Hunter roads: All Hunter roads are clear this morning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Hunter trains: There is a good service on the Central Coast and Newcastle line and the Hunter line.
Hunter weather: Partly cloudy day for Newcastle (22 degrees), partly cloudy day with light winds in Raymond Terrace (22 degrees), partly cloudy with medium chance of showers in Maitland (23 degrees) and partly cloudy with showers in Scone (22 degrees)
Hunter beachwatch: There’s the chance of a late shower but we will see a bit of sunshine and it’s going to be a pretty good first day of spring to be beachside. The wind will be north-west to west but may head north-east in the afternoon. The swell from the east around 1 to 1.3 metres. Wave conditions will be nice and clean for much of the morning. Around town try Stockton, the Reef breaks at Nobbys, the Cowrie Hole, Newcastle, The Cliff, Dixon park, Dudley and Redhead. To the south try Hams, North Catho, Birdie and Soldiers. At Port Stephens try Samurai and Birubi. There will be some tricky edges and a few rips so do be careful if swimming. The water temperature is 16 degrees.
► THE Catholic Church has paid more than $25 million to Hunter child sex abuse survivors, the royal commission has heard on a day when a nun said she didn’t think the rape of a boy was a crime, and an abuse survivor told of wanting to grab knives and kill a paedophile priest when he was just 13. More here.
► Newcastle will play host to the nation’s surfing elite when the Australian Boardriders Battle (ABB) final and the sport’s night of nights come to town in February. More here.
► Craig Miller will be in new club colours next season as he rejoins the Newcastle Rugby League coaching ranks with Central following a year off and previous premiership campaigns at Western Suburbs. More here.
► SCHOOLBOY Kristian Brymora scored his first senior goal for the Newcastle Jets with a clinical strike in their 2-1 win against Eastern SC at the Bao’an Stadium in Shenzhen, China, on Wednesday. More here.
► HUNTER business figure Hilton Grugeon has joined former Newcastle lord mayor Jeff McCloy in hitting back at the ICAC, saying it had a predetermined agenda to get them both from the start. More here.
► The environmental crusader who inspired an Academy Award-winning film has expressed disbelief at a decision by Australian regulators to raise the safe level of firefighting chemicals in drinking water to 78 times higher than in the United States. More here.
► A lack of beds across the Hunter’s six crisis accommodation providers is endangering women and children, who may feel they have no choice but to return to the violent home they have just tried to escape. More here.
► The Hunter has the sexiest firefighters in NSW. How do we know this, you ask? Well, we’ve got six firefighters in the NSW Firefighters Calendar for 2017. More here.
► STATE Opposition Leader Luke Foley has renewed his calls for a debate in parliament on retrospective legislation to bring charges against the targets of Operation Spicer. More here.
► The end of winter marks the start of magpie swooping season and Hunter residents have been warned to keep an eye on the skies. More here.
► HE had the opportunity, he knew the victims and he had the skills. Aged-care nurse Garry Steven Davis was the only person who could have killed two elderly SummitCare Wallsend residents with lethal insulin injections over two days in October, 2013, Newcastle Supreme Court has heard. More here.
► Have you ever had the feeling that you want to throttle your neighbour? Surely the most common reason for such a heinous, uncivil thought is barking dogs. More here.
► MASON weighed about 250 grams – no bigger than a large mouse – when he came into care. More here.
► Lifeline Australia has launched an online survey in an effort to understand the reach and impact of loneliness in communities like the Hunter. More here.
► ROCKY, a three-year-old male koala, is just one many koalas hit by cars in Port Stephens. More here.
► Levee traders are cashing in on construction chaos at Stockland Green Hills. More here.
► The Lyme Disease Association of Australia has thrown its support behind Maitland’s Kazz Tokek and urged employers to give her a go. More here.
► A KOALA that strayed into the dog yard of a Nelsons Plains home has narrowly escaped injury. More here.
► TOMAGO and Heatherbrae access are the focus of revised plans for the M1 to Raymond Terrace link. More here.
► KAY Fraser is pushing for more and improved footpaths in her campaign to become Lake Macquarie City Council's mayor. More here.
State of the nation
Need a national news snapshot first thing? Well, we have you covered.
► TASMANIA: A 6000-signature petition against the optional lowering of the school starting age has been presented to Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff. United Voice, the union representing state childcare centres, early childhood educators and parents met with Mr Rockliff on Wednesday over 40 minutes to discuss their concerns. The government proposes from 2020 to allow children aged four years and six months to start prep and those aged three-and-a-half years to start kindergarten. Read more.
► KALGOORLIE, WA: A relation of the teenage boy killed in Boulder has been lauded for her bravery and courage after an image of her standing between police and protesters during a violent riot in Kalgoorlie emerged on Tuesday. Hundreds of protesters pelted rocks and bottles at police officers standing guard outside court on Tuesday morning where a 55-year-old man charged with the manslaughter of a 14-year-old Indigenous boy was due to face Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court. Read more.
► SOUTH COAST, NSW: A prisoner accused of escaping from Corrective Services custody by leaping out a window at Shoalhaven Hospital last week had originally been taken to the facility after swallowing razor blades, a court has heard. Harold Milton Brown fronted Wollongong Local Court on Tuesday less than 24 hours after he was captured at Lake Illawarra following a week on the run. Read more.
► MOUNT CLEAR, VIC: In mere minutes a Mount Clear family was robbed of close to a $100,000 worth of cars in a terrifying aggravated burglary involving a group of offenders. Jemma Proelss and her mother are the latest victims of aggravated burglaries that have plagued police and continued to rise throughout the state. Read more.
► TUNCURRY, NSW: A rare sighting has been made of a brush-tailed phascogale going about his business during the night. Caught on MidCoast Council’s motion sensor camera on Gereeba Island near Tuncurry, the sighting has excited Natural Systems staff as proof that their work over years to restore the natural ecosystems on Wallis Lake islands is paying off. Read more.
► INDI, VIC: A crossbench bill for an immediate vote on marriage equality has been backed by Cathy McGowan, but she says it does not mean she has turned her back on a plebiscite. The Indi MP went into the election campaign with a policy to support same-sex marriage, via the Coalition’s method of a plebiscite to gauge public opinion. She then joined fellow cross-bench MPs Adam Bandt and Andrew Wilke on the first sitting day of parliament to give notice of a motion calling on the parliament to have a free vote instead. Read more.
► RIVERINA, NSW: Blocking the approval of a recovery house on Gurwood Street will prevent addicts from seeking help in the first place, health experts have warned. Faced with overwhelming opposition from neighbours, on Monday night councillors rejected the development application for a 12-bed Riverina Recovery House at 199 Gurwood Street. It is now the second time a site for the house has been vetoed. Read more.
National news
► Victoria faces another dangerous summer bushfire season, with western and central Victoria looming as the highest risk areas in the state. The majority of western Victoria - including the Wombat Forest, Brisbane Ranges and the eastern part of the Otways - faces an above normal bushfire threat for the rest of 2016, according to a new report. Read more.
► The Turnbull government faces what could be its first defeat in the Senate over a motion backing a banking royal commission. Earlier on Wednesday, the government headed off a lower house motion, introduced by Labor, which would have embarrassed the Coalition over the issue - but would not have forced a commission to be held. A similar motion is set to be debated in the Senate on Thursday and looks likely to succeed, underscoring the fact that the government cannot control the agenda in the upper house, where it holds just 30 of 76 seats. Read more.
► An Indigenous education charity has returned a donation from prominent Labor senator Sam Dastyari, following revelations he asked a communist-linked Australian-Chinese donor to foot an expenses bill when he exceeded parliamentary travel entitlements. Labor senators jumped to the defence of the NSW powerbroker on Wednesday as Coalition MPs questioned whether he should remain in Parliament after the $1670 arrangement with businessman Minshen Zhu, was revealed by Fairfax Media. Read more.
National weather radar
International news
► BALI: British DJ David Taylor has re-enacted how he bashed a Balinese police officer with a broken beer bottle as the officer lay spreadeagled on the beach at Kuta. Clutching the neck of the jagged bottle, Mr Taylor demonstrated how he hit the back of Wayan Sudarsa's head as the officer lay face down in the sand. His girlfriend, Australian Sara Connor, sat under a tree and bit her nails as Mr Taylor role-played the grisly attack on the night of Mr Sudarsa's death on August 17. Read more.
►VANCOUVER: A young Australian expat faces a long road to recovery after breaking his back in a fall in western Canada. Dylan Eccles was seriously injured in an accident in Whistler, a ski resort town north of Vancouver, on Saturday. He suffered multiple fractures to his spine, pelvis and both wrists. Details about the circumstances of his fall remain unclear. Read more.
On this day
September 1, 1939: The invasion of Poland starts the European phase of World War II. The invasion was a joint operation between Nazi Germany, the Free City of Danzig, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent. The campaign ended on October 6, with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland. Also on this day, Adolf Hitler signed a "euthanasia decree" to allow involuntary euthanasia on those "deemed incurably sick", such as people with disabilities or mental illness. Learn more about Aktion T4 here:
The faces of Australia: Geoffrey Barter
This week Barnawartha and Birdsville have more in common than just their first letter.
Geoffrey Barter is linking the two as a resident of the former helping to make the latter’s most famous days a success.
Mr Barter is assisting in setting up for this Friday and Saturday’s Birdsville Races, deciding to register as a volunteer as he’d planned to attend the event for the first time.
“Birdsville was just something I wanted to do,” he said.
“I actually like getting out into the desert, but it’s not something I do that often.
“Probably every couple of years now I’m making a trip of some sort.”
A Country Fire Authority volunteer for nearly 30 years, Mr Barter has also volunteered on school councils and as a football umpire.
This background encouraged him to offer his services at Birdsville as well because he would be spending a week in the remote Queensland town. Read more.