Category Archives: South Australia

Australia coronavirus live: NSW arts minister Don Harwin resigns after breaching health order – latest updates

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Paul Kelly says league is ‘not a law unto themselves’ and would need permission to resume play next month as it intends. Follow the latest updates

We will close the blog for this evening. Thank you for your company and contributions.

A summary follows of Australia’s Covid-19 situation, the evening of Good Friday 2020.

“I would really urge caution there. Most of the cases we’ve seen so far have and still remain related to overseas travel and so our local epidemic is very early. There’s only a couple of thousand of those 6,000 cases are actual local transmission.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has accepted the resignation of her arts minister, Don Harwin, after he was fined $1,000 for staying at his Central Coast holiday home, breaching a Covid-19 public health order.

While Harwin maintained he had sought, and followed, official advice on whether he was allowed to relocate to his holiday home, he accepted the controversy surrounding his move – as the government was urging people to stay home over Easter – was a “distraction”.

During this health crisis my government has asked the community to make greater sacrifices than all of us have ever had to make before.

These sacrifices are saving lives, and I am proud of the people of NSW for continuing to uphold the law in the interest of public health.

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Australia coronavirus live update: education minister orders independent schools to reopen – latest news

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Dan Tehan wants all schools to provide in-person teaching to children whose parents want it. Follow live

The NRL season will recommence in late May, but it’s still unclear in what form it will happen.

#BREAKING: The NRL has announced a competition restart date of May 28. #9News pic.twitter.com/e5uwbe0fAj

Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson is calling for road blocks on the Great Ocean Road to force people to stay home this long weekend. @Kieran_Gilbert

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Australia’s coronavirus victims: Covid-19 related deaths across the country

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As the number of cases rises, so does the number of those who have died. Here is a state-by-state list of virus-related fatalities

The Australian death toll from Covid-19 related illnesses stands at 34, as of 4 April. This story will be updated as further deaths are confirmed and Australia’s coronavirus victims are identified.

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Fears for wildlife recovery after bushfires as coronavirus crisis stymies scientists’ fieldwork

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Monitoring work suspended due to restrictions on travel and physical contact, in a blow for research into threatened species

Scientists are being forced to shut down or scale back fieldwork to assess the impact of last summer’s devastating bushfires on threatened species amid the coronavirus crisis, prompting concerns it could affect wildlife recovery.

Several universities have shut down fieldwork to comply with restrictions on travel and physical contact and government agencies working on the recovery have had to scale back some of their operations.

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Coronavirus Australia live news: chief medical officer says global cases could be 5 to 10 million – latest update

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Brendan Murphy says he is totally confident of infection rates in Australia because of our high rate of testing. Follow live updates

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We might leave it there for the night. Thanks so much for reading today.

Hopefully you’re enjoying your Friday night, despite these strange times.

The @YourAFAP union says all 220 @TigerairAU pilots have been made redundant effective today.

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Coronavirus in Australia: how many cases are there? Map, latest numbers and statistics

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We bring together all the Covid-19 confirmed cases, data and stats from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, ACT and NT to get a broad picture of the Australian outbreak and track the impact of government response

Due to the difference in reporting times between states, territories and the federal government, it can be difficult to get a current picture of how many confirmed cases of coronavirus there are in Australia.

Here, we’ve brought together all the figures in one place, along with comparisons with other countries.

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Fossil hunters find evidence of 555m-year-old human relative

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Ikaria wariootia is half the size of a grain of rice and an early example of a bilateral organism

It might not show much of a family resemblance but fossil hunters say a newly discovered creature, that looks like a teardrop-shaped jellybean and is about half the size of a grain of rice, is an early relative of humans and a vast array of other animals.

The team discovered the fossils in rocks in the outback of South Australia that are thought to be at least 555m years old.

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Australian bushfires from the air: before and after images show scale of devastation

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Nine aerial photos depict the crisis from beach to bush, farm to forest, across NSW and South Australia

More than 10.7m hectares of land have burnt so far in Australia’s bushfires – larger than the total area of South Korea, or Portugal, and 1.3 times the size of Scotland.

The ongoing and unprecedented bushfire crisis has spread across six states and multiple months.

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A billion animals: the Australian species most at risk from the bushfire crisis

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Fires take an enormous toll on wildlife, with huge numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles and insects killed

Australia’s continuing bushfire crisis has taken an enormous toll on wildlife, with huge numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects and other species killed.

The ecologist Chris Dickman has estimated more than a billion animals have died around the country – a figure that excludes fish, frogs, bats and insects.

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Australia bushfires live: NSW and Victoria survey damage as fires merge to form new ‘megablaze’ – latest updates

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This liveblog is now closed

We will leave our coverage of the ongoing bushfire crisis here for the night. A mercifully quiet day on firegrounds across the country.

Here is where things stand:

We have a bit more information about the man who was burned while defending his property near Tumbarumba in New South Wales yesterday.

The man was an RFS volunteer, but he was not engaged in RFS work yesterday. Instead, Guardian Australia understands, he was driving a quad bike around his own property defending against spot fires when he received burns to his leg.

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Blazes flare amid extreme conditions in Australia – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. Our live coverage will continue tomorrow morning

We are wrapping up the live blog now, but we will be back at 7am AEDT for the latest on the fires.

As of 9pm, this is what we know.

There’s now what media (but not RFS) refer to as a megablaze in the Kosciuszko national park with three fires at emergency level in that area of southern NSW, just near the Victorian border.

There’s also concern that a fire at watch-and-act level in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains could worsen around midnight once the southerly reaches there. People in the Wentworth Falls and Leura areas are being advised to stay alert.

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Australia bushfires: towns face anxious wait as strong winds drive fires

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Alpine areas of Victoria and NSW among those most under threat, while climate protesters take to the streets in major cities

Thousands of climate protesters flooded the streets of Australian state capitals on Friday night as fire authorities warned of another dangerous night ahead in four states.

Firefighters in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia continued to battle fires, with gusty winds expected to create hazardous firefighting conditions late into the night.

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Australian fires: Victorians urged to leave amid fears ‘heat spike’ will cause bushfires to merge

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East Gippsland and Victoria’s north-east told to evacuate as NSW braces for heatwave and firefighters battle Kangaroo Island blaze

Residents in large areas of Victoria have again been advised to leave their homes before a day of “extreme” fire conditions throughout south-eastern Australia that could see the merging of at least two major fires.

At least 5% of Victoria has already burned. Authorities sent a text message to East Gippsland and the north-east region on Thursday advising people within the at-risk area, which extends from the New South Wales border to the coast, to evacuate before “heat spike” conditions on Friday.

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Australia fires live: NSW and Victoria bushfires insurance bill tops $700m – latest updates

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Rain falls on some NSW, Victorian and South Australian bushfire-affected areas, but worse fire conditions are forecast to return. Follow all today’s latest news and live updates

Andrew Crisp:

Speaking with the incident controller here at Bairnsdale a short time ago, some of our concern is the fires up in the alpine area, around Omeo, and the potential for them to travel south with the northerly and join the fires down in this part of the world.

We saw, only a few days ago, where there were more than 300 people on the oval at Omeo where some helicopters were there to take people out.

The Victorian emergency commissioner, Andrew Crisp, has an update:

There are three communities we haven’t been able to drive in. When I say ‘drive’ even with those other communities it is basically bushtracks and emergency vehicles to get in, it is where there is no real road access.

We’ve been able to get helicopters and sat phones in to make sure people have supplies.

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Kangaroo Island bushfires: grave fears for unique wildlife after estimated 25,000 koalas killed

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Greatest concerns for endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart and glossy black-cockatoo after third of island burned

Ecologists have grave concerns for the future of unique and endangered wildlife on Kangaroo Island where bushfires have killed thousands of koalas.

Fires on the island, in South Australia, have so far burned through 155,000 hectares – about one third of the island’s entire area – with blazes concentrated in the biodiversity-rich western areas.

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Scott Morrison announces recovery effort with ‘months to go’ in bushfire crisis in NSW and Victoria – latest updates

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NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says he was frustrated to learn of ADF deployment from the media. Follow all today’s live news and latest updates

The situation is deteriorating in Eden on the Far South Coast. A bushfire moved quickly up from the NSW-Victorian border last night, as the southerly change moved up the coast and turned fires northward. The fire, dubbed the “border fire”, burnt last night from the Victorian border to Victorian Border to the southern shores of Twofold Bay.

It has already affected the areas of Wonboyn, Kiah, Narrabarba and surrounds. Properties have been damaged in the area and building impact assessment teams will be deployed to assess the destruction.

The border fire is now threatening the town of Eden. An update posted on the Bega Valley Shire Council’s website a short while ago warned Eden residents, including those in Snug Cove Wharf, to leave now and head to Merimbula or Bega. Authorities were still attempting to define the fire line near Eden.

NORTHERN TERRITORY

* No current bushfires

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Australian bushfire crisis: authorities plead for last-ditch evacuation, with terrible conditions ahead

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Firefighters warn they may have to abandon homes, and even whole towns, as bushfire crisis threatens to overwhelm resources in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia

Australian authorities have made a final plea for people to flee bushfire-affected areas in three states before the onset of extreme conditions so dangerous that firefighters may be unable to defend entire towns.

On Friday, authorities in New South Wales urged people still in a 14,000 square kilometre area of the state’s south coast, and in other high risk areas in the Snowy Valley, to leave overnight.

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Australia fires live: two dead in Cobargo as NSW and Victoria face bushfires threat – latest updates

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Conditions worsen with more than 4,000 on the beach at Mallacoota in Victoria after a devastating day yesterday and the death of a firefighter in New South Wales. Follow live news and latest updates

The federal government has agreed to supply military vessels to Victoria for evacuations in coastal communities where people are trapped.

I’ve spoken with @ScottMorrisonMP & authorised #ADF to deploy extra assets to the Victorian fires: 3 helicopters & 1 aircraft will fly to East Sale; HMAS Choules & MV Sycamore will sail to East Gippsland. A Joint Task Force has been stood up with Army personnel & Liason Officers

#BREAKING: Naval vessels, military helicopters and fixed wing aircraft are being prepared for bushfire evacuations in Victoria, at the request of the State Government #auspol

“We’ve got fires burning from the Queensland border all the way down to the Victorian border, across the great dividing range,” says Fitzsimmons.

There have ben multiple challenges, he says, noting that today conditions didn’t allow for the flying of some aerial support craft.

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‘We’re helpless’: thousands of koalas probably dead after wildfires – video

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Up to 30% of koalas on New South Wales's mid-north coast may have been killed and many more may be endangered in South Australia in the country’s ongoing bushfire crisis after experts warned fires are the biggest threat Australian wildlife faces

Nationally, more than 5m hectares have been burned in an unprecedented bushfire season that has also killed nine people

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Australia fires: rain offers little respite as out-of-control bushfires continue to burn

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Firefighters are bracing for extreme conditions with high temperatures forecast for next few days

Rainfall over parts of eastern Australia during the Christmas break did little to extinguish some of the country’s major bushfires, ahead of worsening conditions and a heatwave due to arrive in the coming days.

About 70 bushfires continue to burn throughout New South Wales, despite modest rainfall in some fire-affected parts of the state, while firefighters continued to battle a large blaze in South Australia on Boxing Day.

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