Launceston’s weather forecast
A high close to the south of the state will gradually move out to the east during the afternoon today. Early on Friday morning a trough will extend over Tasmania from a complex area of low pressure moving over Victoria. The low is expected to pass near Flinders Island during Friday, before moving away to the east in the evening. A westerly stream will follow on Saturday, as a high over the Bight extends a ridge to the north of Tasmania, with the high moving to the east of the state during Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Examiner’s top stories
► A Westpac rescue helicopter was dispatched to a property on Garibaldi Road, Pioneer in the state’s North East. It was responding to reports of a 5-year-old girl who had been bitten by a snake. Read more.
► Popular three-day Northern music festival Party in the Paddock (PITP) is back for its fifth year in February. Creative director Jesse Higgs said the festival – which takes place in Burns Creek - would be bringing back some old favourites to celebrate its anniversary. Read more.
► Centrelink’s online compliance system is expected to start matching data of more than 2.5 million aged pensioners and about 800,000 disability support pensioners, according to supporting tables to the the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook issued on January 12. The news has been met with dismay by Community Legal Centres Tasmania chair Jane Hutchison. Read more.
State of the nation
Need a national news snapshot first thing – well, we have you covered.
Regional news
►GOULBURN, NSW: Tales of devastating losses have been shared at The Loaded Dog pub after fires sweep through the region. Employee Vicki Bowes said she heard of one landowner who had lost 200 head of sheep at Lower Boro: “He lost stock in the fire before Christmas. He had just replaced those and now he’s lost more in this fire.”...read the full story.
►MELBOUNRE, VIC: Rainbow Serpent Music and Arts Festival organisers are calling for a fresh approach to recreational drugs laws after a horror weekend in Melbourne resulted in three deaths…full story here.
►SYDNEY, NSW: 40 years on the memories of the Granville train disaster are still raw for rescuers like Gerry Buchtmann who pulled both the living and the dead from beneath a road bridge that had collapsed onto two commuter train carriages in the nation’s worst rail disaster.
► WAGGA WAGGA, NSW: If it’s so hot outside you wouldn’t walk your dog, why would you race a horse? animal activists ask. This comes after a full cart of races went ahead on Tuesday in temperatures above 40 degrees...catch up on the full story.
National news
►Properties have been damaged and other homes remained under threat as bushfires raged into the evening across the Hunter Valley and near the ACT...catch up on the latest here.
►A toddler has been taken to hospital in a serious condition after he was pulled unconscious from a backyard swimming pool in Sydney's west. The boy is the latest victim in a string of water-related incidents this summer...full story here.
► 2016 has been declared the hottest year on record. The World Meteorological Organisation said temperatures in 2016 were about 1.1 degrees higher than the pre-industrial period...That beat the 2015 record by 0.07 degrees.
National weather radar
International news
► Now will Julian Assange be extradited to the US to face charges? Last week, the WikiLeaks Twitter account, widely believed to be run by Julian Assange, tweeted: "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition.” But he has in the past promised much more than he delivered.
►INDONESIA: Permadi Arya became famous – or infamous, depending on how you look at it – for his satirical YouTube videos lampooning extremism. One of them, You are Shiite, sends up those who preach that only Sunni Muslims will be guaranteed a plot of land in heaven. But not everyone was amused.
Faces of Australia:
With two generations of leather tanning in her blood and a love of nature, taxidermy was a natural progression for Hillston local Cassandra Hall.
Her grandfather was a drover and the source of Cas’ skills in leather working.
Not scared to get her hands dirty as a child, Cassandra would go out hunting with him and help mount his prized catches.