Black swans have flown off, leaving their eggs behind, after being scared away by the sound of gunfire on the opening day of Victoria’s duck-hunting season.

Sometime before dawn on Monday, February 27, Aiden Ricketts’ neighbours began to cry for help.

Two major industry groups are asking the Australian and Queensland governments to financially support flood mitigation projects in the Greater Brisbane region that have been proven to work since the 2011 floods.

There are more than 4000 uninhabitable homes across NSW as people begin to wonder what to do amid the mammoth clean-up effort.

Kylie McKendry loves cats, but she doesn’t want her six-year-old chocolate Burmese cat, Marla, to bring home any injured or dead wildlife. Instead, McKendry has installed an outdoor enclosure that her cat roams around.