Distraught friends are struggling to comprehend the death of mother of two Amanda Elliott, 30, after she was killed in a single-car collision in the heart of Redan on Monday. Read more.

After years of speculation Ballarat’s public sector jobs push has finally been answered, with the state government committing to shifting 600 roles to the Civic Hall site. Read more.

A man who bashed another man with a sawn off baseball bat, leaving him with his head split in three places, has been jailed. Read more.

Work has started on building a Ballarat Link Road bridge to connect the western employment zone to Remembrance Drive. Read more.

North Ballarat Football Club chairman John Nevett has written the following open letter. Read more.

There were a few icy windshields this morning, with the temperatre falling as low as minus 1.4 degrees. It will be a sunny top of 13 degrees today, however.

NSW: Roo beauty – watch the moment Skippy took on the thoroughbreds at Cessnock races. It was the last race and punters got the shock of their lives when a kangaroo took off on the back straight before sidestepping between the field.

VIC: The young boy who survived an alleged murder attempt by his mother in the Murray River at Moama remains in hospital in Melbourne, two months after the incident...read on.

QLD: A small town in north-west Queensland is selling 800sqm blocks of land for $10 apiece. With 10 blocks up for grabs in Richmond, available land will be designated through a ballot...full story here.

NSW: A multi-million dollar terminal upgrade will ready Newcastle for overseas flights.  After opening a $14.5 million terminal two years ago, the airport’s board is well-placed to court airlines that fly into Asia and the Pacific, chief executive Peter Cock said...full story here.

►Victoria's emergency control centre will soon be monitoring hospital emergency departments in real time following last year's freak thunderstorm asthma crisis that saw thousands of people suddenly require urgent respiratory care and claimed the lives of nine people. 

►A Wollongong woman has been fined $1600 and placed on a bond in court after confessing to stealing $15,000 worth of jewellery from her employer so she could pay for a plane ticket to England.

►Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has declared he will "bring the school funding wars to an end" in a stunning policy turnaround that will see the federal government pump an extra $19 billion into schools over the next decade...full story here.

►Colombian police have released new photographs of Australian woman Cassandra Sainsbury wearing handcuffs and standing in front of what authorities allege are 18 packages of cocaine wrapped in black plastic.

Carly Findlay, who grew up in the Riverina, is a proud disabled woman who doesn't want to change or hide her face.  She has spoken out: 

In December last year, my former house cleaner was so scared by the sight of my face that she walked out of my house - without cleaning it. She didn't know how to handle my appearance, her supervisor said. 

Read her full story here.