Ballarat marine wildlife lovers are set for a treat in 2017 with the addition of little penguins to the Ballarat Wildlife Park. Read more.

Works on the desperately needed $518 million Ballarat rail line upgrade won’t begin until 2018. Read more.

Residents of Lydiard Street North opposed to the plan to locate bus stops along their street say they now have 1000 names on a petition opposing the development. Read more.

Gone are the days of mass-produced beers filling the esky, because Ballarat has firmly embraced the craft brewing revolution. Read more.

Defending national road championships criterium winner Caleb Ewan encountered a hurdle in his preparation for Wednesday’s championships after he took a heavy fall at Geelong in the Bay Classic criterium series on New Year’s Day. Read more.

It's still going to be mild today before summer returns with a bang later in the week.

Need a national news snapshot first thing? Well, we have you covered. 

►WOLLONGONG, NSW: Four people almost became the latest NSW drowning victims after they were washed off rocks and had to be plucked from the ocean in a mass rescue off North Wollongong Beach on Monday afternoon. Read more

►MANDURAH, WA: Minister for Fisheries Joe Francis started the year warning West Australians that those who interfere and pull other people’s rock lobster pots are at risk of having their boat seized or facing a $400,000 fine. Read more

► BALLARAT, VIC: Brewers from near and far will give thousands of locals and tourists a reason to make Ballarat a destination this summer when the annual Ballarat Beer Festival takes over City Oval on January 21. Read more

►NEWCASTLE, NSW: In one of the last text messages of his life Barry Walsh appeared in a photo with a grin on his face, holding up a commercial-sized firework he’d owned for possibly a decade. 

“Hey mate. Hope you all have a great new year. Stay safe, and if this goes to plan it will make mine. Cheers mate,” he wrote to his best friend of 50 years, Brett Nayler. Read more

►MOUNT BUFFALO, VIC: An elderly Beechworth woman has been flown to Melbourne after falling almost four metres from a Mount Buffalo walking track.The woman was walking on the “Hump” track atop the mountain with her daughter, Mary Kromar, and son, Andy, when she slipped off a boulder about 12.30pm. Read more

►TASMANIA: Tasmanian poppy growers are about two weeks from harvesting what appears to be a good crop – albeit a much reduced one. This year due to a drop in world demand the state’s poppy growers planted only about 7500 hectares, down from 13,000ha last season – a far cry from the heady days when 28,000ha of poppies were planted in a season in 2012. Read more

► TAMWORTH, NSW: A Tamworth woman has turned the page on her love of reading by starting the region’s first neighbourhood book exchange. Erin Carter opened her Little Free Library last week, which encourages locals to grab a book from purpose-built boxes outside her Oxley Vale home, take it home, pass it on to a friend or swap it for another. Read more

► DUBBO, NSW: Mick Peet feels he will finally be able to get some closure after confirmation that bones found at Butlers Falls belonged to his murdered daughter Lateesha Nolan. Read more

► COROWA, NSW: The house at the heart of The Castle is to be relocated to Corowa and become a tourist attraction. Federation Council has done a deal with the owner of the Melbourne home which appeared in the 1997 film about a family fighting an airport expansion. Read more

►WARRNAMBOOL, VIC: Warrnambool's Rhianna McLeod is shocked no-one died in the festival crush that left her unconscious with two broken bones. The 19-year-old is in the Geelong Hospital after the Falls Festival stampede that injured more than 60 people over the weekend. Read more

►LAUNCESTON, TAS: A 22-year-old man has died following a jet ski crash on Lake Trevallyn. The crash occurred about 2.30pm on Monday when the man fell off his jet ski and was struck by another jet ski travelling in the same direction. Read more

►ORANGE, NSW: When the rear of Matthew Fowler’s Torulosa Way home caught fire on New Year’s Day, his mind turned to his son Alex. Mr Fowler saw flames coming from Alex’s bedroom, where he was resting after a night out at the New Year’s Eve fireworks. Everyone escaped alive, but the family has started 2017 homeless after the fire tore through the house they’ve lived in for 16 years. Read more

► Manus Island MP Ronny Knight has declared that two asylum seekers who say they were bashed by police and PNG immigration officials on New Year's Eve "deserved what they got". Read more

► Low-income Australians receiving housing support and other welfare services have joined summer criticism of Centrelink, as the agency faces sustained questions about its new automated debt recovery processes. Read more

►"I wasn't trying to kill myself," Tom Tehan says matter of factly across the timber cafe table. "I was just trying to stop feeling. And Panadol is to stop pain, that's how it worked in my head." The thing is, Tom downed several packets of Panadol in his attempt to numb his pain. He ended up needing his stomach pumped and spent three days in hospital when he should have been out enjoying the spring racing carnival with his girlfriend and friends. Instead at 19 he was having a breakdown; the result he says of being bullied at school three years earlier. Read more

►Doctors and health experts have criticised a government review of vehicle emissions and air pollution for underreporting the health risks, sidelining the Minister for Health, and potentially putting thousands of Australians' lives at risk. Read more

► MYANMAR: Myanmar's government has made a rare admission that its security forces used violence against Rohingya Muslims after a video emerged of police violence. Read more

► INDIA: Within seconds of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying the foundation stone for a statue that will be the biggest in the world - twice as big as the 93-metre tall Statue of Liberty - and will change the Mumbai skyline for ever, battlelines were being drawn between critics and supporters of the multimillion dollar project. Read more

1892: J.R.R.Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, is born.

1870: Western Australia adopts its first state flag. 

​1888: The drinking straw is patented.

1907: A young Charles Kingsford-Smith becomes the first person to be rescued using a new Australian invention, the surf lifesaving reel.

1956: Actor Mel Gibson is born.

1969: Champion Formula One driver Michael Schumacher is born. 

Wollongong’s Climate Girl Parrys Raines is planning a big 2017 taking her sustainability message further around the world.

Ms Raines attributes her passion and commitment to the environment to growing up between the mountains and the sea and being active in the outdoors.

As a teenager she used to go surfing in the morning and mountain biking in the afternoon. 

“I have been really lucky to live here in Wollongong all of my life,” she said. Read more