Emergency services are happy with how flood-risk towns such as Creswick and Clunes have held up through this week’s heavy rainfall. Read more.

A group of tradies have thwarted an attempted car theft by a 13-year-old Ballarat boy. Read more.

The Ballarat aunt of slain woman Samantha Kelly vows she will attend every day of court until the murder trial is complete. Read more.

Ballarat’s Kate Ferguson continues to do her city proud as one of the final sugar gladiators on Seven’s Zumbo’s Just Desserts. Read more.

A former Creswick man who installed a listening device to snoop on his wife’s conversations has successfully had his jail sentence overturned. Read more.

We ended up with a further 7mm of rain yesterday, but some relief is in sight. We should get less than 1mm today, but rain is still expected every day for the next week.

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

►BALLARAT: Sometimes it’s difficult to grasp the full magnitude of a flood from ground level. Spectacular footage of Ballarat’s floods has been captured from the air. Watch the drone footage and take a look at aerial photos here.

►BEECHWORTH: Heavy rain was hampering overnight search efforts for missing six-year-old, Ben, who is autistic and may not react quickly or respond to calls, his mother said. Read more

►LITHGOW: After a week of speculation police have revealed the name of a man found slain in a home last week. Chifley LAC’s Detective Inspector Luke Rankin told media on Wednesday morning that a post mortem revealed Chris Whiteley met a violent death with a number a stab wounds and other injuries to his body and that police were treating it as a murder. Read more

►TASMANIA: Shared and growing knowledge from the Aboriginal community could help manage and mitigate Tasmania’s fire risk, by returning to traditional fire management practices. Read more

►NEWCASTLE: Is it time to review Newcastle’s late-night lockouts? It’s a question being asked after the Callinan review into Sydney’s contentious lockout laws recommended the government consider relaxing the 1.30am lockouts and 3am last drinks for live entertainment venues by half an hour in a two-year trial. Read more

► BUNBURY: A 23-year-old Picton man who stabbed his friend to death after a play wrestle went wry has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 19 years behind bars.  Read more

► WARRNAMBOOL: A search is under way for the driver of a vehicle swept away by floodwater and found in a dam near Hamilton. Read more

►BATHURST: A Central West family’s story of acceptance in their community has been highlighted in federal parliament as part of the latest push for marriage equality. Read more

► RIVERINA: A government bungle has robbed taxpayers of $500,000 and deprived Gundagai of affordable aged care. Read more

►GOSFORD: A man and a woman have been arrested and charged after they allegedly stole a handbag from a woman who lay critically injured in a car wreck and used her credit cards after she died. Read more

►Gillian Triggs has urged Malcolm Turnbull to move quickly to bring asylum seekers who have been held on Nauru and Manus Island to Australia and embrace a suite of new policies to ensure the people smuggling trade does not resume. Read more

►A letter sent to federal Opposition Whip Chris Hayes has become the subject of a legal battle between rival factions inside a key Chinese community group, embroiling the Labor MP in an increasingly bitter dispute. Read more

►Justice Minister Michael Keenan says he expects that at least "thousands" of illegal guns to be handed over in a planned national firearms amnesty. Read more

► Pauline Hanson returned to Parliament railing against another minority group, twenty years after first being elected to Parliament. Here is the full transcript of her second maiden speech.

►BALI: Balinese prosecutors have called for alleged Australian paedophile Robert Andrew Fiddes Ellis, who is accused of sexually abusing 11 children, to serve 16 years behind bars. Read more

►UNITED STATES: It looked like a one-two punch – US President Barack Obama was on the stump in Philadelphia, talking of Donald Trump as a fellow traveller of Vladimir Putin. But in New York and Washington the knives were out, as Democrats zeroed in on questionable conduct by Trump's charitable foundation. Read more

►PHILIPPINES: The death toll in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody "war on drugs" has risen to 3426 since July 1 as the United Nations steps up its criticism of the crackdown. Read more

►RUSSIA: The resurgent Soviet-era practice of punitive psychiatry has shut away a number of dissenters and activists who have dared to speak out against the Russian government. Read more

1870: Construction begins on Australia's Overland Telegraph Line, stretching across the continent from Adelaide to Darwin.

1885: The largest elephant in captivity, Jumbo, is accidentally killed by a train. 

1895: Celebrated American writer and humorist, Mark Twain, arrives in Australia on tour.

1928: Penicillin is discovered by British bacterologist and Nobel Laureate Sir Alexander Fleming.

1940: The tide turns in the Battle of Britain, with the RAF downing more than 180 German planes.

2011: The discovery by Australian researchers of a previously unknown species of bottlenose dolphin is announced.

He may be turning 84 today, but Kevin Atkins is showing no signs of slowing down yet. 

Mr Atkins is an active piano player and volunteers at Port Macquarie’s Glasshouse and local nursing homes, so that people can bask in the sweet tunes of the instrument. 

“I’ll keep going until they kick me out,” he joked.  Read more