Good morning central Victoria!
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Brrrrrrr, it’s cold! So cold that there’s a frost warning in place – check it out here.
Once the frost lifts, we’re in for a mostly sunny day - Bendigo 12, Echuca 15, Maryborough 12, Kyneton 10, Redesdale 12, Castlemaine 11.
Catch up on news around the region here:
A small truck with a trailer crashed on the Calder Freeway at the Gaaschs Road overpass. More here.
The wool was flying at the 2015 Australian Sheep and Wool Show at the weekend as competition heated up. More here.
Dozens of Bendigonians turned out to join Colleen Hewett in Hargreaves Mall on Saturday to say no to family violence. More here.
SHELBOURNE trainer Larry Eastman admits he has to keep pinching himself to make sure he’s not dreaming. More here.
Catch up on all the weekend’s footy coverage here.
Need a national news snapshot first thing - well, we have you covered.
► ULVERSTONE, TAS: A PASSERBY has saved an elderly woman from her burning Ulverstone unit. The Tasmania Fire Service said the woman was lucky to be alive after a heater fire caused her Lovett Street unit to fill with thick black smoke. Fire Investigator and Devonport Fire Brigade Station Officer Mark Brownrigg said a passerby noticed smoke coming from the unit and went to investigate. He said the unit's smoke alarm had not gone off.
► BALLARAT, VIC: THE process of advertising the role of the city’s chief executive could cost ratepayers more than $150,000. Behind the scenes, councillor support is steadily growing to advertise the role of current chief executive Anthony Schinck but North Ward councillor Vicki Coltman warned the financial ramifications would be excessive.
► WAGGA, NSW: On any given Sunday, a man wandering around carrying a canoe, a rabbit trap or a pitchfork would raise eyebrows, but not yesterday. Wagga Swap Meet is the exception to the rule, with thousands converging at the showground with the common goal of finding hidden treasures. People carried their finds in trolleys wheeled behind them and wandered at their own leisure to ensure they did not miss anything.
► JULIA CREEK, QLD: THE 100-million-year-old fossils of small and gigantic fish have been found by palaeontologists on an Outback property in the North West. The discoveries reveal new insights into creatures from Australia’s ancient inland sea. The exciting discoveries were made on Proa Redclaw Farm, near Julia Creek, QLD.
► NEWCASTLE, NSW: BERYL Fenning wishes things were different, but she can not avoid the fact that the second part of her life has been heavily influenced by the workplace death of her husband, crane driver Kevin Fenning. Mr Fenning, 55, and his workmate Peter Naylor, 37, died terrible deaths when molten iron ‘‘blew back’’ into their overhead crane, shattering its windows and burning them to death. It was March 14, 1995, and Mrs Fenning has not stopped fighting since then for what she sees as justice for the people who died at the steelworks. Read more.
► BENALLA, VIC: LETTERS from a Benalla bank manager supporting bushranger Ned Kelly and condemning the actions by police against him have been confirmed as genuine. The letters by George McCracken were given to Wangaratta solicitor John Suta, who is self-confessed long-time of Kelly supporter. They were handed over to Mr Suta last year by a person who was a descendant of Mr McCracken. Read more.
► DUBBO, NSW: BRIAN Freeman started off his day with a 65-kilometre walk from Gilgandra to Dubbo on Saturday. It's the same distance he has walked every day for more than 50 days to raise awareness and funds to support wounded veterans of Australia's most recent conflicts. The Walking Wounded chief executive officer is walking - and kayaking - from the tip of Queensland to the southern end of Tasmania, taking with him the Afghanistan Roll of Honour. Read more.
► HUNTER, NSW: THE 40-kilogram dumbbell looked suspiciously feather-light when Stewart Cook sent it heaven-bound with one arm. If his previous competitor hadn’t just failed the same task moments earlier, few would appreciate just how easy he made it look. The Louth Park man won the novice over-90 kilogram category in the Hunter’s Strongest Man Competition at Pokolbin on Sunday. “This is something I’ve never done before,” the truck driver said. “You can’t practice for this.” Read more.
► TASMANIA: AS THE temperature plunges below 10 degrees daily, the City Mission has released alarming figures showing a rapid increase in demand for its services. Data from the Northern Tasmanian organisation’s impending annual report shows the average occupancy rate of its adult male crisis accommodation facility, Orana House, was 94 per cent, with between 10 and 30 men turned away each month. More than 100 more men accessed the facility than in the same period the previous year and 336 new clients approached City Mission for emergency relief. Read more.
► Treasurer Joe Hockey said last week he wants a "grand deal" with the Australian community on tax reform. Well, here it is. You pay 15 per cent GST on everything you buy. And in return? Permanently higher pensions and family payments to compensate low income earners. Lower personal income taxes. Freedom from pesky and inefficient state taxes such as stamp duty. More spending on schools, hospitals and vital infrastructure. Are you up for it?
► Victoria's most senior Catholic said he did not want the church's schools to accept and tolerate that some students were gay. Denis Hart, the Archbishop of Melbourne, made the comments in 2007 after he buried a report designed to address homophobia, discrimination and self-harm in Catholic schools. And in May this year, Archbishop Hart asked Catholic school principals to send children home with glossy booklets opposing same-sex marriage. Read more.
► Burger company Grill'd has sacked a young employee who says she was targeted for speaking out against a WorkChoices-era agreement that denies staff penalty rates and pays below-award wages. Kahlani Pyrah, 20, was employed at the Grill'd outlet in Camberwell, where she began an effort to terminate the company's 2007 wage deal in favour of the basic restaurant industry entitlements. The workplace agreement for five Melbourne Grill'd outlets pays adult staff a flat hourly rate of $17.52 and no weekend penalty rates. The Grill'd deal also requires workers to buy their own uniforms and undertake unpaid training outside work hours.
► NSW has the fastest-growing economy in Australia, while Victoria's population growth is outpacing nearly every other state's, as record-low interest rates and falling iron ore prices create increasingly favourable conditions for the eastern states. It means the gap in economic activity is continuing to close between the country's mining and non-mining states, with the Reserve Bank's record-low rates doing exactly what they are supposed to do: fire up the finance sector, support retail sales and boost housing construction. Read more.
► July 20, 2012: People around the world were horrified after a mass shooting during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado. Gunman James Eagan Holmes set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms. Twelve people were killed and 70 others injured. It was Colorado's deadliest shooting since the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. It resulted in the largest number of causalities of any US shooting. Gun sales in Colorado soared following the shootings, but also triggered debate about gun control in the country. Holmes was found guilty of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and possession of explosives last week.
► SOUTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES: In its way the Ku Klux Klan rally on a searing Saturday afternoon at the South Carolina Statehouse could be seen as a victory for free speech. Much was said. Little blood was spilled. But is unlikely any minds were changed or hearts moved by the rhetoric. "White power!" shouted the Klansmen, whose leaders had dressed on this occasion in black suits with SS flashes rather than robes. Read more.
► CHINA: A young couple allegedly at the centre of a viral sex video that outraged Chinese authorities have been arrested, according to reports. The one-minute video, which appears to have been filmed by the fornicating couple mid-tryst, was shot in the change room of a Uniqlo store in Beijing. It went viral on China's tightly controlled social media after being posted online on Tuesday, garnering millions of views on Weibo (China's answer to Twitter) and mobile messaging service WeChat. Censors moved quickly to pull down the clip, condemning it as "unsocialist" and "vulgar".
► VATICAN CITY: Cardinal George Pell has publicly criticised Pope Francis' decision to place climate change at the top of the Catholic Church's agenda. Cardinal Pell, a well-known climate change skeptic, told the Financial Times the church had "no particular expertise in science". "The church has got no mandate from the Lord to pronounce on scientific matters," he said. "We believe in the autonomy of science."
HELEN Duckham is a woman who likes to control her own destiny.
Having operated a small business out of her garage for years she wanted to own a space where she could expand her gumboot business, Pipduck Wellies.
"There are a lot of large, empty industrial spaces in the Wollongong area," says Duckham.
"I drove around and looked at many of them. Renting just didn't sit well with me. I like to be in control of my investments." Read more.