The Melbourne Snap⚡- Tuesday 28 January
Melbourne's Invasion Day rally "biggest ever", murder probe after house brawl, evacuation orders in regional Victoria and man ends up on live TV after car gets stuck on beach.
G’day and welcome back to The Melbourne Snap. We’re back after the long weekend. Friday-Monday was the best four days the Snap has had for new subscribers. Around 60 new people signed up (and two paid subscribers, thank you!). If you’re new here The Melbourne Snap will pop into your inbox every weekday morning around 7am. It takes a minute(ish) to read and will get you caught up with all the day’s main headlines. No doom scrolling required, no pop-up ads, no political takes - just local news. Now let’s get on to Tuesday’s edition.
🩸Multiple statues and the location of a citizenship ceremony were vandalised ahead of Australia Day on Saturday. Vandals first targeted an outdoor stage at Ringwood Lake in east Melbourne, where the ceremony was set up. - Allanah Sciberras, Nine News
➡️Around 20 minutes later, vandals targeted the John Batman Memorial, located on Queen Street, opposite the Queen Victoria Market.
➡️An hour later, the ANZAC memorial in nearby Parkville was defaced.
✊Thousands joined Melbourne’s Invasion Day protest march on Sunday. By some estimates, it was the “biggest Invasion Day rally turnout” that Melbourne has ever seen, with 25,000 people participating - SBS
🔥 I don’t always cover regional bushfires outside of Melbourne but this one is serious. Bushfires are threatening Victoria’s south-west, with an “active and dynamic” blaze in Little Desert National Park, 375km west of Melbourne, and a second out-of-control fire in the Grampians, prompting urgent evacuation warnings for residents.
➡️Authorities have ordered communities across 11 areas, including Dimboola and Gerang Gerung, to “act immediately to survive” with firefighters and aircraft mobilised to tackle the escalating crisis. - Vic Emergency
☁️Tuesday weather
Crime Watch
This section is dedicated to crime news. Scroll on if you want to skip to lighter news. The section tends to be longer after a weekend.
🚨A 37-year-old man has been charged with multiple offences, including assault, firearm-related crimes, and drug trafficking, after a series of incidents in Glenroy, in the city’s north. The charges follow an alleged assault in Essendon North, shots fired at vehicles in Glenroy and Jacana, and a related gunshot injury in Coburg. - Victoria Police
📱A teenage criminal has openly bragged about the state’s youth bail laws while filming himself driving a stolen car. The 16-year-old publicly mocked the court system and police force in a live social media video as he drove a stolen Holden throughout the city over the weekend. - Regan Hodge, Herald Sun
⚫A 33-year-old man has died after being stabbed during a brawl inside a home in Craigieburn, in Melbourne's north. The incident occurred on Thoresby Circuit on Saturday evening. - Victoria Police
➡️ The man allegedly tried to attack his mother before his father turned the knife on him. - Molly Magennis, 7 News
🔪 A family was left shaken in Rosanna, north-east Melbourne, when six youths armed with machetes ran through their backyard during a crime spree, which included stealing their Mercedes sedan. Police arrested the group in Hawthorn, recovering the stolen vehicle that had travelled nearly 975km within 16 hours. - Nine News
👮Two people were arrested following a reported aggravated burglary and car theft in Balwyn North on Friday morning. Cops were called to the property on Musca Street, in the eastern suburb around 4:30am. Three men allegedly entered the home and stole keys to an Audi while the residents slept. - Victoria Police
🔥Police are investigating a suspicious grassfire in Melbourne's inner north-west on Saturday night after a group of youths were setting off fireworks shortly before the blaze started on Maribyrnong’s La Scala Avenue. - Victoria Police
🕵🏻♀️Detectives charged a man almost 44 years after an 82-year-old woman was allegedly sexually assaulted twice in her own home in Melbourne’s inner west in 1981 and 1983. A 69-year-old Hoppers Crossing man was arrested in Wyndham Vale on Friday morning. - Victoria Police
⚫A cyclist died in a collision with an SUV in Wyndham Vale, south-west Melbourne, late Friday night. A 19-year-old driver was arrested. - Victoria Police
💊A 61-year-old St Kilda man was charged with drug trafficking and other offences after police seized drugs and suspected proceeds of crime during a raid on his Acland Street apartment on Friday. - Victoria Police
🚗A 38-year-old man's special edition Holden Commodore was stolen in a carjacking in Hawthorn after an altercation late Saturday night. The vehicle was later recovered in Brunswick. - Victoria Police
🏎️Five people have been charged and four luxury vehicles worth over $600,000 seized in a Financial Crime Squad investigation into fraudulent loans used to buy high-end cars for resale. Suspects from Wollert, Donnybrook, and Roxburgh Park face deception and proceeds of crime charges. - Victoria Police
🚙 A Sydney man’s bizarre attempt to “save someone” (who mysteriously vanished) ended with his rental car buried in sand on a Melbourne beach requiring a front-end loader - and a reality check - to rescue it just before holiday crowds arrived on Monday. - TODAY Show (YouTube)
➡️ Mohammed, undeterred by his plight, shrugged off the ordeal telling live news “I believe in myself. I'm confident. You know, people go to the moon." He was eventually hit with a $400 fine for illegal parking on the Elwood beach.
🗣️ Australian Open runner-up Alexander Zverev was heckled from the stands during the awards ceremony after the men’s singles final on Sunday at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena. A protester in the crowd repeatedly screamed out: “Australia believes Olga and Brenda.” - Matthew Sullivan and Chantelle Francis
➡️ Zverev’s former partners Olga Sharypova and Brenda Patea, the mother of his child, have previously accused the German tennis star of domestic abuse. He has denied the allegations. A case involving Zverev and Patea was settled out of court in June last year with no admission of guilt.
🍟Meanwhile, the men’s doubles champions at the Open marked their victory with a 4am McDonald’s feast on a South Yarra bench after defeating their Italian opponents in a gruelling 2am final. Henry Patten (UK) and Harri Heliovaara (Finland), fresh off claiming their $810,000 prize, were pictured with their coach enjoying the late-night Maccas. - Twitter
🇦🇺 At Melbourne's Town Hall on Sunday, around 150 people from 38 different backgrounds became Australian citizens. - Nine News
🏰One of Australia’s richest families, the Gandels, who were behind Chadstone Shopping Centre is offloading the ‘Ashmere’ estate at Merricks on the south-eastern edge of the Mornington Peninsula with a $4.1m price tag. - Sarah Petty, realestate.com.au
👨🚒 Firefighting planes were needed to control a large grass fire in Altona on Sunday afternoon. - Star Weekly
🤐At least 7000 non-disclosure agreements have been signed for the $26 billion North-East Link toll road, with scores of homeowners and drivers forced into secrecy in exchange for compensation. - Madeleine Heffernan, The Age
💳 The first trial of ticketless public transport in Victoria has been labelled a "gimmick" and "pointless" because it is limited to just four bus routes in the state's north-east and doesn't integrate with trains. Victoria is well behind other states and cities regarding ticketless travel, including Sydney, where commuters can pay for trips via credit card or phone at the turnstiles. Richard Willingham and Erin Somerville, ABC
📢Community Noticeboard📢
📌”Coffee with a Cop provides community members [in Werribee] and local traders the opportunity to connect one one-on-one with local police officers to discuss community safety issues that impact them. Come along to Little Growling Cafe February 28th 10:00am - 12:00pm.” - More Details
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And finally…Even the best of us stuff up occasionally. The on-screen graphics person certainly did on the weekend when Channel 7’s coverage of Melbourne’s Invasion Day protests was labelled as being in Sydney.
Thank you for reading edition 49 of The Melbourne Snap. If you missed Friday’s edition you can read it here. This newsletter is 100% independent and free for all. I write in the early hours every weekday morning so it gets to you around 7am. Any support you can give, either by becoming a paid subscriber or simply sharing this with a friend, is greatly appreciated. See you tomorrow.
Just another long weekend eh!