A 42-year-old Ballarat man who arrived at a Sebastopol meth lab the same day police shut it down faces time behind bars. Read more.

A Grampians woman who lost $400,000 to a love con travelled overseas three times in the hope of meeting her fake fiance. Read more.

A Ballarat man who ran from court the moment he was sentenced to jail now faces a fresh charge. Read more.

When the artist who made the sculpture of the Grieving Mother for Ballarat’s newest memorial asked his own father about his service in the First World War, he was told stories about the beauty of Paris: the magnificent food, the wine, the beautiful women in the streets, of listening to Debussy’s music. Read more.

A total fire ban has been declared for much of the state with warm, dry conditions and high winds expected. Read more.

Sunny and 29 degrees today, although there could be some strong winds.

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

► Leadville, NSW: Drive slowly down Black Stump Way and you’ll see the four letter word warming the hearts of the Central West: love. Four, tall steel letters spelling ‘love’ are all you can see in the bushfire ravaged paddock belonging to the Knyvett family. The Knyvetts were among dozens of property owners struck by the Sir Ivan bushfire which burnt more than 50,000 hectares at the weekend. More here.

►  Armidale, NSW: A jury will resume deliberations on Wednesday morning to determine whether or not a school staff member sexually assaulted students at a New England school. The 12-member jury panel retired to consider their verdicts on seven charges on Tuesday morning following the summing up of the case by Judge Jennifer English on Monday. More here.

► Rushworth, Vic: The state government has sabotaged protected crown land by deliberately tearing down trees in the Whroo state forest in the interest of “public safety”. A five-kilometre stretch of a well-travelled historic Gold and Ironbark trail near Rushworth is now littered with hundreds of fallen trees and jagged tree stumps, making the environment dangerous to the public. More here.

► Tamworth, NSW: Farmers in the state's north are pulling together to help producers affected by the Sir Ivan fire in the Coolah region by donating hay. The idea kicked off with a truckload of hay donated by Tamworth-based Goonoo Red Angus stud producer Graeme Jordan and is being managed by Hazells Farm and Fertilizer owner Rod Hazell. More here.

► Mandurah, WA: It might look like a crime scene, but the dead dolphin found wrapped up in a bed sheet in a Mandurah carpark near Mariners Cove boat ramp on Tuesday afternoon didn’t die in mysterious circumstances. More here.

► Ballarat, Vic: A lack of understanding and compassion may have caused Catholic priests to hear the confessions of clergy committing child sex crimes and allow them to continue to abuse, an inquiry heard. More here.

►Orange, NSW: Emergency services were called to a ruptured gas pipe near the corner of Byng and Anson Streets on Tuesday afternoon. The incident occurred about 5.10pm when NSW Fire and Rescue and police were called to block parts of Anson, Byng and Sale streets stopping pedestrians and vehicles from entering the area. More here.

► Jimboomba, Qld: Jimboomba resident Dawn Ketter will have difficulty receiving letters this week, after her home mailbox was blown up. Ms Ketter said she heard a loud bang about 9.15pm on the Saturday evening and immediately thought a gas bottle had exploded in her street. “It honestly sounded like a bomb,” she said. “The whole house shook and we are double brick.” More here.

► Ballarat, Vic: A Ballarat man who ran from court the moment he was sentenced to jail now faces a fresh charge. Matthew Hind originally appeared before the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday afternoon over a charge of contravening a community corrections order. More here.

►  A trove of official data about incidents at Australia's offshore detention centre in Nauru has been censored as a result of a request from the Nauruan government. Fairfax Media used freedom of information laws to request incident logs for the Manus Island and Nauru facilities between August 2015 and April 2016. More here.

► The use of force and physical restraints in Australia's onshore immigration detention network has soared - more than doubling in just nine months - despite the prison population declining over the same period, internal documents reveal. More here.

► The integrity of the process for developing Australia's new poultry standards is in question, with scientists raising concerns about inaccuracies and the RSPCA threatening to quit in protest. More here.

► Bangkok: A Myanmar court has sentenced a Rohingya Muslim man to death while no one has yet been held to account for more than 1000 documented atrocities, including the slaughter of babies, against other Rohingya in the country's western RakhineState. More here.

► Washington: Donald Trump's embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned late on Monday, a dramatic early casualty in an administration hobbled by security chaos and confusion and a firming sense that the administration and its intelligence agencies are openly at war. More here.

► Malaysia: The estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been killed in Malaysia, a South Korean government source told Reuters, while other media reported he had been assassinated.

1923 – Greece becomes the last European country to adopt the Gregorian calendar.

1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

1965 – A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.

1972 – Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.

2001 – The first draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.

2013 – A meteor explodes over Russia, injuring 1,500 people as a shock wave blows out windows and rocks buildings. This happens unexpectedly only hours before the expected closest ever approach of the larger and unrelated asteroid 2012 DA14.

There’s nothing bland about Bland Shire according to wildflower expert, Australia Day local nominee and 91-year-old Elsie Allison.

The area boasts an abundance of flowers year round.

Creator of the famous “Wildflower Walk” and community enthusiast Elsie spreads her love for all things nature each year with people from across the country.

Read more here.