ABC Mildura Swan Hill

25/07/2025

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has released its most comprehensive evaluation of the plan to date.

The audit shows significant water reform in the basin is helping the environment, but farmers, environment groups and First Nations representatives are not as positive.

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Thirteen years since the start of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, a comprehensive evaluation finds rivers, wetlands and lakes are in far better shape.

24/07/2025

Bendigo Bank has announced that it will be shutting down its agency model, which allowed customers to access banking services from smaller locations such as newsagencies, citing "decreasing customer use" as a factor.

Twenty-eight Bendigo Bank agencies across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia will close from October 2025.

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Bendigo Bank announces it will be shutting down its agency model that allowed customers to access banking services from smaller locations such as newsagencies, citing "decreasing customer use" as a factor.

24/07/2025

NEWS UPDATE: The owners of the Sunraysia Daily, the Swan Hill Guardian and the Gannawarra and Broken Hill Times have decided to sell their papers to a South Australian publishing company.

Yesterday, the Lanyon family signed an agreement to sell their papers to SA Today, owned by the entities of Paul Thomas, who is the Managing Director of Star News Group, and Damien Morgan, the co-owner of Today News Group's Queensland operations.

The Lanyon family have been involved in the publishing of local papers for over 100 years and current owner Ross Lanyon says the decision will ensure the newspapers continue to serve their communities with purpose.

Mr Thomas said he didn't expect any significant changes to be made once SA Today take over ownership.

The transfer will be completed on September 1.

For more local news, visit: www.abc.net.au/milduraswanhill

24/07/2025

Fill-in childcare workers won't be included in the first stage of Victoria's new childcare worker registration scheme when it begins next month.

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Fill-in childcare workers won't be included in the first stage of Victoria's new childcare worker registration scheme when it begins next month.

23/07/2025

UPDATE: 2.30pm

Traffic on the Sturt Highway at Yamba is down to one lane due to a truck fire.

The fire has been extinguished and emergency services are on site to control traffic and clean up the scene.

Police advise motorists to expect delays and allow extra travel time.

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Traffic on the Sturt Highway at Yamba, just outside of Renmark, is restricted in both directions due to a truck fire.

Police say the incident is about 5km west of the Victorian border.

Emergency services are at the scene and no injuries have been reported at this time.

Motorists are advised to expect delays and allow extra travel time.

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22/07/2025

A Melbourne-bound QantasLink flight has been forced to make a priority landing after pilots reported a "technical issue" shortly after take-off.

QF 2079 took off from Mildura Airport at about 10:40am and was forced to circle the Mildura region before landing safely just before midday.

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Pilots identified a problem with the Melbourne-bound plane shortly after take-off and returned safely to Mildura.

22/07/2025

NEWS UPDATE: Emergency services have responded to reports of an aircraft in trouble at the Mildura Airport.

Victorian Police said there appeared to be an issue with an aircraft, which was reported just after 11am.

The Qantas plane, bound for Melbourne, landed safely at the Mildura airport about 12pm.

Police said there were no reports of injuries on board the flight.

UPDATE: A Qantas spokesperson said Flight QF2079 returned to Mildura shortly after departing due to a technical issue.

21/07/2025

Ballooning water prices in Australia's largest wine grape growing region are pushing farmers to the brink amid a global oversupply of some wines and ongoing drought in southern Australia.

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Ballooning water prices in Australia's largest wine grape growing region are pushing farmers to the brink amid a global oversupply of some wines and ongoing drought in southern Australia.

20/07/2025

Most people's smartphones and social media accounts are filled with happy snaps of birthdays, weddings, family gatherings and holidays.

But it's much less common for someone to pull out their phone or hire a professional to take photos at a funeral.

Note: This story contains an image of a deceased child in a casket from 1935.

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Funeral photography is about capturing a family's story and emotions while farewelling a loved one.

19/07/2025

The Victorian government has failed to meet a 30-day deadline to publish three years' worth of documents detailing the state's childcare crisis.

State parliament's upper house backed a motion by the Greens ordering the government to detail documents on enforcement action taken against childcare operators.

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Premier Jacinta Allan's government has defied a deadline set by Victoria's parliament to publish documents detailing the state's childcare crisis.

19/07/2025

Victorian farmers are hoping for good spring rain to salvage their winter crops after dry conditions so far this season.

Soil moisture levels have improved with winter rains, but conditions remain below average in many of Australia's southern agricultural areas.

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Rain brings some relief to drought-affected farmers in Victoria, but most of the state is still desperately dry.

19/07/2025

Victoria's children's commissioner has conceded "no-one" is overseeing key decisions of her office after revelations it failed to act on red flags raised about accused child abuser Joshua Brown.

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Victoria's children's commissioner has conceded "no-one" is overseeing key decisions of her office after revelations it failed to act on red flags raised about accused child abuser Joshua Brown.