Blaze broke out at Croydon building Friday morning, with firefighters highlighting risks from lithium batteries
An e-bike workshop has been destroyed in an early morning fire in Sydney’s inner west, causing road closures along the suburb’s shopping strip.
Residents were woken just before 5am on Friday after the fire broke out at the building on Elizabeth Street in Croydon.
Continue reading...Spider measuring record 7.9cm across is almost as big as largest female collected in 2021, which was named Megaspider by Australian Reptile Park
With fangs that could pierce a human fingernail, the largest male specimen of the world’s most venomous arachnid has found a new home at the Australian Reptile Park where it will help save lives after a member of the public discovered it by chance.
The potentially deadly Sydney funnel-web spider dubbed “Hercules” was found on the Central Coast, about 80km north of Sydney, and was initially given to a local hospital, the Australian Reptile Park said in a statement.
Continue reading...Pair taken by ambulance to Katoomba hospital after emergency at Echo Point amid storm chaos
Two people have been taken to hospital after being struck by lightning while visiting a popular scenic site in the New South Wales Blue Mountains.
Other visitors were forced to seek shelter from a major storm while rescue crews searched several walking tracks in the area looking for stranded bushwalkers.
Continue reading...NSW Health issues warning after multiple people who visited CBD were hospitalised for pneumonia caused by legionella bacteria
Sydneysiders have been urged to stay alert for symptoms of legionnaires’ disease after seven people were hospitalised after contracting the respiratory illness over Christmas and the new year.
New South Wales Health issued an alert on Wednesday afternoon, warning those who had been in the Sydney CBD area in the past 10 days to monitor for symptoms, which can include fever, chills, cough and shortness of breath. The disease can lead to severe chest infections.
Continue reading...Roads minister John Graham now says the government is unable to act against the signs at Camp Cove that he previously said took 'the rest of us for mugs’
The New South Wales roads minister has failed to follow through on a pledge to veto controversial parking restrictions by a local council in Sydney, with beachgoers now limited to just 15 minutes to park, swim and return to their car.
In November, Woollahra Council – having learned the residents-only parking scheme that had been in place around Watsons Bay for 50 years was actually illegal – decided to implement 15-minute parking limits on the streets near Camp Cove beach.
Continue reading...Dozens rescued from flood waters and thousands remain without power as BoM warns of wild weather in Melbourne, south-east NSW and Queensland
The first week of 2024 is off to a wild start, with storms continuing to lash Australia’s east coast and a heatwave baking the north of the continent.
Thunderstorms were headed for central Victoria on Wednesday and were forecast to become widespread over the eastern half of the state.
Continue reading...Heavy rain, strong winds and large hailstones reported in parts of state as BoM warns of potential life-threatening flash flooding
More than 40,000 Victorian homes and businesses were without power and some would remain in the dark overnight as wild thunderstorms swept across the state, causing flight delays at Melbourne airport.
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued on Tuesday afternoon for Bendigo, Maryborough, Castlemaine, Kyneton, Ballarat, Bellarine Peninsula and greater Melbourne.
Continue reading...Seven of at least 148 people released after November judgment have since been rearrested
A further two former immigration detainees released in the wake of the high court’s NZYQ ruling have been rearrested after breaches of their conditions.
The men’s arrests over the Christmas period bring the total number of arrests to seven since the high court ruled that indefinite detention is unlawful where it is not possible to deport the non-citizen. At least 148 people have been released as a result of the November ruling, sparking a political crisis for the Albanese government.
Continue reading...Tyalgum residents hit by devastating flooding in 2022 have stepped up to support each other again after being isolated for nearly two days
Residents of a small town near the New South Wales-Queensland border still grappling with the fallout from major flooding in 2022 have banded together to support each other after the community was again hit by severe weather.
Tyalgum, a Tweed Shire village of about 500 people in north-eastern NSW about 70km from the Gold Coast, was cut off by flood waters for nearly two days over the New Year’s period.
Continue reading...State government says group has specialist skills and appropriate agency is chosen at federal level
The Australian defence force was not deployed after storms hit the Gold Coast because it was determined other agencies would be better suited to the clean-up task, according to the Queensland disaster coordinator.
Acting deputy commissioner, Shane Chelepy, told media on Monday afternoon that the state response to continued thunderstorms and flooding has been bolstered by 50 cleanup workers from a veteran-led not-for-profit, Disaster Relief Australia.
Continue reading...‘Sea sparkles’ appeared at Hobart’s waterfront, the NSW mid-north coast and Sydney’s Manly, with hundreds delighting in the natural phenomenon
Revellers along the Hobart waterfront welcomed in the new year with the glow of fireworks in the sky – and bright, blue bioluminescence lighting up the ocean.
With an easterly wind bringing the “sea sparkle” to the east coast, onlookers were treated to a truly glowing end to 2023.
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Continue reading...Department of primary industries investigating after protected fish species allegedly killed in Cronulla
The alleged spearing and killing of a protected fish species in Sydney over the weekend is being investigated.
According to local reports, onlookers were left outraged after an endangered blue groper (Achoerodus viridis) was allegedly speared and killed at Oak Park in Cronulla on Saturday.
Continue reading...BoM forecasts heavy rain for south-east Queensland and northern NSW, while across the far north temperatures will remain in the 40s
Parts of south-east Queensland are being battered by heavy rain in a soggy start to the new year, with dangerous flooding predicted.
Intense falls in some areas could lead to life-threatening flash flooding, the Bureau of Meteorology warned on Monday afternoon.
Continue reading...Despite a surplus of eggs at fertility clinics around the country, very few end up being donated to research or other prospective parents
The vast majority of eggs frozen by prospective mothers go unused, causing headaches for IVF clinics and preventing potentially groundbreaking research.
Scientists are decrying a wasted opportunity as thousands of frozen eggs sit unused in storage instead of being used in potentially valuable medical research.
Continue reading...Illegal use of fireworks can lead to thousands of dollars in fines and even jail. Here are the rules around the country
Hefty fines and even jail time are on the cards for those who set off illegal fireworks this New Year’s Eve.
People right across the country used to partake in the annual “cracker night” festival, setting off fireworks in their backyards, but most states and territories began banning this practice in the 1980s.
Continue reading...The Great Western Highway is closed in both directions and is expected to remain a crime scene for some time
Two people are dead and more than a dozen have been injured in a multi-vehicle crash west of the Blue Mountains in NSW.
Emergency services were called to the scene of the five-car crash on the Great Western Highway at Wallerawang, 15km north of Lithgow, just before 1pm.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
Tasmanian yacht Alive is in the box seat to take out Sydney to Hobart yacht race’s overall honours, with skipper Duncan Hine confident the 66-footer has a winning time on the board.
Hine and his crew finished the 628-nautical-mile blue water classic yesterday afternoon as clubhouse leaders on handicap time.
It’s a waiting game. We’re looking good, though. I believe we could do it again, but the reality may be different. Now we wait with bated breath to see if anyone can beat our time.
Continue reading...Search crew finds body of man near Rosebud beach on the Mornington Peninsula after two-hour search
A kayaker has died in waters off Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
Emergency services were called to Rosebud beach about 3.30pm on Thursday. There were reports a man on an inflatable kayak had got into trouble and gone into the water up to 800 metres off shore.
Continue reading...Exclusive: ‘We can’t just put it all on the police’s shoulders’ says NSW premier as Aboriginal people make up 59% of juvenile detention population
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has defended the way police interact with young Aboriginal people and said the force is not to blame for disproportionate Indigenous incarceration rates.
Speaking in Bourke, in far western NSW, Minns also said he was reluctant to meet the demands of the Country Mayors Association, police union and some Nationals MPs to hold an inquiry into regional crime.
Continue reading...Royal Life Saving Society chief says Australians may not be ‘as strong swimmers as we believe’ as December toll hits 22
Another person has drowned in New South Wales, adding to the rising drowning death toll that has prompted a warning from lifesavers at what is considered the deadliest time of year.
Four people were pulled from the water at Port Stephens on Wednesday afternoon, including a 33-year-old man who could not be revived and died at the scene.
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