► PORT MACQUARIE: Up to 179 millimetres of rain has been recorded during the 24 hours to 7pm Saturday over the Hastings River valley. 

► ILLAWARRA: An 18-year-old boy boy, an expectant mother, disability pensioners and a Novotel chef were among a dozen people arrested in sweeping drug raids across the Illawarra on Tuesday. Read more

► WAGGA WAGGA: The mother of a two-year-old boy rushed to hospital in a critical condition after Wednesday’s sickening alleged hit and run has told of her “gut-wrenching agony”. Read more

► SOUTH PAMBULA: A house fire at South Pambula on Friday night was caught on camera by a witness, showing the intensity of the flames and the huge plume of smoke. Read more

► NEWCASTLE: A Shortfall of placements in hospitals has forced University of Newcastle nursing students to rely on prison clinics, call centres and distant destinations such as Broken Hill to clock up their training hours. Read more

► SOUTH PURRUMBETE: Catherine Jenkins of South Purrumbete near Cobden is among the finalists for the 2017 Victorian Rural Women’s Award. Mrs Jenkins has been nominated as a finalist for her plan to investigate the feasibility of a national network for women working in the dairy industry. Read more

► MANDURAH: Mandurah’s Crab Fest is much more than just food stalls, cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs and music performances. Read more

► PORT STEPHENS: Port Stephens’ blue water wonderland isn’t just popular with the tens of thousands of tourists who visit each summer.  New research shows the estuary is inhabited with far more great white sharks than previously thought. Read more 

► A 92-year-old war veteran and great-grandfather who has lived in Australia for 10 years is facing deportation back to Britain after being denied a visa and told he would be a financial burden on the health system. Read more

► Food companies are being accused of confusing customers by using the ratings only on their healthiest products, creating a halo effect on the rest of the range. Read more

► The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has castigated Australia for inadequate progress on tax, Indigenous affairs and support for business in a report card to be presented to finance ministers from the group of 20 leading industrial nations in Germany on Saturday. Read more

What’s coming your way ...

►PARIS: The man shot dead at Orly airport was the same individual who had shot at security services earlier in the morning in northern Paris and was "a radicalised Muslim" known to authorities, French police sources said. Read more.

►BEIJING: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has appeared with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to say the two countries share the view that tensions on the Korean Peninsula have reached "a rather dangerous level". Read more

1279 – Emperor Bing, the last emperor of the Song dynasty, died during the Battle of Yamen, bringing the dynasty to an end after three centuries.

1911 – Socialist German politician Clara Zetkin established the first International Women's Day.

1915 – Pluto was photographed for the first time, 15 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.

1962 – Highly influential American musician Bob Dylan released his eponymous debut album.

2011 – Libyan Civil War: The French Air Force launched Opération Harmattan, beginning foreign military intervention in Libya.

When Mar was 12, a plumber came to his house and he was intrigued by what he was doing.

“I started watching him working, fixing the taps, and I thought I wanted to try it and see what it was like,” he said.

A few years later, while at Emmanuel College, Vocational Education Training in Schools co-ordinator David Gladman told Mar about the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning, where he would be able to study plumbing one day a week at South West TAFE, while still at school.

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