News

Canberrans will buck a national trend and pay more for their household power over the next three years, according to the Australian Energy Market Commission. AEMC says in its report on residential electricity price trends that annual bills in the ACT are expected to increase by 2.3 per cent or $45 over the whole reporting period to 2022-23. It says that...

They work in the dead of night, fishing e-scooters out of lakes, picking them up off the kerb, swapping out dead batteries, sanitising and safety checking the fleet that Canberrans have come to love (or loathe). More than 100 people work as part of the ground crews for Beam and Neuron e-scooters, servicing the purple or orange scooters now gracing our...

The ACT will keep its restrictions on travellers in place for Christmas and most likely until New Year's Day as local authorities remain wary of community transmission associated with the Sydney COVID-19 outbreak. Earlier today, NSW Premier Gladys Berejikilian announced 'modest changes' to coronavirus restrictions for the Christmas period after the state recorded eight new cases on Wednesday. The Avalon cluster now...

Canberra's record season of sneezing is coming to end, with one of our leading environmental scientists declaring the run of high pollen days is over ... for now. Canberra’s very own pollen counter Professor Simon Haberle, a researcher with the ANU’s School of Culture, History and Language, who also runs the pollen monitoring website Canberra Pollen and Canberra Pollen App, says the last...

The manager and staff of the National Dinosaur Museum at Gold Creek have been left gobsmacked at the behaviour of the person or people responsible for the theft and damage to a number of valued dinosaurs overnight. Two dinosaurs were stolen while three had body parts dismembered by one or more people some time between when the museum closed on Sunday...

Canberrans can still travel to the South Coast for Christmas without needing to quarantine when returning home after the Shoalhaven was removed from a list of NSW government areas subject to the new COVID-19 restrictions. From midnight last night, people who have visited the Greater Sydney area, including the NSW Central Coast and Illawarra, will have to quarantine for 14...

People returning to Canberra who have visited Sydney's Northern Beaches since 11 December must get tested and immediately self-isolate for 14-days, under a new ACT Health direction issued this afternoon. The health direction, which became effective as of midday today (18 December), legally requires people who have visited the Sydney hotspot to isolate even if they do not have COVID-19 symptoms...

The ACT Government has released its strategy for the new Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary for the next 25 years - embedded with iconic, endangered species and overseen by Indigenous land management practices - and has encouraged Canberrans to have their say on the proposals. Community consultation is open until February 2021. The Sanctuary has reintroduced the Eastern Bettong, the Eastern Quoll...

Controversy has begun to swim around Gungahlin Pool after the ACT Government left questions about problems facing the pool and its estimated re-opening date unanswered. The 50-metre facility has been closed since March, and was closed for two months last year for maintenance. "There pool is scaffolded off, it is empty, there is no machinery or equipment, there is no...

A 160-hectare nature reserve will be carved out of the new Gungahlin suburb of Kenny, the 39th in the Canberra Nature Park network. The ACT Government has released Draft Variation 379 to the Territory Plan, to change the zoning of Gungahlin rural block 820 and part of the Old Well Station Road to create the Nature Reserve, which will protect...

Every year we hear Canberrans cry out in terror as magpie swooping season descends on the capital. Now research by citizen scientists may have proven the attacks are far worse in the ACT than any other state. The pesky Australian magpie has held onto its top spot for the third consecutive year as the ACT’s most commonly sighted bird in...

Canberra's iconic New Year's Eve fireworks have been cancelled for the second year in a row, leaving many in the nation's capital to ponder what they'll be doing to celebrate the new year and the end of a tumultuous 2020. And while large crowded events will not be going ahead due to COVID-19 restrictions, Canberrans will still be able to...

The 2020 word of the year was always going to be a keen contest between COVID-related phrases, and in the end iso took the prize as the Australian National Dictionary Centre's word of the year. Officially, the definition of Iso is "self-isolation; the act of remaining apart from others as a way to limit the spread of an infectious disease, especially as a public health...

ACT Policing is seeking witnesses and dash-cam footage of a road rage incident that occurred in Palmerston on Friday morning (27 November). The incident began at about 9:55 am when two vehicles – a black Lexus and a red Holden – were travelling southbound on Gungahlin Drive. The vehicles subsequently stopped at the intersection of Kosciuszko Avenue and The Valley...

People in the north of Canberra through to Queanbeyan are being warned to take appropriate precautions as a line of severe thunderstorms, with damaging winds and large hailstones, is headed for the capital this afternoon. The Bureau of Meteorology warns that severe thunderstorms were detected on the weather radar near Boorowa, Jugiong and Burrinjuck. "These thunderstorms are moving towards the...

A Park and Ride facility will be built on Well Station Drive next to the new light rail station in Mitchell, where construction is about to start. The ACT Government is seeking a contractor to build the new Park and Ride, which will cater for 179 vehicles and include eight bicycle racks for 15 bikes and a bike shelter. The...