People wind back plans as epidemiologists warn big night could become a super-spreader eventFollow our Covid live blog for the latest updatesVaccine rollout tracker; cases and data trackerOfficially the new year parties in Australia’s largest cities wi…
French coast: the early explorers who sparked British fears of a Francophone Australia
Nicolas Baudin’s voyage at the height of the Napoleonic wars gave us dozens of French place names, and left with kangaroos for the Empress Josephine Get our free news app; get our morning email briefingFrom La Perouse in Sydney to Victoria’s French Isl…
‘Exhilarating’ experiment: Australian students send bacteria into space to brew yoghurt
Home-brewed yoghurt on International Space Station may be just a small leap for a group of budding scientistsGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingFollow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesAustralian high school students …
Four children, aged one to 10, die in Melbourne house fire
Firefighters describe feeling ‘helpless’ after battling blaze that left two girls and two boys dead in Melbourne suburb of WerribeeFollow our live blog for the latest updatesGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingFour children have died i…
Voices from Australia’s Covid frontline: the shop owner and the customer
A children’s book seller and a mother of two have developed a strong sense of community during Melbourne’s long stretches in lockdownFollow our Covid live blog for the latest updatesNSW and Vic restrictions; Vic hotspotsVaccine rollout and rates tracke…
Malka Leifer ordered to stand trial in Melbourne on child sex abuse charges
Former principal of ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel School has pleaded not guilty to 70 chargesFormer ultra-Orthodox school principal Malka Leifer has been ordered to stand trial on 70 child sexual abuse charges.Leifer, 55, pleaded not guilty to the charge…
Melbourne police break up anti-lockdown protest with non-lethal rounds and teargas
Third day of demonstrations ends in a standoff between officers and protesters at the city’s war memorialGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingPolice in Melbourne have again fired non-lethal rounds and teargas at anti-Covid lockdown prot…
Riot police end standoff at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance on third day of protests
More than 200 arrested as Daniel Andrews condemns ‘ugly scenes’ and describes actions of protesters as ‘insult to the vast majority of tradies’Follow our live blog for the latest updates on Covid and protestsPolice have shut down an almost three-hour s…
‘Everyone was nervous’: Victoria avoids serious damage after major earthquake rocks Melbourne
Seismologists believe 5.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Mansfield Wednesday morning is ‘probably largest in 175 to 200 years’Victoria earthquake live blog – as it happenedFollow our Australia Covid live blog for the latest updatesGet our free news app;…
Melbourne descends into chaos as police arrest 44 and fire rubber pellets at anti-lockdown protesters
It started with construction workers opposing compulsory vaccinations but grew into a broader ‘freedom’ rally which shut down freeways and bridgesPolice have fired pepper balls and stinger grenades at violent anti-Covid lockdown protesters on the stree…