A masked man who was allegedly armed with an axe when he attempted to rob two Ballarat milk bars has been refused bail. Read more.

Ballarat City Council plan on pumping more $5.6 million into improving parking over the next decade. Read more.

Ballarat police arrested more than 30 wanted people during an extensive operation over the weekend. Read more.

Lake Wendouree onballer Ben Taylor is the Ballarat Football League's best and fairest. Read more.

More than 20 car dealership owners who have “had a gutful” with a “car theft epidemic” will gather for a crisis meeting to determine how they can work together to stamp out car theft. Read more.

We had 12mm of rain overnight and could be in for even more than that today.

Need a national news snapshot first thing - well, we have you covered. 

►NEWCASTLE: About 2300 people having private sessions with the child abuse Royal Commission have reported abuse in Catholic institutions, according to figures quoted on Monday by the chair of the commission, Justice Peter McClellan. Read more

►VICTORIA: The State Emergency Service has issued a flood warning for the Loddon River upstream of Laanecoorie, where the weir burst its banks overnight, and the Campaspe, Loddon, Avoca and Wimmera basins are all on flood watch. Read more

►PORT MACQUARIE: A $1 million reward – the largest ever offered in NSW history – has been announced for the safe return or recovery of missing toddler William Tyrrell. Read more

►RIVERINA: While the Murrumbidgee River peaked at 8.3 metres on Monday afternoon, it may just be the start of weeks of flooding in the region with more rain on the way. Read more

►MAITLAND: Maddison Elliott, 17, has won a gold medal at the Rio Paralympics in her pet event the 100m freestyle. Read more

►BUNBURY: The carnage and mayhem at Manea Senior College may have been fake but the educational value was real as emergency services simulated a horrific car accident for the college’s health and medical specialist students. Read more

► MT ISA: The State Coroner has ruled that the privilege against self-incrimination can be overridden in the inquest of missing presumed murdered backpacker Tony Jones. Read more

► BENDIGO: A 19-year-old man has been charged with murder following the death of another man in Ironbark on Saturday night. Read more

► TAMWORTH: Police have been called in and league officials are promising to clamp down after ugly scenes marred Sunday’s Group 4 grand final which descended into chaos when crowds stormed the field. Read more, see video

► WAGGA: Public housing tenants who trash their taxpayer-funded homes will be forced to foot the bill, according to the minister in charge. Read more

►TASMANIA: A Mole Creek venison producer has spoken out against deregulation of the fallow deer industry amid concerns the wild population will grow to one million by 2050. Read more

►SINGLETON: He might not be able to walk yet, but baby Parks Bryant can hold his own on a wakeboard. The bub from the Hunter region has made national news after he was captured on video cruising along on a specially-designed wakeboard while his family cheered him on.  Read more

► WARRNAMBOOL: When fisherman Daniel Hoey set out alone for a morning fish during last week’s warm spell, he didn’t expect he would be reeling in one of the biggest tuna of the season to be caught out of Port Fairy. Read more 

►Australians would vote on whether to legalise same-sex marriage in a compulsory plebiscite on February 11, 2017, under a plan taken to cabinet on Monday evening. Read more

► The cost of stopping the boats has been calculated at more than $9.6 billion since 2013, and will be another $5.7 billion over the next four years, according to a study by Save the Children and UNICEF. Read more

►A south-west Sydney student charged over a terrorist stabbing tried to force his way into a suburban hair salon to continue his attack and then ran at police when they arrived to arrest him, new footage shows. Read more

►Derryn Hinch has fulfilled his promise to "name names" in the Senate, using parliamentary privilege to identify up to five men he claims are paedophiles. Read more

►UK: Former British Prime Minister David Cameron, who resigned from the top job in September in the wake of the Brexit referendum, has announced he will also step down as a member of parliament. Read more

►PHILIPPINES: Indonesian president Joko Widodo caused a storm of controversy on Monday when he appeared to indicate the Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte had given Indonesia the green light to execute Filipina maid Mary Jane Veloso. Read more

1824: The first convict colony in what is now Queensland is founded at Redcliffe.

1861: Howitt's expedition to rescue missing explorers Burke and Wills arrives at the 'Dig' Tree.

1916: Roald Dahl, children's writer and author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is born.

1981: A second inquest begins into the disappearance of baby Azaria Chamberlain at Ayers Rock in 1980.

Margaret Matthews has been a familiar face in Blayney’s supermarkets for 57 years and on Friday, September 2, she was counting the coins for the final time.

Ms Matthews began her working life when she was a sprightly 15 year old on the 26th of November, 1959, in what was then known as James Bembrick and Son.

“It was one of those old-fashioned retails stores over where Ryan’s Bakery is now,” she said, “It soon became Permewan Wright not long after I began.”

At around the same time, about 40 years ago, Sell More Discounts had opened in the current location, but closed only ten months later.  Read more