Fine weather forecast for most of Australia’s capitals across the Easter long weekend

A weather system moving in from the south-west will bring rain across southern regions from Monday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology

The long weekend has brought fine weather to Australia’s capitals – but most cities will see a soggy return to work on Tuesday.

Despite a foggy start to Saturday morning in Melbourne and rain across Brisbane and Darwin, sunshine is forecast for Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide with similar conditions to continue through Saturday and Sunday.

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Hobart endures hottest night in 112 years as severe heatwave hits south-eastern Australia

Extreme heat forecast to continue across Victoria, Tasmania, SA and NSW for several days, as record temperatures cause cancellation of long weekend events

Hobart residents sweated through the city’s hottest night in 112 years as a severe heatwave continues to affect large parts of south-east Australia.

Extreme heat is forecast to continue across South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and southern New South Wales for several days, the Bureau of Meteorology said on Sunday after record temperatures caused the cancellation of long weekend events.

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Warm July breaks dozens of longstanding Australian temperature records

Many weather stations in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart clocked their highest July temperatures ever as the country’s winters get hotter

Dozens of longstanding temperature records tumbled across Australia during a warm July.

Across the country maximum temperatures were overall about 1.2C above the long-term averages in July and all capital cities except Canberra were warmer than average, Bureau of Meteorology data shows.

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Wet Easter weekend expected as cold trough heads across Australia

Sydney and Melbourne could both see showers, while thunderstorms are forecast in Queensland

Australians can expect a cooler and wetter Easter long weekend than normal this year as a cold trough makes its way across the country.

In Sydney, Good Friday should begin with a sunny morning and reach a maximum of 26C, but showers or even a thunderstorm are likely to hit in the afternoon.

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New Year’s Eve survival guide: how and where to ring in 2023 across Australia

Heading out to watch the new year fireworks? Plan ahead, pack light and check the drinking regulations

It’s the first New Year’s Eve in three years with no Covid-19 restrictions anywhere in Australia – and it’s about to go off with a bang.

Revellers heading to watch the fireworks in each city are being warned to plan ahead, pack light and expect an Uber surcharge.

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What the devil? Woman mistakes real Tasmanian marsupial for dog toy in Hobart home

Kirsten Lynch says the Tasmanian devil – who was gently shooed outside – likely followed their golden retriever puppy into the house

Hobart woman Kirsten Lynch got the fright of her life on Wednesday night when she went to pick up her golden retriever’s Tasmanian devil plush toy and it ran away.

“I went to reach for it, the devil shot underneath the couch,” she said.

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Russia and China must ‘get on side with conservation’, US tells Antarctic commission meeting in Hobart

US assistant secretary of state says two countries have stopped creation of new protected areas in Antarctica ‘for too long’

The US has urged China and Russia to “get on side with conservation” and stop blocking nearly 4m sq km in new marine protected areas around Antarctica.

Speaking at a major international meeting on Antarctic conservation in Hobart, the US assistant secretary of state, Monica Medina, said the two countries had prevented the creation of three new protected areas in Antarctic waters “for too long” and it was time to “shake up the system”.

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Stolen Tasmanian Aboriginal artefacts are finally home. But there’s a catch: they’re only on loan

Cultural objects kept in museums around the world are in nipaluna/Hobart for an exhibition. But Aboriginal communities are calling for them to stay permanently

In 2014, pakana woman Zoe Rimmer left the British Museum in tears after viewing a 170-year-old kelp water carrier taken from lutruwita/Tasmania in their collection. As she cried, the seed of a big idea was planted: how could she get the rikawa, and other Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural artefacts sitting in institutions across the world, home?

“Seeing our ancestral belongings in a storage facility in the British Museum was quite emotional,” says Rimmer, who until recently was senior curator of First Peoples art and culture at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG).

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‘A small step to reconciliation’: Hobart council to remove statue of William Crowther who stole Aboriginal skull from morgue

Former Tasmanian premier mutilated body of William Lanne in 1869 and sent skull to Royal College of Surgeons in London

A statue of former Tasmanian premier, William Crowther, who mutilated the body of an Aboriginal man in 1869 will be taken down by Hobart city council.

Crowther, a surgeon and politician, stole the skull of William Lanne from a morgue and sent it to the Royal College of Surgeons in London.

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Growing concerns for four-year-old girl missing from backyard in southern Tasmania

Searchers have found one of the two dogs Shayla Phillips was last seen playing with in Stormlea, south-east of Hobart, but there is no sign of the girl

Almost 100 people are involved in a search for a four-year-old girl who went missing on the Tasman Peninsula and has not been seen for more than 24 hours.

Shayla Phillips was last seen about 2.30pm Wednesday near Stormlea Rd in Stormlea, wearing pink leggings, a cream top, and gumboots.

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Conservationists call for ban on explosives to scare seals at salmon farm in federal waters off Tasmania

Federal government has not ruled out the use of underwater explosives and ‘bean bag rounds’ in trial off north-west Tasmania

Environment groups have called on the federal government to rule out the use of explosives and guns loaded with “bean bag” rounds to scare seals at a proposed salmon farming trial in commonwealth waters off the north-west coast of Tasmania.

Under Tasmanian laws, the companies are allowed to use underwater explosives, known as “seal crackers”, to deter predators at farms in state waters. Other authorised measures include shooting seals with fabric coated plastic shells containing lead shot, known as bean bag rounds and darts with blunt tips known as “scare caps”. Official documents show some seals have been killed.

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Australia’s Christmas Day weather forecast: sunshine, storms and a scorcher

Brisbane braces for a downpour, Darwin is on cyclone watch, Perth to endure 43C, and other capitals in for a warm and partly cloudy day

Most Australian capitals are in for a warm and partly cloudy Christmas with a chance of a shower in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

Sydney was told to expect a maximum of 30C and a warm night with a minimum of 21C, while Melburnians would be able to enjoy a moderate high of 20C before temperatures dropped to 13C.

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Tasmania jumping castle accident: what we know so far

Five children in Australia are dead and another three are in critical condition after a bouncy castle was blown into the air in an incident at Hillcrest primary school in Devonport

Five children are dead and another three are in critical condition after a jumping castle was blown into the air during an end-of-year celebration at a school in Tasmania’s north-west.

The Tasmanian premier, Peter Gutwein, is currently in Devonport and gave an update with the Tasmania police commissioner, Darren Hine, on Friday morning.

In Australia Lifeline on 13 11 14, Kids Helpline 1800 551 800, mental health helpline 1800 333 288 and Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

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‘I almost cracked’: 16-month artistic performance of mass extinction comes to a close

Since 2019, Lucienne Rickard has been drawing detailed sketches of lost species in a Hobart gallery. On Sunday she erased the final one

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart is filled with people waiting for the swift parrot to disappear.

Hobart artist Lucienne Rickard has spent five weeks drawing a large-scale pencil sketch of the critically endangered bird. Picking up her eraser, she tells her audience, “If we don’t do something soon, this is what will happen.”

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‘It is such a fleeting thing’: Hobart residents flock to witness the Disappearing Tarn

The azure pool only appears after heavy rains, but cold, wet weather hasn’t deterred locals from taking a dip

On kunanyi/Mount Wellington, 200mm of rainfall has transformed a rocky patch of forest into a striking pool. It’s freezing cold, but the water is clear and blue.

The Disappearing Tarn appears only after a heavy downpour. It’s shrouded in a layer of mystery among visitors and scientists alike: geomorphologist Kevin Kiernan speculates its arresting blue colour may be a result of fine sediments in the water as it pools over depressions in the land. At the bottom of this basin, organic matter rots and occasionally releases bubbles.

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Melbourne doctor who called for women to be raped stood down during investigation

Health district responsible for hospital that employs Dr Christopher Kwan Chen Lee says it takes ‘professional misconduct’ seriously

The health district responsible for the hospital which employs an emergency doctor who said “some women deserve to be raped” has ordered the doctor be stood down while they investigate.

Earlier in April Dr Christopher Kwan Chen Lee was suspended by the Tasmanian health practitioners tribunal for six weeks after he admitted to posting a series of sexist and racist remarks online. While Lee previously worked in Tasmania, in 2018 he began work at Box Hill hospital in Victoria as an emergency doctor, and the suspension bars him from working anywhere in Australia.

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Huge crowds attend Invasion Day marches across Australia’s capital cities

Scott Morrison talks of his ancestor’s arrival on the continent, and defends celebration of Australia Day

• Hundreds attend first dawn service to be held on Australia Day

Scott Morrison has said 26 January 1788 was “pretty miserable” for his ancestor, in a speech defending the celebration of Australia Day, while tens of thousands of people joined Invasion Day marches around the country calling for the public holiday to be abolished.

Morrison told a citizenship ceremony in Canberra that his fifth great grandfather, William Roberts, arrived with the first fleet in a group that was “wretched, naked, filthy, dirty, lousy, and many of them utterly unable to stand, or even to stir hand or foot”.

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