⚫️ Asleep at the wheel

Across the country, things are happening at a local level that have an impact nationally. Here are the stories you might not hear about in the traditional media.

1922, Hornsby NSW: It was a Friday night on Sydney’s Upper North Shore, and bank manager Francis Kemmis was preparing to make his short commute home to Wahroonga via train.

Yet Kemmis would never make it home that night, because by the time he reached Wahroonga station, he had been fatally attacked.

Here’s how the leafy Upper North Shore came to be home to one of Sydney’s greatest unsolved murder mysteries.

Read that story by clicking below 👇

As storms become more unpredictable and intense, Victoria’s SES volunteers are working around the clock to keep communities safe, often through sleepless nights and wild weather.

Matthew Sims from the Eastern Melburnian met volunteers Dale Cochrane and Novalee Catania, who say the work is tough but deeply rewarding.

“Volunteering was the rent you paid for being on Earth,” says Cochrane.

While SES volunteer numbers are growing, the service warns a new wave of recruits will be needed within three years as older members retire.

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Slim Dusty’s “Pub With No Beer” has sparked a decades-long State of Origin, with both NSW and Queensland claiming to be the inspiration behind the hit.

As Ellie Chamberlain reports, the Slim Dusty Centre in Kempsey says it was the Cosmopolitan Hotel at Taylors Arm, near where Dusty grew up, that ran dry after floods cut off deliveries in the 1950s.

But up north, Queenslanders swear it was the Day Dawn Hotel in Ingham, drained by thirsty U.S. troops during the WWII.

So who’s right? Depends on which side of the border you’re on.

(As someone who used to live in North Queensland and has been to the Ingham pub, you can guess where my loyalties lie.)

Read that story by clicking below 👇

The NSW state Government is set to introduce new laws in an attempt to combat the illegal tobacco trade that has been flourishing across the state in recent years.

Discount illegal cigarettes are being sold for as little as $8 for a packet of 20, compared to $40-$50 for a packet of 20 legal smokes.

The booming demand for illegal cigarettes, which have names such as Manchester and Double Happiness, has been credited to the huge excise tax smokers pay in Australia for legal cigarettes.

On September 1, the excise tax paid per cigarette in Australia rose from $1.40 to $1.50. On a packet of 20 cigarettes, that is $30 in tax.

The illegal cigarettes are typically sold via sparsely furnished, independent shops that also sell vapes, drinks and lollies.

The new offence would have a maximum penalty of either one year in jail, a fine of $165,000 or both.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park says it’ll further minimise the opportunities for illegal tobacco and vape sales.

Between January and the end of October 2025 NSW Health Inspectors have seized more than 11.8 million cigarettes, over 2,000kg of other illicit tobacco products and around 170,000 illegal vapes, which the state government says has a combined estimated street value of around $18.9 million. Which seems to be a drop in the ocean.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and the Australian Institute of Criminology revealed on Friday that federal, state and territory governments had lost about $4 billion in tax revenue to illegal tobacco in the 2023–24 financial year.