Good morning central Victoria!
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There’s some frost about this morning but we’re headed for a partly cloudy day - Bendigo 13, Echuca 15, Maryborough 13, Kyneton 11, Redesdale 13, Castlemaine 12.
Catch up on news around the region here:
Tullie Rowe races to nationals: Golden Square’s Tullie Rowe is putting in plenty of work ahead of her biggest race as an athlete. More here.
VCAT bias appeal dismissed: VCAT has dismissed allegations that it is biased against a group campaigning against a mosque being built in Bendigo. More here.
Tributes for Georgia: Leave a tribute for 15-year-old Georgia Edsall-French here.
Pokies losses cut deep: Victorians blew $2.57 billion on poker machines in the last financial year. More here.
Anti-Abbott poster no sign of bias: Students: Castlemaine students say suggestion they can't think for themselves is "bizarre". More here.
► NEWCASTLE, NEW SOUTH WALES: Humpback populations are rapidly recovering from the damage caused by whaling and could soon be delisted as a threatened species, scientists say.
Commercial whaling for humpbacks officially ceased in 1966, although numbers continued to be decimated by illegal Soviet whaling operations in the southern hemisphere until 1972.
► ATHERTON TABLELANDS, QUEENSLAND: Horse owners are reminded to take steps to protect their animals from the risk of Hendra virus infection with the confirmation of a new case on the Atherton Tablelands.
► LAVINGTON, NEW SOUTH WALES: A mother is disgusted after her son was allegedly racially vilified by the umpire of his football game on Saturday.
Murray Magpies’ senior indigenous forward Ash Murray, 23, was kicked in the face while playing a game against CDHBU at Urana Road Oval in Lavington.
► BENDIGO, VICTORIA: Punters lost close to $48 million dollars on poker machines in the Greater Bendigo area in the 2014/2015 financial year. The loss of $47.7 million is up on last year’s expenditure of $46.2 million.
► PORTLAND, NEW SOUTH WALES: The high-level investigation into the death of Portland resident John Burrows in an explosion on Friday took a dramatic new twist at the weekend when detectives from the NSW Homicide Squad and property Crime Squad arrived in the town.
The deployment of the officers confirmed what had been indicated within hours after the blast - that the death may not have been an accident.
► CANBERRA: Bill Shorten has narrowly avoided a Left faction attempt to immediately bind Labor MPs to support same-sex marriage equality from the next election onwards but the affirmative policy will still become binding on Labor MPs within four years.
And Mr Shorten has pledged that a Shorten Labor government would move to make it law within its first 100 days.
► SYDNEY: Australia's most powerful gambling lobby donated $20,000 to a fundraising body supporting Abbott government frontbencher Kevin Andrews as he led formulation of the Coalition's industry-backed poker machines policy before the 2013 election.
► MELBOURNE: An Australian nurse accused of working for Islamic State in Syria has not applied for bail in Melbourne.
Adam Brookman, from Coolaroo in Melbourne's north, appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday charged with a range of terrorism-related offences.
►UNITED STATES: New York magazine may have ended the relative anonymity of many Bill Cosby accusers for good.
For a cover story this week, New York interviewed and photographed 35 of Cosby's alleged victims, supplementing the story with video interviews with six.
►GREAT BRITAIN: Comedian Ricky Gervais has denounced the slaughter of pilot whales on the Faroe Islands near Norway. "Tragic whale slaughter in Faroe Islands," Gervais tweeted "It's good we've found a twin Earth because we're really f---ing up this one."
►PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Three Australian guards on Manus Island found naked with a woman who claims she was drugged and raped were sent home before local authorities could investigate, the ABC reports.
PNG police said the men and the local woman were found in a state of undress, drunk and sniffing an unidentified substance in mid-July.
Ballarat’s beloved grocer Barbara Wilson has died at the age of 86. Her family has paid tribute to her many years of hard work and kindness alongside her husband Arthur, who died in 2010.
Granddaughter Melanie Fulcher said her nan – known to all as Mrs Wilson – had left a brilliant legacy. “She’s always been a generous lady, always had a smile for people,” she said.