The Melbourne Snap⚡- Friday 24 January, weekend edition
Teenagers shot in inner suburb, best coffee spots in city, 36-cent ice creams, 'black panther' on Great Ocean Road and things to do over the long weekend.
G’day and welcome to The Melbourne Snap. The long weekend is nearly here. I’m taking the public holiday on Monday off but The Snap will be back as usual on Tuesday 28 January.
Before we begin let’s talk about Australia Day briefly. The Melbourne Snap is all about local news without an agenda. An espresso-shot of news each morning with no noise. There are so many great outlets out there for political coverage so if you’re looking for debate and analysis around January 26 you’ve got a lot of options. But you won’t find that kind of thing here. The Snap tries to stick to the news of what’s happening.
The Melbourne Snap isn’t going to tell you how to spend your days off, how to vote or how to live your life.
Today’s weekend edition features the usual ‘things you can do this weekend’ but in recognition of the different views on Australia Day I’ve split it into three sections: activities for those wanting to celebrate Australia Day, activities for those wanting to protest the date and activities for those who just want to enjoy the long weekend.
Here’s Friday’s extended weekend edition.
🪧Premier Jacinta Allan has called for Victorians to respect differences of opinion as opposing protests are expected to attract large crowds across Melbourne on Australia Day. - Eleanor Wilson, Nine News
➡️Police will be out in large numbers, with tens of thousands expected at an annual Invasion Day rally at Parliament House on January 26.
➡️Cops will also attend a smaller pro-Australia Day rally expected outside Melbourne Park on Sunday.
➡️"I think it would be disgusting to target the Australian Open and I think that would break the patience of the public," Premier Jacinta Allan said amid claims protestors will seek to disrupt the Mens Singles Final.
➡️But, organisers of the Invasion Day rally have refuted the claim they will disrupt the tennis, telling media that misinformation suggesting they did has caused "harm and distress". - Joseph Dunstan, ABC
⚫A man has died after his neighbours pulled him from his burning home in Deer Park yesterday. A fire started in the bedroom at the property on Ambon Avenue in Melbourne’s west at midday on Thursday. There were two people in the home at the time. Neighbours managed to pull one man from the home and perform CPR but he died at the scene. The second person was taken to hospital in a stable condition. - Lucy Mae Beers, 7 News
⛅⛅⛅Weekend weather
Crime Watch
This section is dedicated to crime news. Scroll on if you want to skip to lighter news.
🚨Two teenagers are in hospital and a shooter is on the run after an attack in Collingwood early this morning. Police say several shots were fired at a group of youths on Palmer Street at about 1am. Two boys, aged 15 and 17, were taken to hospital with serious injuries. - Adam Vidler, Nine News
🔪Detectives are appealing for public assistance after a man was stabbed during a suspected road rage altercation in Tarneit yesterday. The victim was driving along Sayers Road in the western suburb at about 12:15pm, when an unknown vehicle cut him off. After a row, an unknown male stabbed the victim in the stomach.
➡️Amazingly the 30-year-old victim then managed to drive himself to a hospital and was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. - Victoria Police
🏛️A driver has been jailed for five-and-a-half years after being warned by police about a dangerous intersection before he drove through it and killed five people in one of Victoria’s deadliest crashes. - Emily Woods, AAP (via Nine News)
⚫A woman has died following a collision in Malvern on 19 January. The 84-year-old driver of a Ford Fiesta was attempting an illegal U-turn on Tooronga Road, between Viva and Young streets, when she collided with an Audi travelling north in the south-eastern suburb. - Victoria Police
🚗A spate of car thefts has occurred in the south-east of the city in the past couple of weeks, with members of a Bentleigh WhatsApp group who’ve had their cars stolen, banding together to try and track down the offenders. - 3AW
📢 Share your local news and events by filling in this form here. I’d love to share upcoming community events.
🎾There’s been more heat directed at Australian Open coverage with legends of the game sharing their thoughts.
➡️First, we had Novak Djokovic calling out Channel 9’s Tony Jones for his comments to Serbian fans. Then American Ben Shelton criticised the “disrespectful” on-court interviews in Melbourne.
➡️Now several tennis greats weighed into the debate. Boris Becker backed up Ben Shelton on X as did Chris Evert and several other stars of the sport - James Dampney, news.com.au
🛣️One of Melbourne's most dangerous intersections at Werribee is set for a major upgrade. On Thursday, the Victorian and federal governments announced a $333.5 million investment to upgrade the Werribee Main Road — Princes Freeway Interchange and the Ballan Road Intersection. - Vic Gov
🛒Woolworths has been accused on social media of going back on its word to stock Australia Day merchandise. The supermarket giant received a backlash for its decision to pull back on Australia Day favourites. They then reversed course at the beginning of January. However, several shoppers in Melbourne have noticed no Australiana products in stores.
➡️ One shopper (and reader of this newsletter) said they were told in a Heidelberg Woolies in north-east Melbourne to “shop online” for merch or to “try Coles”.
➡️At the time of writing it was too early for the Woolies press team to respond but Woolie’s online customer service X account has yet to reply to anyone tweeting them about this issue.
🥚All restrictions on poultry and egg producers have been lifted as authorities declare a regional avian influenza outbreak eradicated. That means we should start seeing supermarket shelves in Melbourne start to fill up with eggs again. - Australian Associated Press (via the Guardian)
🍦An ALDI ice cream truck is serving up 36-cent desserts in Melbourne for one day only. The truck will roll around to Green Point Reserve, Brighton, on Saturday 2 February. - Instagram
🎷Upcoming Candlelight Jazz concerts in Melbourne will feature glowing tributes to Aretha Franklin and Amy Winehouse, performed by the Luminosity Trio at Collingwood Town Hall on February 28, 2025. - Marco Ruiz, Secret Melbourne
☕ Culture and lifestyle site Urban List has taken on the daunting task of compiling what it thinks are the best coffee spots in Melbourne. You can judge their picks yourself here.
⚖️An accomplished lawn bowler has taken legal action against her local club after claiming she was dropped from teams because officials believe her cancer battle made her too unreliable. Darlene Badenoch, 53, officials at the Moonee Ponds Bowling Club in Melbourne's inner north demoted her several divisions after she took a break to fight the disease. - Shayne Budgen, Daily Mail
✍🏻A mother in the city’s north-east has set up a petition to get Tactile Ground Surface Indicators placed on the platforms at Ivanhoe Station to make the platforms there safe for blind residents like her daughter. - You can sign the petition here.
🌈To celebrate Midsumma Pride festival Metro Trains will be marking some trains with Ride with Pride Trainbow artwork. - Metro Trains
🧸Darebin Council in the city’s north has provided dates for kindergarten open days in February. - Darebin Council
🇦🇺 3 things to do this weekend to celebrate Australia Day 🇦🇺
Watch the Australia Day Flag Raising Ceremony. The centrepiece of the city’s Australia Day events, the ceremony is hosted by the Governor of Victoria and attended by the Premier and other dignitaries. It’ll be broadcast online (and most news channels) from 9:30am to 10:30am. - More info
Enjoy Australia Day at Fed Square. There’s free food, activities and live music at Federation Square on Sunday. You can have a picnic and then watch the Aussie Open Men’s Final too. - More info
Take advantage of the long weekend by securing your spot on the Australia Day Boat Party. Jump aboard the Victoria Star on Sunday and enjoy two levels of music as the boat cruises along the bay. - More Info
✊3 alternatives to celebrating Australia Day✊
Participate in the Invasion Day rally. Every year, thousands gather at the steps of Parliament House to protest the date of Australia Day and this year is no different. The march will kick off at 10:00 on Sunday. - More info
The City of Stonnington Council is organising a Healing Ceremony with Traditional Custodians, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation, to pay respect and acknowledge their living connection to Country. It’s a free event and takes place at the Malvern Cricket Ground on Sunday. - More Info
Support local Indigenous-owned businesses and campaigns. This is an accessible way to back Indigenous causes around Melbourne. Time Out Magazine has compiled a list of First Nations organisations you can help. - More info
🍻3 things to do this weekend if you just want to enjoy the long weekend🍻
Have you ever seen the Silent Disco parties dancing through the city? They look slightly ridiculous but they always look to be having a blast. Classic Silent Disco City Walking Tour: Taylor Swift is running this evening (24th) and is an undeniably fun way to see the city with friends, even more so if you’re a Swiftie. - More Info
If your family like Roald Dahl’s children's books then this could be for you. It’s the last chance to see The Twits stage show in Melbourne after sold-out seasons around the country. - More Info
Countdown your favourite tunes of 2024 while sipping on some of Melbourne’s best craft beer at Brewmanity’s Triple J’s Hot 100 event. The South Melbourne brewery and rooftop bar is kicking things off on Saturday at noon. - More info
👀And finally…Is there a black panther roaming regional Victoria? Thousands of people think there might be after a new video surfaced of a supposed big cat on the Great Ocean Road. I’m sceptical. ‘Big cat’ cat sightings are something of a local news cliche (up there with ‘pothole from hell’). More often than not they are a big house cat or even a black bin bag blowing in a breeze. The images are usually suspiciously grainy or zoomed out. But rumours of big cats in Victoria go back to the 1830s and there have been some fairly convincing incidents. So here is the latest black panther claim and you can be the judge (thanks to reader Tim for sharing this). - Black Panther Sightings Victoria
Thank you for reading edition 48 of The Melbourne Snap. I write this newsletter in the early hours every weekday morning between 4am - 6:30am in my free time. If you can afford to support the newsletter you can do so for as little as $10 a month. Have a great weekend, see you on Tuesday.