The Melbourne Snap⚡- Thursday 30 January
St Kilda beach rescue ends in tragedy, Melbourne soldier captured in Ukraine "still alive", city park trail named as one of best in country and venomous snake found in playground sandpit.
G’day and welcome back to The Melbourne Snap. Beady-eyed readers noticed yesterday I put the wrong date in the subject of the email version of The Snap. I wrote 28 January when it was 29 January. This was, of course, a test (it wasn’t) and I’m glad to see a good few of you passed. Now let’s swiftly move on to *double checks the date* Thursday’s edition.
🪖Russian officials have confirmed Oscar Jenkins is alive, Penny Wong has said, ending nearly a month of uncertainty around the captured Melburnian fighter’s fate. Mystery has shrouded Mr Jenkins’ status since video emerged of him being interrogated by his Russian capturers in Ukraine just before Christmas. - Jake Evans, ABC
➡️ Speculation intensified after reports originating from 7 News that he had been killed. But Foreign Minister Wong said yesterday said the government still held “serious concerns” for Mr Jenkins.
⚫ Tragedy in St Kilda last night. A man's body was recovered from the water near St Kilda Beach after emergency services conducted a major rescue operation in response to reports of a person in distress. - RiSK (Facebook) and
➡️ Police and ambulance were called to St Kilda Pier at about 8:25pm.
➡️ A police helicopter was filmed scanning the area from above, while a boat assisted the search in the water.
➡️ Unfortunately the man – who is yet to be identified – was found dead. The drowning is not being treated as suspicious.
⛅ Thursday weather
Crime Watch
This section is dedicated to crime news. Scroll on if you want to skip to lighter news.
👮 A 15-year-old boy has been charged with multiple offences after allegedly leading police on a chase across Melbourne's east on Tuesday night. Police say the teenager was among a group of offenders who broke into a home on Orchard Street in Brighton at 1:45 am and stole a car.
➡️The stolen Mercedes reached speeds of up to 240km p/h along the Monash Freeway when the vehicle came to a stop between Eastlink and Peninsula Link. - Victoria Police
🔥Police believe the discovery of two burnt-out cars at separate locations in Melbourne's north is connected to the execution-style murder of Sam "The Punisher" Abdulrahim. - Victoria Police
🔪A 53-year-old man has been charged with murder after another man died following a stabbing in Craigieburn in Melbourne's north on Saturday night. - Victoria Police
🔥If you read yesterday’s edition you may have seen the Altona grassfire story The Snap broke. On Wednesday cops began investigating the suspicious grassfire that burned several hectares at a wetlands reserve in Altona early this morning. Police are also examining potential links to a previous fire in the south-west suburb on January 26. - Victoria Police
🚗Determined car thieves made off with more than 20 brand new utes from a business in Melbourne's west over the long weekend. CCTV cameras captured the group driving them out of the Dohertys Road property in Laverton North across multiple trips. - Nine News
⚖️ Meanwhile, a serial car thief who allegedly broke into almost 40 vehicles across multi-level CBD carparks over the past several months has been arrested this week. The 34-year-old Collingwood man is facing 70 charges. - Victoria Police
🚚Fair play to 3AW’s Jacqui Felgate. After she posted a follower’s video of a truck tailgating a car inches from its rear on a city freeway the police have opened an investigation. Police say the truck driver is likely to now face multiple charges including driving while disqualified. - Instagram
⚫ Police are investigating a fatal crash in Kew after a 70-year-old cyclist collided with a parked car on Yarra Boulevard on January 21, later passing away in hospital.
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🌳Melbourne’s Mount Lofty Loop in Warrandyte State Park has been named the third most popular hiking trail in Australia for 2024, according to the walking guide website AllTrails. Offering scenic views of the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges, the family-friendly 5km trail in the city’s north-east was up against 15,000 others nationwide. - Melissa Woodley, Time Out
🍺The ultimate list of Australia's top 100 craft beers has just been released, and many hail from Melbourne breweries. Bridge Road, made in Brunswick East. was Victoria's top representative coming in at number 11. - GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beer
🏫A private school has been fined $140,000 after one of its students fell fatally ill on an overseas class trip. Kilvington Grammar School student Lachlan Cook, 16, suffered diabetes complications during a Vietnam trip in September 2019 and later died in a Melbourne hospital. - Tara Cosoleto, AAP (via Nine News)
👨🚒Melbourne and regional firefighters have voted to take up to 30 trucks off the road in a dramatic escalation of their dispute with the state government and Fire Rescue Victoria over what they say is an ageing and dangerously unreliable fleet. - Chip Le Grand and Cassandra Morgan, The Age
➡️Fire Rescue Commissioner, Gavin Freeman AFSM said “Victorians should know that fire trucks do not expire simply because they reach a certain age. These appliances are specially built and can remain in service for long periods”. - Here’s his full statement
👩🏫Senior students at Forest Hill College, in the city’s east, are starting term one without a maths teacher as Victorian public schools scramble to fill hundreds of vacant positions. As of Wednesday, more than 180 schools were searching to fill 568 roles, with 100 campuses listing at least one advertisement in the past week. - Rebecca Borg, Herald Sun
🐍 A “massive” brown snake was spotted yesterday in the sandpit at Maribyrnong’s Black Sapphire playground. In a video posted on Instagram, a mother said the snake slithered out from underneath the wooden playground equipment her three-year-old son was playing on. The animal is highly venomous. - Instagram/@ellesaad
🏘️ Melbourne’s housing market has been forecast to change from one of the nation’s worst-performing capitals in the past two years to one of its best in 2025 and 2026. Good news for owners, bad news for those trying to buy. A two-year uptick would add more than $87,000 to the city’s typical house price in the next 24 months, and have the city’s median house price within a stone’s throw of the $1m mark. - Nathan Mawby, realestate.com.au
🚅 Flinders Street Station, Australia's oldest and Melbourne's busiest, sees over 110,000 passengers daily. The lord mayor and a commuter advocacy group are calling for a compromise on heritage laws, arguing they hinder much-needed upgrades to the stained and damaged underpass connecting Flinders Street to the Yarra River. - Melissa Brown, ABC
🚒Firefighters tackled a house fire in Melbourne’s north after the blaze started in the backyard. Emergency crews were called to the property on Thackeray Rd in Reservoir just after 12:30pm on Wednesday. The fire was brought under control and no one was injured. - Reservoir 3073 (Facebook)
🎭A new play exploring the life of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to premiere at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre on 13 February 2025. Truth is the latest work by acclaimed Australian playwright Patricia Cornelius - Ticket details
📢Community Noticeboard📢
📌”An English Staffy dog answering to Gracie has been missing in Bundoora since 26 January. The owner has increased the reward to $2000 as she is due for her regular medication. If anyone spots Gracie or has any information on her whereabouts please contact: 0433 698 678 “
📌”Meet representatives from 35+ organisations and discover amazing volunteering opportunities to make a real impact in your local community at the Volunteer Expo at Malvern Town Hall on Friday 14 March” - More info
Get your news, event, gathering, new business or community update here. Fill in this form.
🦈And finally…A great white shark carcass that washed onto a Victorian beach was maimed by hungry killer whales after its liver! Researchers have concluded it’s the first time an interaction of this kind has been confirmed in Aussie waters. The savaged 4.7m white pointer was missing its midsection when it was found near Portland, Victoria in October, 2023, two days after bystanders witnessed several local orcas catching a large prey in the area. - Bryce Luff, 7 News
Thank you for reading edition 52 of The Melbourne Snap. I write The Snap in the early hours every weekday morning so you can get up-to-speed with what’s happening in Melbourne in the fastest, least overwhelming and enjoyable manner possible. If you can afford to support the newsletter you can do so for as little as $10 a month. Or simply share it with a friend. Thank you, see you tomorrow.