Ballarat breakfast report | Monday, December 5, 2016

Ballarat ballet dancer Callum Linnane has received the highest honour of his career after taking out the Telstra Ballet Dancer Award at the Sydney Opera House on Friday, earning a $20,000 cheque in the process. Read more.

Santa had already dropped off a whole room full of presents ahead of his arrival at Burrumbeet on Sunday afternoon. Read more.

North Ballarat Football Club chairman Jenny Bromley says she is unaware of any plans to call for a vote at a board meeting on Monday night to determine the Roosters’ future in the VFL. Read more.

Shops along Hope Street in Daylesford were the target of a crime spree on Saturday, less-than four weeks out from Christmas. Read more.

Mostly sunny and a pleasant top of 21 degrees today.

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

► NEWCASTLE: On the surface it appeared to be a routine call-out for a car that had left the road and a driver who had suffered minor facial injuries. But then Robert Cadman, 51, allegedly let something slip.

► WOLLONGONG: A horror weekend on NSW roads, which included two fatal Illawarra and South Coast accidents, has prompted a plea from police for motorists to stop taking risks. The appeal, just three weeks out from Christmas, came after eight people died as a result of road accidents across the state between Friday and Sunday.

►WAGGA: Two men will face court on Monday as police continue to investigate the death of a man at the Ashmont Inn. A 28-year-old man who was arrested a short time after the Saturday night incident was taken to Wagga Police Station on Sunday morning after being treated for head injuries at Wagga Rural Referral Hospital.

► MANDURAH: WA Police are searching for a man they believe can assist with their inquiries into a shooting incident that occurred near Dwellingup last month. Two men were arrested in early November, but detectives have released composite images of another man they are seeking. 

► DUNGOG: Forty revellers were charged with drug offences at the weekend’s Subsonic Music Festival near Dungog. The majority of those charged were found in possession of amphetamines, LSD and Ketamine, cannabis and ecstasy. 

► TAMWORTH: The head honcho of the Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Gang’s Tamworth chapter has apologised after admitting to supplying a commercial quantity of drugs but says he won’t tell police who his dealers were.

Brent Douglas Murray’s drug dealing ways unravelled in March, last year, when he was arrested as part of an undercover police operation, code-named Strike Force Mewburn.

►WARRNAMBOOL: The south-west is expected to get more police officers with the state government announcing it will boost numbers by 2729 statewide over four years. The government said it was the largest single investment in the history of the force, which will grow by 20 per cent.

►MOUNT ISA: Robbie Katter has called on the Queensland Government to invest in an ageing learning facility in a growing town of the state’s North West. The State Member for Mount Isa said the divide between the quality of infrastructure at rural and city schools was evidenced by a space in Cloncurry.

► BENDIGO: A family was evacuated from their home on Saturday after a young man returned home in the early hours of the morning and attempted to cook himself a feed.  The man fell asleep with the stove on at about 3.45am Sunday, causing the kitchen to catch fire and the St Killian Street home to fill with smoke. 

► CANBERRA: The ACT's federal politicians have charged taxpayers more than $650,000 in the first six months of this year, new reports reveal.

Expenditure reports for current and former MPs between January and June 2016 released by the Department of Finance this week showed Liberal senator Zed Seselja lodged the biggest bill with taxpayers of the ACT's four MPs in Parliament.

► NT: An Italian backpacker has described how she nearly hitched a ride with alleged killer Pande Veleski just hours before he allegedly stabbed a tourist to death at an isolated road stop in the Northern Territory.

►BENDIGO: Christmas is meant to be a time of relaxation and celebration with family and friends. Allies Motorcycle Club Bendigo members ride through the city's streets to collect toys and cash for those in need. Check out more images here.

International news

► US: Recovery teams have so far found 24 bodies in the charred ruins of a California warehouse after a fire broke out during a weekend dance party, and the death toll is expected to rise, authorities said.

Sergeant Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff's Office, said two dozen bodies were located as authorities sifted through the debris-filled shell of the two-storey building, which was used by an artists' collective.

► US: We live in frightening times. After their White House meeting last month, Barack Obama cautioned Americans and the world that the sobering weight of the presidency would restrain Donald Trump - but now we know that everything is up for grabs.

Trump defends his China gaffe on Friday - when he took a call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen - as if, like Chauncey Gardiner in the 1979 film Being There, he just picked up the phone because it was ringing.

2009: Amanda Knox convicted of murder in Italy.

1991: Hostage Terry Anderson freed in Lebanon.

1980: Prince played the first night on his 31 date Dirty Mind North American tour at Shea’s in Buffalo, New York. After being told by his managers he couldn't wear spandex pants without any underwear, Prince began performing in a long trench coat, black high heeled boots and leggings, and bikini brief trunks.

1969: Police kill two members of the Black Panther Party.

1952: Smog kills thousands in England.

When Tayla Hansen heard a mental health nurse recount stories from the Christmas Island detention centre it struck a chord. 

“I was shocked and appalled,” the 25-year-old said. “When you hear what those people are suffering from and what their detention is like and the effect that that has had on them … well you really can’t imagine what that feels like.

“Then for them to have those adverse health effects as a result of that and to really need the help and support that they are not getting when they come to Australia – we've got to change that.”