Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
The New South Wales Rural Fire Service is made up of mechanics, bakers, students, retirees and young parents. They face a dangerous Australian summer
Fire warning signs are pinned to thirsty eucalypts every few kilometres on the highway.
The paddocks around central west New South Wales look golden from a distance, but are crispy and brown underfoot. Wind has been howling for days, stirring up red dust on the horizon. Severe fire conditions are looming; it’s only the beginning of summer.
Gospers Mountain, Paddock Run and Little L Complex, Three Mile and Thompson Creek fires overlap, and there are now sevenemergency warnings in NSW as fire conditions worsen along Australia’s New South Wales and Queensland coasts. This blog is now closed
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.
Two officers named as part of the search have refuted the teenager’s account at an inquiry in Sydney
A police officer involved in searching a boy at an underage music festival in Sydney says he has “no memory” of the teenager being asked to “show me your gooch”, and that it “didn’t happen”.
The 15-year-old claims he “froze” when he was asked to drop his pants during a strip-search at Sydney Olympic Park in February.
More than 10% of the area covered by New South Wales national parks has been burned in this season’s bushfires, including 20% of the Blue Mountains world heritage area, state government data obtained by Guardian Australia has revealed.
The amount of bushland destroyed within NSW national parks dwarfs that of the entire previous fire season, when 80,000 hectares were lost.
Inquiry told of invasive searches on teens at Lost City music festival in Sydney, where only five of 30 cases had support person present
A 15-year-old boy was told to “hold your dick and lift your balls up and show me your gooch” and a police officer “ran his hands around” the buttocks of a 17-year-old during two of 25 potentially illegal strip-searches conducted at an underage music festival in Sydney, an inquiry has heard.
New South Wales hopes to cut fatalities on the state’s roads by a third with devices that operate day and night in all weather
New South Wales rolled out mobile phone detection cameras on Sunday, hoping to cut the number of fatalities on its roads by a third over two years, transport authorities said.
The world-first mobile phone detection cameras, according to Transport for NSW, which manages the state’s transport services, operate day and night in all weather conditions to determine if a driver is handling a mobile phone.
Greater Hunter, greater Sydney, Illawarra/Shoalhaven, central ranges, northern slopes and north-western regions have ‘severe’ or ‘very high’ danger
Total fire bans were in place for the greater Hunter – which is facing severe fire danger – greater Sydney, Illawarra/Shoalhaven, central ranges, northern slopes and north-western regions.
These regions and the far south coast, southern ranges and New England, as well as the ACT, had very high fire danger.
Bureau of Meteorology says extreme conditions of all kinds can be expected from Sunday, with large hail forecast for south-eastern Queensland
Queensland and New South Wales have been warned to prepare for severe storms bringing dust, 90km/h winds and hail, followed by three days of even worse bushfire conditions.
The Bureau of Meteorology said severe storms would blow across inland southern Queensland on Saturday night, bringing damaging wind, dust storms and the possibility of dry lightning. South-eastern Queensland can expect damaging winds and large hail on Sunday.
The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and the federal emergency management minister, David Littleproud, join forces to help fire victims
Weather has hampered firefighting efforts as the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced $48m has been set aside for bushfire recovery, after blazes devastated some communities.
The community recovery package – a joint federal and state government initiative – was announced on Sunday morning and includes grants of up to $15,000 to help small businesses and farmers.
Former Labor NSW MP and powerbroker will have served three years of his five-year sentence for misconduct in public office
The disgraced former New South Wales Labor MP Eddie Obeid has been granted parole after serving three years in prison for his conviction over misconduct in public office.
Obeid was convicted and sentenced in December 2016 to five years in prison with a non-parole period of three years.
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.
Extreme heat hits across the country as parts of Victoria prepare for worst possible bushfire conditions on Thursday
All of Australia’s mainland states, and the Northern Territory, had areas that reached more than 40C on Wednesday, as a code red bushfire warning was issued for parts of Victoria for Thursday.
By 3pm AEDT on Wednesday, the highest temperatures recorded were 43.4C at Smithville in New South Wales and 42C at Walpepup in Victoria. Ballera in Queensland reached 43.7C, Warburton in WA got 43.8C, Nullarbor in South Australia recorded 46.6C and Lajamanu in the Northern Territory had hit 42.7C.
People with asthma or respiratory illness should stay inside, health authorities warn
Sydney woke up to a thick blanket of smoke over the city on Tuesday as New South Wales headed into the first of two “tough days” this week, with temperatures likely to rise to the 40s and little-to-no rainfall forecast.
Most of the state’s east coast was under severe or very high fire danger ratings, with more than 50 bushfires burning, of which 28 remained uncontained.
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.
Fire danger rating in parts of NSW rises to severe as hot, dry, windy conditions end a brief reprieve of bushfire-hit areas of Australia
• If you are in a bushfire affected area stay tuned to your local emergency broadcaster. Full alerts can be found here for NSW and here for Queensland
A fresh emergency warning was issued for the Hawkesbury on Sydney’s outskirts on Friday for a fast-moving fire, as hot, dry and windy conditions returned to bushfire-hit areas of New South Wales.
The warning was issued for a persistent 80,000-hectare blaze at Gospers Mountain, which was burning in the direction of Colo Heights. Those in the town should leave immediately towards Wilberforce, the Rural Fire Service warned.
Catastrophic fire conditions in New South Wales ease, but dozens of Australian bushfires remain burning. In Queensland, 60 fires are burning, with strong winds and temperatures in mid-30s forecast to make for hazardous conditions on Australia’s east coast
Residents of Pechey (near Hampton) have been told to leave now, and head towards the New England highway.
“There is a bushfire in Pechey and Hampton and conditions are getting worse,” QFES says. “A fast moving fire is travelling from Grapetree Road towards Deeth Road, Sewell Road, Parker Road, Bush Road and Misty Mountain Road. It is currently impacting Parker Road and Sewell Road. The fire could have on the significant impact on the community.”
Images of Walkers Point, which is also at “leave now”.
Residents at Walkers Point, south of Bundaberg, are being told to evacuate to Woodgate with firefighters battling a large bushfire @abcnewspic.twitter.com/pffLy1elsV
Exclusive: email from government directs attendees at conference on climate adaptation to stay quiet on bushfire-climate link
As bushfire conditions were declared “catastrophic” on Tuesday, New South Wales bureaucrats attending a conference on adaption to climate change were directed not discuss the link between climate change and bushfires.
Bureaucrats from the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment were sent an email soon after the AdaptNSW 2019 Forum began, causing consternation among some attendees who saw it as tantamount to gagging them.