The Melbourne Snap⚡- Friday 27 June, weekend edition
City's most "affordable" suburbs, popular independent supermarket to close, Barbie cafe opens, police after online vigilantes and 5 things to do this weekend.
G’day and welcome back to The Melbourne Snap. As ever, it’s a packed end-of-week edition with news, events and weekend recommendations. Just a note there will be no Snap on Monday and Tuesday as I’m away. More on that at the bottom of the email. Here’s Friday’s edition.
🏡 Melbourne is now Australia’s most affordable capital for unit buyers, with 43% of suburbs deemed “affordable” - defined as having a median price below the city average of $934,500. - Samantha Healy, realestate.com.au
➡️ Top picks include Epping, St Albans and Sunshine West for houses, and Carlton, Maribyrnong and North Melbourne for units.
💰 Disability funding to Catholic and private schools has tripled to $2bn, with $500m headed to Victorian Catholic schools by 2028.
➡️Melbourne independents like Caulfield Grammar, Ivanhoe Grammar and Brighton Grammar are also among top recipients - but whistleblowers say students often miss out. - Susie O'Brien, Rebecca Borg, Herald Sun
Weekend weather
🏫 Three more Melbourne private schools - Alphington Grammar, Deutsche Schule, and Luther College - will be hit with the state’s payroll tax from next week, as concerns grow it’s hurting mid-tier and specialist schools. - Noel Towell, The Age
🎸 AC/DC have added a second Melbourne show at the MCG on 16 November after tickets for their first sold out in hours. - Beat Magazine
🏘️ Leo’s supermarket in Kew will close in 2026 and be redeveloped into luxury while the future of the Heidelberg site remains unclear. – Louise Baxter, Domain
➡️ Billionaire James Packer is a backer of the project. - The Australian
🎰 Gambling harm cost Victorians over $14 billion in 2022–23, with pokies driving most losses and renewed calls for the government to bring in delayed reforms to limit how much people can lose. - Richard Willingham, Peter Quattrocelli, ABC News
➡️ Australia leads the world in gambling losses per capita.
⚖️ A Supreme Court judge has slammed a "half-baked" attempt to block a $1.55m Liberal Party loan to ex-leader John Pesutto, used to pay defamation costs to Moira Deeming, calling the case flawed and adjourning it to 4 July. - Callum Godde, Rachael Ward, AAP (via 9 News)
🌧️ A new ABC analysis shows Collingwood are the AFL’s best wet-weather side since 2022. It also looked at the best teams in heat, cold and wind. - Cody Atkinson, Sean Lawson, ABC News
🛼 Australia’s first Barbie-themed café (mentioned in 16 June edition) has now opened at Chadstone, featuring themed food, a roller rink and an adults-only bar. - Chadstone Shopping Centre
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