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On Friday 9 January, during a day with a Catastrophic Fire Rating, a grassfire started between 2 and 3pm at Fogartys Gap Road in Ravenswood and by 5pm it had crossed Calder Freeway. Emergency warnings to ‘Leave Immediately’ were issued at 7pm for Harcourt and areas to the east towards Sutton Grange. The fire burned through the Harcourt township and travelled up Mount Alexander/Leanganook.

Wendy Free. Allora, the best little town on the Downs will make history again - be a part of the 125th anniversary of Banjo Paterson's visit to our town. Yes, Banjo Paterson was indeed in our town presenting a political speech on March 16th 1901 in the Protestant Hall.

The Sunshine Coast-based LifeFlight aeromedical crew ... airlifted a man to hospital after a motorcycle crash in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. The LifeFlight helicopter was tasked by Retrieval Services Queensland at 12.15pm to a State Forest near Kenilworth and landed on a dirt road close to the scene.

Members of the public have rescued two swimmers struggling in a rip in the Illawarra on Monday night, with the help of a rescue tube affixed to the Surf Life Saving NSW (SLSNSW) Emergency Response Beacon (ERB) located at the unpatrolled Coniston Beach, just south of WIN Stadium. 

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Indigenous Cultural Fire Practitioners and Queensland farmers are working together to improve grazing landscapes using First Nations land management practices, including Cultural Burning - transforming the way food and agricultural systems work.

Denice Barnes. The dumping of Member for Terrigal Adam Crouch as Shadow Minister for the Central Coast has resulted in a public backlash, forcing newly-appointed NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane to defend the decision. Mr Crouch lost his role as Shadow Minister for the Central Coast in the recent reshuffle of the NSW Shadow Cabinet.

Mat Dalby. More than 120 people rallied in Denmark on Saturday, calling on the State Government to halt a planned summer prescribed burn in the Walpole–Nornalup National Park. The rally of people from Walpole, Denmark and across the Great Southern followed days of escalating concern of the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attraction's plans threatening the last remaining ancient red tingle forest.

Barham's state-of-the-art bowls greens have drawn bowlers from all over the world in recent months, but at Christmas, it was our chance to export some. Four intrepid adventurers from the Barham Bowling Club, President Steve Wilson, Glenn Faul, Damien Paterson and Dave 'Harry' Potter competed on the world stage at the 2025 Tin Ding Sin China Lawn Bowls Open in Qiantang district, Hangzhou, China.

A major operation is underway in the Upper Murray and Tallangatta Valley to complete a 300km containment line to bring the Walwa-River Road fire under control … the blaze was started by a lightning strike in the Mt Lawson National Park 25kms west of Walwa on January 5th and has now burnt more than 105,000 hectares and the perimeter stretched around 420kms. To date, there have been nine confirmed house losses, 53 structures (sheds) destroyed and an estimated 10,000 hectares of HVP pine plantation and communication infrastructure at Mt Lawson have been burnt.

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The Australian public is being called upon to unite and lend a helping hand to our farmers in need, as they battle the Victorian bushfire crisis - one of the worst in years ... In response to the crisis, Victorian Farmers’ Federation (VFF) - the state’s peak farmer advocacy body - has activated its Disaster Relief Fund...

The State only aims to promptly suppress 80 per cent of bushfires, effectively allowing one in five fires to grow beyond initial attack. According to the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) Annual Report 2024–25, the government’s target for “fires contained at first attack and/or within five hectares” sits well below what frontline agencies have actually achieved in each of the past five years.