National weather forecast for Thursday December 19.

Evacuation warnings are in place for an out of control bushfire burning in regional Victoria.

Essential workers and low and middle-income earners will be enticed with government-subsidised cheaper loans to take up electric vehicles, including second-hand EVs.

Last Christmas a storm cell smashed Sydney and a plane was struck by lightning. Here’s what’s in store this year.

National weather forecast for Wednesday December 18.

One of the fledglings that hatched this year in Melbourne’s CBD has been released into the wild after a dramatic rescue and rehabilitation.

The mercury hit 32 degrees in Sydney’s CBD and climbed to more than 40 degrees out west.

Firefighters are getting the upper hand over a bushfire burning near Ballarat, with the Creswick blaze downgraded to "advice level".

Another wave of intense heat is set to blanket western Sydney.

Residents of Clarkes Hill, Wattle Flat and Dean were told shortly before 7pm to leave immediately, after a bushfire started near Creswick, but that advice has since been downgraded.