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1 week ago | 
abc.net.au | Anna McGuinness |Emile Pavlich |Shannon Schubert
An inquest hears Victoria's prison disability support service has hundreds of inmates on a waiting list. Clinton Austin was an NDIS participant but did not get the support he was entitled to before he died. Crucial medical evidence about Mr Austin's cause of death in custody has been delayed until August. A coronial inquest has heard a First Nations prisoner with a cognitive impairment fell through "a gap" in disability support services before his death.
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3 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Anna McGuinness |Emile Pavlich
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article includes the name and image of someone who has died (used with the permission of his family). Clinton Austin was struggling to breathe, vomiting and sweating through his clothes before he died in custody at a central Victorian prison. He was told by a doctor he had gastro. A few hours later he was found slumped over in his cell.
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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Anna McGuinness |Emile Pavlich
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Jan 18, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich
When George Kirby strolls towards the two full eskies beside a wetland in his beloved Kirby Flats in northern Victoria, he jokingly asks for a fishing line and an ice-cold beverage. But this is not a fishing trip. The contents of the eskies are dozens of olive perchlet, a native fish that was once widespread throughout the Murray-Darling but suffered serious decline. It was last spotted in Victoria in 1929 and officially declared extinct in the state's waters in the 1980s.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich
When Gary Van De Werken's insurance premium jumped by nearly 300 per cent, he decided to take matters into his own hands. One of those was employing some canine assistance. "It's called a dog," Mr Van De Werken said. "That's our burglar alarm."Mr Van De Werken's home and contents insurance skyrocketed late last year, jumping from around $3,500 to $13,000. Despite shopping around, he was unable to find a cheaper option, so he and his wife were forced to live uninsured.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich
At the end of one of the most exhausting basketball games in north-west Victorian history, official scores stood at 5,269 to 5,249. It was April 25, 1972, and a bedraggled bunch of 20 basketballers were out on their feet and gasping for air after finishing five days of continuous on-court action. "We were pretty drained," Alan Morris said. The goal of this sophisticated operation was to break the world record for the longest-ever continuous basketball game.
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Dec 28, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich
Fire authorities in Victoria say favourable cooler weather will help them contain a large fire in the Grampians National Park in coming days. Three homes and multiple sheds have been lost in the 74,000-hectare blaze on the eastern section of the national park, according to authorities. The homes are located in the Moyston area, near Ararat in western Victoria, and the 11 sheds are located near Moyston and Pomonal.
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Dec 17, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich
As Mildura's morning temperature reached 40 degrees Celsius earlier this week, rough sleeper Leon Hill sat in a park going about his day as usual. The Bureau of Meteorology declared that the nearby regional Victorian town of Walpeup, an hour south, was the hottest place on earth for Monday, recording a staggering 47.1 degrees. But Mr Hill brushed that statistic off nonchalantly. "We're in Australia mate, it gets hot," he said.
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Dec 13, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Emile Pavlich
A fruit grower has been fined $750,000 after a 70-year-old labour hire worker died after a fall from a moving trailer. Stone fruit grower Cutri Fruit Pty Ltd, based near Swan Hill in northern Victoria,pleaded guiltyin the Mildura County Courtto failing to ensure persons other than employees were not exposed to health and safety risks. The man, an Afghan national, died in January 2022 while working his second shift at the company.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Julia Bergin |Angus Verley |Tamara Clark |Emile Pavlich
A fast-moving fire has flattened a house, severely damaged another and gutted 1,300 hectares of timber plantation and bushland in Victoria's west. The CFA and Victoria Police are treating it as suspicious. A police arson chemist is investigating the cause of the blaze. A fast-spreading fire burnt through 1,300 hectares of bushland in regional Victoria over the two days leading up to Monday, flattening one home entirely and destroying much of another.
