3+ hour, 26+ min ago   (1227+ words) Updated September 8, 2026 — 10:34pm,first published 6:26pm Of all the stories told about racing patriarch Paddy Payne, few better encapsulated the loving, chaotic nature of his life than the day he dropped off youngest daughter Michelle for her first day of secondary school....

8+ hour, 12+ min ago   (1014+ words) September 8, 2026 — 5:48pm More than a quarter of Victoria’s 15-year-olds lack the foundational maths skills needed for further education or work and one in five is falling short in reading as Australia records its worst results in both subjects since international testing…...

6+ hour, 1+ min ago   (863+ words) September 8, 2026 — 7:58pm Essendon’s draft assistance package is unlikely to include extra first- or second-round picks because of new rules introduced by the AFL this year. The AFL Commission is due to make a decision on the Bombers’ application on the Monday…...

6+ hour, 30+ min ago   (794+ words) September 8, 2026 — 7:30pm Every morning at Sandringham College is hushed. Students walk silently into their classrooms, and for the first five minutes of the school day, there’s no chatting or passing of notes. The students are not staring at a board or…...

6+ hour, 3+ min ago   (658+ words) September 8, 2026 — 7:57pm Let’s go out on a ledge here. Normally, a leader of a right-wing political party admitting to popping pills, taking speed, smoking dope and, in this drug-induced haze, swapping beds between his partner and other likely lads would not…...

7+ hour, 17+ min ago   (203+ words) Updated September 8, 2026 — 6:42pm,first published 6:10pm One child has been killed and six children and a woman are in hospital after a car rolled over near Bacchus Marsh, west of Melbourne. The school-aged child died at the scene despite CPR being performed,…...

6+ hour, 30+ min ago   (868+ words) September 8, 2026 — 7:30pm One Nation’s Victorian leader Warren Pickering has admitted using illicit drugs including methamphetamines as a young man, a day after denying allegations about his drug use made by his former partner. Pickering, who is contesting the marginal seat of…...

8+ hour, 30+ min ago   (1040+ words) September 8, 2026 — 5:30pm Australian high school students have recorded their worst maths and reading results in international tests, and 15-year-olds are now two and a half years behind teenagers who went to school at the turn of the millennium. Programme for International…...

8+ hour, 9+ min ago   (247+ words) September 8, 2026 — 5:51pm Workers at Arts Centre Melbourne are threatening to disrupt a concert by Grammy Award-winning American singer Macy Gray as part of a 24-hour strike over pay. Staff at the centre – which includes the Arts Centre building and Hamer Hall…...

9+ hour ago   (794+ words) The Age 2. Unhinged is a lightly raced colt mapping to strike second-up, and one of four accepted runners for the leading Chris Waller stable. Given little room inside runners when resuming in a small field, but better placed this time…...