Beachwatch: Light offshore early before clouding up during the afternoon with a chance of rain.Surfs going to start of clean before the onshore kicks in as the day warms. Tide is dropping during the morning.Swell from the SSE at one to 1.5m. Wind light north-west before going south-east, five to 10 knots.

Traffic: No major incidents on Hunter roads.

Trains: Trackwork on the Hunter line means buses replace trains between Scone and Maitland from 4am Tuesday until 7.30am Friday. From 7.20pm Tuesday until 4.30am Wednesday buses also replace trains between Telarah, Maitland and Hamilton. 

Morning Shot: Instagram’s @madzical caught the Pacific Dawn gliding into Newcastle at dawn on Tuesday. 

► PHOTOS: COACH Nathan Brown believes the rewards will come if the Knights can reproduce the effort and commitment shown in a heart-breaking 20-18 loss to Parramatta at Hunter Stadium on Monday. Read more.

► A STONE wall that was once part of a railway bridge in Cooks Hill has been damaged during clearing work for a contentious apartment building in Glovers Lane Reserve. Read more.

► THE former Port Stephens chapter president of the Bandidos bikie gang has been jailed for a maximum of seven-and-a-half years for supplying more than 400 grams of the drug “ice” during a four-month period. Read more.

► A Central Coast man will face court after he allegedly sent racist and offensive messages to senator Nova Peris on Facebook. Read more.

► THE state’s transport authority says it will not release individual submissions into the Newcastle light rail project. Read more.

► IMPROPER boat cleaning practices have landed Soldiers Point Marina a $15,000 fine. Read more.

► LAKE Macquarie City Art Gallery and its Aboriginal Reference Group have received two accolades at the 2016 Museum and Galleries National Awards (MAGNAs). Read more.

Need a national news snapshot first thing? We've got you covered. 

► BALLARAT, VIC: When Maureen Hatcher tied a ribbon to the gates of the old St Alipius Christian Brothers Boys’ School a year ago, she never could have imagined how much her simple gesture would grow. The single red ribbon was tied in honour of her friend’s brother. He’d taken his own life following years of torment after he was sexually abused by Catholic clergy as child. Read more.

► ALBURY, NSW: A fatal meningococcal case on the Border has sent Lainie Dunlop on a mission, to make people more aware of the disease. Mrs Dunlop's daughter-in-law Zellina Whateley-Mann fell ill on May 13 and, less than 24 hours later, she died. It started as a fever for the 31-year-old Walla woman, who decided to sleep it off. Read more.

► CRADLE MOUNTAIN, TAS: Owners of a boutique hotel at Cradle Mountain are eyeing off additional opportunities set to be created by a tourism blueprint for the area. Elanor Investors Group is in the process of expanding the number of rooms at its Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge, as well as planning future investments. Read more.

► STRATHDALE, VIC: A lot can change in 30 years, but two things have been consistent for Alan Brown: his neighbour Alf Richardson’s visits, and recording the rainfall. Mr Richardson, 83, has been looking out for his now 90-year-old friend since Mr Brown’s wife Rhonda died in 1985, leaving Mr Brown alone in his house in Strathdale. Read more.

► GOULBURN, NSW: Overcrowding and casualisation of the workforce is squarely to blame for continuing unrest at Goulburn Jail, says the State Opposition. Shadow Corrections spokesman, Guy Zangari fired the missive on Friday after learning of last week's alleged assaults on officers. Read more.

► QUEENSLAND: Australia is the only country in the world that has made animal welfare a condition of livestock trade. Five years ago, the ABC’s Four Corners aired its now notorious story ‘A Bloody Business’ that showed horrific footage of mistreatment of Australian-origin cattle in some Indonesian abattoirs. The story whipped up a frenzy. Read more.

► PORT MACQUARIE, NSW: Results from drone trials conducted at Port Macquarie this month will help protect swimmers on the NSW coast. The three-day trial attracted plenty of attention around May 17 as a helicopter and drone shared a flight path on the hour to spot different forms of wildlife. The trial was part of the NSW Government’s $16 million Shark Management Strategy to see how well the drone technology could potentially spot a shark. Read more.

► GRAMPIANS, VIC: Victorian traditional owners have lodged a native title claim in the federal court for the Grampians National Park, also known as Gariwerd. Read more.

► KATHERINE, NT: A Katherine company already delivering a range of services in indigenous communities across the region has come out in support of the Northern Territory government’s plan to create an independent statutory body that will become a “one-stop shop” for remote housing. Read more.

► Victoria Police's "suck it up" culture has created a widespread mental health crisis within the force, a damning report has found. Hundreds of officers are on leave for psychological issues and three have died by suicide since October. Read more.

► Canberra politicians have been slugging taxpayers thousands of dollars simply for driving across town to their Parliament House offices. MPs and Senators who live within 30 kilometres of Parliament House can claim $86, before tax, a day for turning up to work at Capital Hill when the Parliament is sitting or to attend committee meetings. Read more.

► A Victorian school is in mourning after a 15-year-old student was killed in a crash that has left another student in hospital. Torquay teenager Kate Cattanach, 15, died when the ute she was a passenger in crashed into a pole in Penshurst, near Hamilton, about 1.30pm on Sunday. The unregistered ute was being driven by 15-year-old Lily Cameron on Mackichan Lane, a dirt road near the Hamilton Highway. Read more.

National weather radar

International news

► More than one-third of the coral reefs of the central and northern regions of the Great Barrier Reef have died in the huge bleaching event earlier this year, Queensland researchers said. Read more.

► Three women, dining at a restaurant in the US, have been hailed as heroes after they warned a woman sitting nearby that her date had spiked her drink. Friends Sonia Ulrich, Monica Kenyon and Marla Saltzer had stopped at the Fig Restaurant in Santa Monica, California, for happy hour, last Thursday. As they were eating and drinking, Ms Kenyon noticed the man secretly putting something into the woman's drink. Ms Ulrich posted her account of the events to Facebook in a post she titled "GUESS WHO STOPPED A RAPE LAST NIGHT?! THESE GALS!" Read more.

► A terrifying car crash that left Danni Bett lying in hospital in a neck brace wasn't enough to stop her from breastfeeding. Despite being constrained to a hospital bed the Nelson woman pushed back against the reluctance of Christchurch Hospital medical staff to allow her to breastfeed her distressed newborn. Read more.

On this day

May 31, 2005: The identity of Deep Throat was revealed by Vanity Fair magazine on this day. The pseudonym referred to the person who gave information to two journalists in 1972 about the involvement of United States President Richard Nixon's administration in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal. The Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein described Deep Throat as a key source of information behind a series of articles on the scandal, which eventually led to President Nixon's resignation. No one revealed the identity of Deep Throat - though many tried to guess who it was - until 2005, when a family attorney said it was former FBI Associate Director Mark Felt. Felt was battling dementia at the time, and had denied being Deep Throat previously. See a reflection here:

With just a few snips, 28 to be exact, a head full of dreadlocks that took Maris Depers 20 years to grow were removed in just minutes. 

So, what thoughts run through your head when you're about to have your first hair cut in two decades?

“I try not to be too vain, and none of that matters anyway, but I do wonder if I’m going to be ugly on the other side of this,” Mr Depers said just before the first chop.

“The way I’ve been making sense of that is, unfortunately in our community one in four women experiences physical or sexual violence in the course of their lifetime – and that’s uglier.” Read more.