Category Archives: New South Wales

Synthetic opioids linked to spate of overdose deaths found in wastewater across Australia

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Detection of powerful nitazenes in samples from 60 sites a ‘red flag’ amid surging use to lace street drugs

Synthetic opioids a thousand times stronger than morphine and an animal sedative used to lace street drugs have been detected in Australia’s wastewater.

The discovery has been described as a “red flag” and comes as the deadly class of synthetic opioids – nitazines – claims dozens of lives in Australia.

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Man charged over Audrey Griffin’s murder found dead in prison cell

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Police confirm 53-year-old was found unresponsive at the Silverwater Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre late Thursday

The man accused of killing a 19-year-old Central Coast woman, Audrey Griffin, has died in custody just days after being charged with her murder.

A 53-year-old man was found unresponsive in his cell at the Silverwater metropolitan remand and reception centre about 4.50pm on Thursday, New South Wales police said. His death was not being treated as suspicious.

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Woman charged with sexual abuse of seven Sydney aged care residents

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The 46-year-old allegedly recorded video on her phone of abuse against elderly patients at a home in Grasmere

A woman has been charged after allegedly sexually abusing residents at the aged care facility where she worked, recording the assaults and sharing the videos with her partner, a 54-year-old man who was also arrested for possessing and disseminating bestiality material.

The 46-year-old will face a New South Wales court after an investigation into alleged sexual violence against residents at the home in Grasmere in Sydney’s Macarthur region.

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Third-party groups targeting teals in key seats swarm pre-poll areas in NSW and Victoria

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Third-party group Better Australia has posters and representatives wearing yellow ‘community adviser vests’ at multiple locations in Sydney.

Third-party groups targeting the teal independents are flooding pre-poll locations in Victoria and New South Wales, and include campaigners with links to the Jewish community such as Repeal the Teal.

In Goldstein, where the independent Zoe Daniel is hoping to hold off Liberal candidate Tim Wilson, Repeal the Teal has made its presence known this week with posters, T-shirts and pamphlets. The group is also campaigning in Kooyong.

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Sydney residents shaken awake by early morning earthquake in NSW Hunter Valley

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Preliminary information indicates the 4.6-magnitude quake occurred at a shallow depth of 10km

Aftershocks are expected from an earthquake that shook residents awake along a stretch of Australia’s east coast.

The quake struck at 2.55am on Wednesday near Singleton in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, about 200km north of Sydney, Geoscience Australia seismologists said.

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Trade unionists, conservationists and church groups unite against Dutton’s nuclear plan

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Seven Regions Nuclear Free alliance launches campaign representing groups who oppose the Coalition’s proposed nuclear reactors in their communities across Queensland, NSW, SA, Victoria and WA

Trade unions, conservationists, First Nations groups, church congregations and community organisations have launched a coordinated campaign against opposition leader Peter Dutton’s plan for nuclear reactors across Australia.

The Coalition has pledged, if elected, to build seven nuclear reactors to replace retiring or retired coal sites naming Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Liddell and Mount Piper in New South Wales, Port Augusta in South Australia, Loy Yang in Victoria, and Muja in Western Australia.

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‘She was the kindest soul’: man charged with murder one month after Audrey Griffin, 19, found dead in NSW creek

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Death of young woman whose body was found in creek on Central Coast not initially treated as suspicious

Police have revealed they were uneasy about attributing a teenage sportswoman’s death to an accident before new information sparked murder charges.

The body of 19-year-old Audrey Griffin was discovered partially submerged in Erina Creek on the New South Wales Central Coast on 24 March after she went missing on a night out.

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‘Misleading and offensive’: Allegra Spender denounces unauthorised pamphlet as AEC launches investigation

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More than 47,000 anonymous pamphlets distributed in Wentworth area, which includes Bondi Beach, Darling Point, Double Bay and Rose Bay

Allegra Spender has denounced “anonymous and misleading” pamphlets that the Australian Electoral Commission says had been distributed in her electorate of Wentworth without authorisation.

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, the independent member for the eastern Sydney seat welcomed an announcement by the AEC that it would be investigating the election material.

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Nine-year-old boy dies at popular NSW holiday spot amid spate of drownings over Easter long weekend

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The child died after becoming trapped between rocks at South West Rocks on Sunday afternoon

A nine-year-old boy has died after becoming trapped between rocks at a popular holiday spot on the New South Wales mid-north coast, amid a spate of drowning deaths over Easter.

Police and other emergency services tried to free the boy from the site at South West Rocks on Sunday afternoon but he died at the scene.

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Man in custody after late-night chase in Bondi that saw police car allegedly rammed and shots fired

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An officer fired at the car but there were no injuries, police say

A man has been taken into custody after allegedly ramming a police vehicle with a stolen Audi in Sydney’s eastern suburbs after an early-morning pursuit during which police fired at the car.

Police officers patrolling in Bondi began following a “suspicious” dark-coloured Audi A1 about 4am and a pursuit began, but ended the chase a short time later due to the speed, detective superintendent Jodi Radmore said.

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Woman dead and man missing after being swept into sea in Victoria as four die in separate incidents on NSW coast

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One woman managed to get back to shore after three washed into water near George Bass coastal walk south of Melbourne

A woman has died and a man is missing after they were swept from rocks near a popular coastal walk in Victoria.

A further three people have also drowned in separate incidents in New South Wales.

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‘Level of violence unheard of’: police suspect body in burnt-out car in Sydney was allegedly kidnapped woman

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Woman’s two sons in hospital with one in induced coma, as police say they ‘strongly believe’ kidnapping was targeted

Police fear a body in a burnt-out car in Sydney’s south overnight is that of a Bankstown woman allegedly abducted from a home on Thursday, in what they have called a “horrendous” crime of “unprecedented” violence.

Emergency services attended a residential street in Beverly Hills at about 11.30pm on Thursday night, after reports of a car fire.

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Sydney hospital where two children died recently is at risk of failure, scathing report finds

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Report accusing Northern Beaches hospital of not taking sufficient actions to stop risks comes as parents of baby who died after waiting for caesarean speak out

A controversial hospital where two children have recently died is accused of failing to meet healthcare standards and is at risk of failure.

In a scathing report from the New South Wales auditor general, the operators of Sydney’s Northern Beaches hospital are accused of not taking sufficient actions to stop clinical safety risks.

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Endangered greater gliders recorded in proposed great koala national park in NSW as logging continues

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Conservation groups call for immediate action to protect wildlife as two-year wait for Labor’s promised creation of park continues

Government surveys have found tens of thousands of endangered greater gliders could be living within the proposed area for a great koala national park in New South Wales, prompting new calls for the area to be quickly protected from logging.

Data from aerial drone and ground-based surveys at 169 sites within the proposed park were used to model the likely presence of Australia’s largest gliding possum across the entire 176,000 hectares the NSW government is considering for protection.

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Man’s body pulled from water after car hits wife and plunges them both into Parramatta River

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The 74-year-old woman is in hospital after being rescued by a man working nearby at Greenwich in Sydney’s north

A retired married couple were at their regular fishing spot in Sydney’s north when the man struck his wife with the car before both plunged into the water.

The 74-year-old woman was rescued from the Parramatta River in Greenwich by a man working nearby, and was in Royal North Shore hospital with non-life-threatening injuries where she was being supported by family and friends.

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Woman killed in late-night drive-by shooting in Sydney suburb

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Police searching for perpetrators after multiple shots fired at home in Ambarvale, on the city south-west outskirts

A drive-by shooting has killed a woman in her 60s and left a suburban Sydney home peppered with bullet holes.

Those responsible remained on the run on Tuesday following the overnight attack in Ambarvale on Sydney’s south-west outskirts.

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NSW’s sole women’s-only clinic dedicated to trauma ends ‘gamechanging’ focus

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Specialists at Ramsay Clinic Thirroul have reportedly resigned against backdrop of larger shortage of psychiatrists across state

In 2022 Ramsay Healthcare opened Australia’s first women’s-only hospital “dedicated” to trauma-related mental health issues in Wollongong.

Ramsay Clinic Thirroul was supposed to be a “gamechanger” designed specifically to provide women – often survivors of family and sexual violence – the safe environment needed to be able to escape the flight or fight stress response and begin to recover through a program of therapies.

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Tropical Cyclone Errol likely to form off north coast of Western Australia this weekend

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Weather bureau predicts high-pressure system will bring above-average temperatures across south-east Australia

A cyclone is likely to form off the northern coast of Western Australia this weekend, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has warned, as south-east Australia prepares for unseasonably warm weather.

The bureau on Saturday morning issued a warning that a tropical low in the Timor Sea north-west of Darwin was moving south-west and was expected to intensify into a cyclone later in the day.

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Revealed: nearly 2m hectares of koala habitat bulldozed since 2011 – despite political promises to protect species

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Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystems

Nearly 2m hectares of forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a threatened species in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia.

The scale of habitat destruction in Queensland and New South Wales – states in which the koala is formally recognised as being at risk of extinction – has continued despite political promises it would be protected.

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‘Science nerd’ who ordered radioactive materials to his parents’ Sydney home spared conviction

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Emmanuel Lidden pleaded guilty to two charges after buying uranium and plutonium from US-based science website

A “science nerd” who ordered uranium and plutonium to his parents’ apartment has escaped conviction and been given a two-year good behaviour bond.

Emmanuel Lidden, 24, admitted breaching nuclear non-proliferation laws by ordering various radioactive samples through the internet.

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