Category Archives: Melbourne

Concern over fumes and contaminated runoff as Derrimut chemical factory fire still smoulders in Melbourne

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Fire expected to burn for days as local residents warned to avoid nearby waterways

Residents in Melbourne’s west have been told to avoid lingering fumes and potentially contaminated runoff after a chemical factory fire sent toxic smoke billowing over the city.

Firefighters battled the blaze throughout the day and night after a large explosion at the Derrimut factory on Wednesday morning.

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Woman’s body found at Melbourne waste management facility

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Homicide squad detectives are investigating the death, which is being treated as suspicious

The body of a woman has been found at a waste management facility in Melbourne’s north.

Workers made the grim discovery while moving green waste at the site on Cooper Street in Epping on Wednesday.

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‘Million dollar views, baby’: Victorian minister praises train station’s ‘fantastic’ Dandenongs vista

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On a morning when the Dandenong Ranges were largely obscured by clouds, Danny Pearson says ‘lots of caffeine’ was driving his enthusiasm

According to Victoria’s transport infrastructure minister, this is a train station with “million dollar views, baby”.

At a press conference on a cloudy Friday morning, Danny Pearson was ebullient in his praise for the views commanded by the new elevated platform at Croydon – to the point that his enthusiasm itself was questioned by reporters.

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Man charged over alleged theft of Garry the gorilla

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Officers raided 33-year-old’s home and allegedly seized statue along with 24 suspected stolen drivers’ licences and prescription medication

A man who handed himself in to police has been charged over the alleged theft of a gorilla statue from a retirement village in Melbourne’s north.

The gorilla, a 1.5-metre garden ornament named Garry, disappeared from Leith Park retirement village at St Helena on 6 June.

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Victoria police make 2,700 arrests in five-month domestic violence blitz in south-east Melbourne

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Police say 7,500 charges laid, including against a man, 42, who allegedly stabbed a woman and assaulted a teenager in front of two younger children

A man who allegedly stabbed a woman and assaulted a teenager in front of two children was among 2,700 arrests by Victoria police during a five-month blitz targeting family violence offenders in Melbourne’s south-east.

Victoria police on Thursday said 7,500 charges had been laid as a result of the blitz, between January and June of this year.

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Synthetic opioid detected in bodies of four people found dead in Melbourne home

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Police confirm drug’s presence after deaths of boy, 17, and three adults in Broadmeadows last week

A synthetic opioid has been found in the bodies of four people found dead in a Melbourne home last week, police say.

The bodies of the 17-year-old boy, two men aged 32 and 37, and a 42-year-old woman were discovered at the property in Broadmeadows, in Melbourne’s north, in the early hours of 25 June.

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Melbourne airport staff accused of smuggling drugs for organised crime cartels

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Scores of workers allegedly breached security checks, and air crew accused of stashing illegal products in false-bottom suitcases

Dozens of Melbourne airport staff have been accused of working for organised criminals trying to smuggle drugs into Australia.

Aviation workers were the subject of a Border Force investigation targeting criminals in airport supply chains.

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Melbourne’s airport rail link hits more turbulence after mediation falters

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Airport operator says it will fight for more costly underground option despite expert report’s findings

The long-promised train to Melbourne airport appears to have hit yet another snag, after the prolonged and bitter standoff between Victoria and the airport that has delayed the line for years intensified, despite government-imposed mediation.

The train project – which would be funded by the federal and state governments – has stalled over the state’s insistence it would only finance a cheaper above-ground train station instead of the costlier underground option demanded by the airport.

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Police investigate possible drug link after four people found dead in Melbourne home

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Cause of death of two men, a woman and a boy in Broadmeadows yet to be determined, police say

Four people have been found dead in a Melbourne home, including a teenage boy.

Victoria police said the bodies of two men, aged 37 and 32, a woman, 42, and a teenage boy, 17, had been found at a Broadmeadows property early on Tuesday.

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Labor MP Josh Burns’ electoral office has windows smashed in attack by vandals

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Jewish MP says attack that used slogan ‘Zionism is fascism’ was ‘politically motivated’

Vandals have smashed windows and set fire to the front of the federal Labor MP Josh Burns’ Melbourne electoral office in what he has branded a “politically motivated attack”.

At least five people were seen near the office located on Barkly Street in St Kilda about 3.20am on Wednesday, police were told.

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Victoria’s premier unveils new housing targets for construction of 2.5m new homes by 2051

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Jacinta Allan reveals Geelong will be set highest target for new homes, with City of Melbourne and Melton second and third

Melbourne’s CBD, the outer suburbs and the regional city of Geelong will shoulder the burden of new housing in Victoria, according to draft council targets set to be released by the state government.

The premier, Jacinta Allan, and planning minister, Sonya Kilkenny, will on Sunday announce their proposed housing targets for local government areas (LGA), which they say could lead to the construction of 2.5m new homes by 2051.

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Statue of King George V beheaded in Melbourne on King’s birthday holiday

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Police called to Kings Domain Monday morning to find head removed and paint thrown at monument

A statue of King George V has been beheaded and covered in red paint in the latest attack on colonial monuments in Victoria.

Police were called to the statue in Melbourne’s Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue just after 9am on Monday.

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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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