Melbourne Express: Monday, December 12, 2016

• 9:21am on 12 Dec 2016

That's it for Melbourne Express.

Lucky for most, it is past the peak today, but the Cranbourne line is suspended between Dandenong and Cranbourne after a track equipment fault at Lynbrook. Buses will replace trains. Trains have resumed on the Upfield line.

A heads up on the news front today. You should see a story on the launch of next year's White Night program and for the first the lights are going on at Ballarat. We will also have stacks more on Year 12 VCE results.

Back on deck tomorrow, see you then.

The Reading Room Dome of the State Library of Victoria during White Night earlier this year. Photo: James Braund

• 9:08am on 12 Dec 2016

The temperature has climbed to 15.8 degrees as it makes its way to 30 degrees today.

• 9:05am on 12 Dec 2016

Updating the headlines: the wait is over for Year 12 students with the 2016 Victorian VCE and ATAR results out today; a private schoolboy has been charged with drug trafficking after police dismantled a "sophisticated drug syndicate" at Girton Grammar earlier this year; and Walt Disney Studios unveiled its latest Star Wars instalment Rogue One on Saturday night to rapt praise.

• 9:05am on 12 Dec 2016

Updating the headlines: the wait is over for Year 12 students with the 2016 Victorian VCE and ATAR results out today; a private schoolboy has been charged with drug trafficking after police dismantled a "sophisticated drug syndicate" at Girton Grammar earlier this year; and Walt Disney Studios unveiled its latest Star Wars instalment Rogue One on Saturday night to rapt praise.

• 8:52am on 12 Dec 2016

In the second biking accident, five minutes after the first, a man aged in his 40s was hurt in a mountain bike accident at Mirimbah near Mount Buller.

The man came off his bike and landed heavily. He has facial and shoulder injuries.

The accident occurred six kilometres from the nearest road so an air ambulance helicopter was dispatched. The man was winched from bushland. He was flown to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a stable condition.

• 8:48am on 12 Dec 2016

Two men were winched to safety in two separate biking accidents in remote parts of Victoria yesterday.

Ambulance Victoria paramedics winched the first man, aged in his 60s, off the Mount Elizabeth Jeep Track at Timbarra in Gippsland around 4.40pm.

His pelvis and leg were injured when the motorcycle landed on top of him.

The accident happened in remote country on a steep dirt track, an Ambulance Victoria statement said.

A paramedic was sent down to treat the man and brought him back up to the helicopter. He was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a stable condition.

• 8:37am on 12 Dec 2016

But I cannot talk. When I was a child I got my head stuck between steel railings on some stairs. It was a dare. I was three. It took a lot of butter and I had nasty scabs and scars for ages afterwards. We laugh about it now.

• 8:35am on 12 Dec 2016

Now you know your mum was right.

Last night the Dandenong Rescue crew from the CFA were called out to find a 15-month-old girl with three fingers stuck in the bath drain.

Crews took about one hour and 40 mins to remove part of the old cast iron bath. Although they managed to free two of the three trapped fingers using a combination of various cutting gear and a lot of manual work, one finger remained stuck.

So off she headed to Dandenong Hospital, in an Ambulance, with the Dandenong Rescue crew and part of the bath.

It took a further two and a half hours to cut the iron plug from around the child's fingers.

"Although it was a time consuming process, the girl's fingers were released without injury and her parents were very happy parents," a CFA statement.

The little fingers stuck in the bath tub drain in Dandenong before they headed to Dandenong Hospital. Photo: supplied/CFA

• 8:27am on 12 Dec 2016

And in Melbourne where we know Christmas.

• 8:24am on 12 Dec 2016

Travel times are increasing coming in from the north and west.

• 8:13am on 12 Dec 2016

Welcome to Yiwu, China. The town that makes 60 per cent of the world's Christmas paraphernalia.

Yet in this grimy town, they don't really have much of a clue about Christmas. Neil Connor reports on the real Santa's workshop.

Santa's real workshop, Yiwu, in China where 60 per cent of Christmas decorations are made. Photo: Bloomberg.



• 8:03am on 12 Dec 2016

After 275 years, we suppose it must be hard to have a new take on George Frideric Handel's Messiah. Clive O'Connell critics the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and its choir performance and finds he is left wanting.

• 7:54am on 12 Dec 2016

Heralding in the new Bayswater railway station are the East City Sound Chorus.

• 7:49am on 12 Dec 2016

Our VCE results blog is up and running with Craig Butt, Henrietta Cook and Michelle Griffin at the controls. Check out how Year 12 have gone this  year.

• 7:47am on 12 Dec 2016

Adding to Metro Trains woes this morning, Werribee and Williamstown lines have delays of up to 10 minutes outbound services through Yarraville. Signal faults are to blame.

• 7:45am on 12 Dec 2016

Another bloody egg cafe? Third in last month or so - this one at Flinders Street Station. Nola James reports.

• 7:44am on 12 Dec 2016

News elsewhere:

•  VicRoads CEO John Merritt has confirmed the Tullamarine Freeway between the Calder Freeway and the Western Ring Road will be closed during the annual Christmas holiday roadworks closures. "We're all picturing someone who's got the holiday of a lifetime or needs to get to a wedding or something like that and missing their flight," Mr Merritt has told 3AW. Other short-term closures include the Montague Street entry and exit ramps and the West Gate will be down to two lanes.

• Women could soon be routinely tested to find out their risk of breast and ovarian cancer, after a world-first trial by Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Peter Mac will screen 10,000 healthy Australian women to determine how many are carriers of common cancer-predisposing genes, News Ltd is reporting.

•  The ABC is reporting the Federal Opposition has accused Finance Minister Mathias Cormann of being "callous and insensitive" for suggesting that mandated domestic violence leave would be "another cost on the economy".

  

  Senator Mathias Corman. Photo: Andrew Meares

• 7:25am on 12 Dec 2016

When you got there, the cupboard was bare, because a hungry bear ate the lot on the weekend. Time to plan this week's meals with Good Food's weekly meal planner.

Farro and haloumi salad. Photo: WILLIAM MEPPEM

• 7:22am on 12 Dec 2016

Travel times coming in from the north and west.

• 7:21am on 12 Dec 2016

The 6.38am train from Westall to Flinders Street will run direct from Richmond, not via the City Loop.