeal dismissed by a majority of two to one for the 78-year-old who will remain in prison until October 2022. He was sentenced in March for sexually assaulting two choirboys in 1996

By the way - this is a huge testament to the value of the jury system. I will have so much to say about that. There is NO strong evidence judges alone are less biased or more correct than a jury of 12. #Pell.

Interesting that Morrison said the decision to strip Pell of his honours is independent to the government. Back In February my colleague Paul Karp was told that if Pell lost the appeal the prime minister would write to the Council of the Order of Australia recommending it review and revoke the honour, a decision made on its recommendation by the governor general.

Related: PM to strip George Pell of Order of Australia honour if cardinal loses appeal

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Pro-Hong Kong rally in Melbourne turns violent amid clashes with China supporters

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Victoria police say they will not tolerate ‘those who break the law or engage in antisocial or violent behaviour’

Two men have been interviewed by police after a clash between pro-Hong Kong and pro-China demonstrators at a rally in Melbourne’s CBD turned violent.

Hundreds gathered outside the State Library on Swanston Street from about 7pm on Friday for a planned rally in solidarity with protesters in Hong Kong. It turned violent when a group of pro-China protesters arrived. The event was estimated to have attracted 600 people at its peak.

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Homeless woman says Centrelink took entire $3,500 tax return for disputed robodebt

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Couch surfing 50-year-old says welfare agency told her she wasn’t in financial hardship

A Melbourne woman battling homelessness says her entire $3,500 tax return was swiped by Centrelink last month, despite the fact she disputes the alleged robodebt.

But when Sue Prgic, 50, complained to the agency that the money had been taken without her knowledge, she said staff had asked to know what she would do with the cash if it were returned.

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Weather warning: cold snap continues across south-eastern Australia

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Strong and gusty winds to bite parts of New South Wales as frosty temperatures sweep Victoria

Wild weather conditions are predicted to lash parts of New South Wales on Sunday afternoon, with conditions in Victoria expected to remain icy as the state is swept by another cold front.

The Bureau of Meteorology forecast weather conditions in NSW would ease on Sunday morning before picking up again with strong and gusty winds in many areas of the state for the rest of the day.

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