We're in for a partly cloudy day with a slight (20%) chance of a shower this morning. Expect a top of 22 degrees in Ballarat.

Dozens of St Aloysius Parish School pupils will spend their first term learning in the art room and library after two grade five and six classrooms were gutted by a suspicious fire on Monday. Read more here.

A shot was fired through the window of a Miners Rest home while a baby boy and man were inside. Read more here.

Up to four acres of suspected tobacco plants with a excise value of more than $1.5 million dollars have been seized from a Pentland Hills address. Read more here.

An historic building that was once the gatehouse for the Ballarat Botanical Gardens is hopefully to be returned to its original home, says the current owner. Read more here.

The North Ballarat tag has been dropped from the region’s under-18 TAC Cup side in favour of a name that reflects the club’s widespread talent base. Read more here.

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

► VIC: The families of Maureen Braddy and Allan Whyte – missing from Bendigo since 1968 – say they want to give them the “burial they deserve”, and urged anyone with information to come forward.

Maureen’s sister Lynne Ireland, and Allan’s brother Kevin Whyte, both spoke at a Victoria Police press conference announcing a $1 million reward for information that leads to a conviction.

The pair have been missing since November 23, 1968. Read more. 

► NSW: Linton Krupic was all too aware of the risk.

At just 16, he was given the choice of leaving school after year 10 to focus on dance, or committing to his Higher School Certificate and living in the purgatory of ‘what if?’

“It’s really hard trying to pursue a career in dance so it was always going to be a risk,” he said. “I was scared that I was not going to make it or that I was not good enough. Read more. 

► WA: A further three farming families have left or are leaving WA's dairy industry after processors said they did not want their milk.

One is a Brownes Dairy supplier and two are Harvey Fresh suppliers.

Brownes Dairy suppliers Michael and Frances Armstrong, Northcliffe, face termination of their contract in March. Read more. 

► TAS: The state’s two major parties believe that sewage contamination of several oyster leases on the East Coast is bad for the state’s image but differ on how the problem should be fixed.

Labor says that the government should unlock $185 million of unallocated infrastructure spending contained in this year’s budget to service water and sewerage upgrades while the government maintains that such upgrades are the responsibility of local government.

Heavy rainfall on Friday caused a sewerage pump at St Helens to overflow into George’s Bay, resulting in a closure of all its shellfish leases. Read more. 

► AUSTRALIA DAY: For the last 57 years on Australia Day, Australians around the country have woken to news of the next Australian of the Year.

From cities to country towns, with our families and friends, we discuss the decision and express our opinions on the people chosen to receive this honour.

There's an amazing range of people in the running for 2017 – many from regional and rural areas. Read more. 

Horsham retiree “Poison” is thought by tattoo artists to be one of the most inked-up people in the Wimmera.

Poison, who is aged in his late 60s and did not want to use his real name, has collected tattoos for 40 years.

“Back in my youth, you’d see the sailors and blokes in the navy,” he said. See more photos here. 

► CHINESE NEW YEAR: Sydney will celebrate a multicultural Australia over 17 days as the Lunar New Year makes way for the Year of the Rooster.

The city's Lunar New Year festival will celebrate its 21st anniversary as the biggest outside of Asia.

"The Chinese New Year will be colourful, it will be noisy, it will be a lively celebration, and I hope Sydney will join us in this wonderful celebration," Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore said. Read more. 

► POLITICS: The Wire's arch drug lord, Avon Barksdale, was admirably philosophical about a long custodial sentence: "You only serve two days, the day you go in, and the day you get out".

It's a mentality that might readily be grasped by vanquished opposition parties facing another fruitless term in the wilderness. But no. These days, its the winners who seem to feel most hemmed in, constrained at every turn by the crushing pressures of a febrile polity, internal divisions, anaemic growth, and the prospect of more-or-less inevitable failure. Read more. 

► EDUCATION: The peak body representing Australian universities has urged the Turnbull government not to pursue a "dramatic overhaul" of the nation's higher education system as it prepares to legislate a new round of university reforms.

Universities Australia, in its submission for the May budget, also urges the government to abandon its proposed $3.2 billion in cuts to university funding because there is "no defensible case" for such a reduction. Read more. 

► WASHINGTON: Donald Trump's ego might dwarf Uluru, but he's exceedingly thin-skinned.

However, it would be a mistake to think that drove his bludgeoning of the news media for their accurate reporting on the puny crowd that turned out for his inauguration - maybe just a third of those who poured into the streets of the capital for Saturday's women's protest against his election.

We're familiar with the new President's obsession about any numbers that speak to his sense of his own greatness - rally crowds, polling and TV ratings. And his bilious contempt for those that don't. Read more. 

► MOSCOW: Russia's parliament is this week expected to take a step closer toward decriminalising domestic violence that falls short of serious bodily harm or rape.

Battery is a criminal offence in Russia, but nearly 20 per cent of Russians openly say they think it is sometimes OK to hit a spouse or a child. Read more. 

► 1946 – The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.

► 1972 – Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.

► 1984 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.

► 2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.

AN ERA will come to an end at Wagga Country Club later this month.

After 40 years as club professional, Ian ‘Ferg’ Ferguson will hang up the golf bag at the end of January.

Ferguson has been the face of the Country Club for four decades and has nurtured endless amounts of talent that have made the course their second home over the years.

Read more of Ferg’s story here.