Local News
Winter event list shows Melbourne shaking off its gloomy image
A packed schedule of activities over winter is set to attract five million people to events in the City of Melbourne and generate more than $2.5 billion, according to the council.
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Bennetts Lane signage fight heads to VCAT as council defers decision
A planning dispute over signage at an iconic Bennetts Lane site in the CBD has now spilled into VCAT, with the City of Melbourne deferring formal consideration of the application while discussions continue between council officers and the applicant.
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Mekong owner’s scholarship fund marks 20 years and opens 2026 applications
A Swanston St restaurant owner who arrived in Australia with little more than determination has spent the past two decades quietly building one of Melbourne’s most enduring scholarship programs.
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Penny Wong visits Chinatown as MCBA builds links between government, business and community
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has paid a visit to Melbourne’s Chinatown for a community and industry breakfast dialogue, with the event highlighting the growing role the precinct and its business leaders are playing in broader conversations about multiculturalism, trade, education and civic life.
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Cohealth can no longer outrun the questions
The immediate crisis around cohealth’s inner-city clinics may have been delayed by another $1.5 million in Commonwealth funding, but the broader crisis facing the organisation is only deepening.
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Australia tightens the screws on international students
One in three international students applying to an Australian university was rejected in February 2026. That 32.5 per cent refusal rate is the highest monthly figure recorded in 21 years of tracking data, and it is no accident.
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Will the real “Melbourne” please stand up
The recent awarding of “Melbourne” as the World’s Most (put in what you like) City, this time by Time Out was based on a survey of 24,000 across 50 cities. On average this reflected the views of 160 people in each city plus 100 Time Out experts!
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Three arrested as police claim breakthrough in CBD nightclub arson spree
Victoria Police says it has now arrested someone in relation to every alleged Operation Eclipse arson offence in Melbourne’s CBD, following the arrest of three more people over a series of nightclub fires and attempted fires earlier this month.
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Future Melbourne podcast wraps pilot season with Lord Mayor Nick Reece looking ahead to 2050
The pilot season of Future Melbourne is set to close with a fitting final guest: Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece, joining the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about the city’s future and the decisions that will shape it over the next 25 years.
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Queen Victoria Market’s Winter Night Market returns for 2026
Queen Victoria Market’s popular Winter Night Market is set to return for the 2026 season, with the weekly event running every Wednesday from June 3 to August 26.
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Laneways go green
Richard Foster “lied to us”
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