Wangaratta, Beechworth, Rutherglen and Benalla 17 and rain.

Corryong 16 and rain.

Falls Creek and Mount Buller 6 and Mouth Hotham 5 with heavy rain.

A former drug dealer has sobbed quietly after being cleared of murdering Lavington man Luke Hargrave. Read more.

Frank Bensted won’t let the fire that tore through his unit get to him.

The 85-year-old was upbeat on Thursday morning despite the extensive damage to his Wyse Street home and many of his possessions. Read more.

Ray's Outdoors store in Albury will close down in late September. Read more.

Items stolen during a daring storage unit burglary have been recovered in a joint raid involving NSW and Victorian police. Read more.

Kylie Murphy had every reason to retire at the end of last season.

At 37 years old and coming off a torn Achilles that derailed her 2015 season, the ever-reliable goal-shooter could easily have hung up the sneakers and called it a day. Read more.

Need a national news snapshot first thing? We've got you covered. 

► NEWCASTLE, NSW: THE Anglican Primate of Australia Archbishop Philip Freier has expressed solidarity with Newcastle Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson and his officers before a Royal Commission public hearing in Newcastle on August 2. Archbishop Freier said evidence of clergy sexual abuse and predatory behaviour in Newcastle that included a former bishop was “shocking and distressing”. Read more.

► BALLARAT, VIC: An Indian chef who found himself on the brink of homelessness when he moved to Australia is reaching out to Ballarat’s most vulnerable. After leaving behind a job as a chef and his family in India almost 20 years ago, Peter Gaur found himself lost in a strange, new country struggling to afford his next meal. “I was struggling just to live day by day,” he said. But Mr Gaur considers himself one of the lucky ones. Read more.

► BUNBURY, WA: Anticipation is peaking at the Dolphin Discovery Centre as one of their resident male seahorses is due to give birth to up to 300 babies “any time now”. Yes, you read that right. It’s the male not the female seahorse that gives birth. Two of the five seahorses residing at the centre are pregnant – with one more ready to pop than the other. Read more.

► ILLAWARRA, NSW: In 1988 the Illawarra community rallied around 16-year-old Trudy Davis; raising $100,000 to enable her to undergo lifesaving surgery in Switzerland for an aggressive brain tumour. A quarter of a century later in December 2013, the now 42-year-old mother of two boys was refused admission to Shellharbour Hospital after presenting with breathing difficulties, and was sent home where she died of respiratory distress hours later. Read more.

► ALBURY, NSW: A former drug dealer has sobbed quietly after being cleared of murdering Lavington man Luke Hargrave. A Supreme Court jury in Albury late on Thursday afternoon instead found Campbell Hart guilty of Mr Hargrave’s manslaughter. The not guilty verdict was reached just 30 minutes after the jury of seven women and five men retired about 3pm. Read more.

► REDLANDS, QLD: A senior scientist has appealed to people to stop their dogs disturbing flocks of birds on foreshores. University of Queensland scientist Richard Fuller said research showed that dogs are a key issue in migratory shorebirds being disturbed in Moreton Bay, including the Redlands. The research underlined the importance of having dogs under control at all times. Associate Professor Fuller said researchers found that 97 per cent of foraging migratory birds could be better protected by councils revisiting dog off-leash zones. Read more.

► GOULBURN, NSW: Teachers from Goulburn Correctional Centre are calling on the State Government to save their jobs. These cuts will result in the loss of a senior correctional education officer, education officers and six teachers. Ten local teachers will be replaced by two clerical positions. Read more.

► BENDIGO, VIC: The boss of a Bendigo hatchery targeted by protesters on Thursday has said his business wants to implement a more humane way of “eliminating” unwanted male chicks. Specialised Breeders Australia chief executive officer Richard Rayner said in a statement his operation’s shredding of day-old birds was in line with RSPCA guidelines. The animal protection body also permitted using carbon dioxide to fatally gas chicks, he said. Read more.

► A hard core of disengaged youth who find it "easier to steal than work" are at the heart of a rise in repeat offending by young criminals, Victoria's top police officer says. Speaking at a youth crime summit on Thursday, Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said the overall rate of crimes committed by young people was falling but the rate of re-offending was rising. Read more.

► The Bureau of Statistics has been quietly hanging on to the names it collects with the census to conduct studies, despite a public commitment to destroy them. Australian statistician David Kalisch told Fairfax Media the Bureau had been keeping the names it collected for up to 18 months. Read more.

► Labor's National Left faction is set to formally split and shadow minister Kim Carr is ready to lead the creation of a new "progressive" Left faction based in Victoria. At the same time, a brawl has erupted in Labor's Right faction in NSW with senior MPs and potential future leadership contenders Chris Bowen and Tony Burke at loggerheads over the frontbench line-up. Read more.

National weather radar

International news

► One of Australia's top diplomats says the devastating truck attack in the French city of Nice, which has claimed 85 lives, shows why it's critical travellers register their travel details before taking off, especially if they are heading to Europe. Read more.

► Australia has banned a budding young Indian engineer from accepting a prestigious scholarship to study in Melbourne over fears his research might help spread weapons of mass destruction. The decision was described as "bizarre" in India, and has sparked angry demands for a diplomatic protest at the highest levels for treating the country as a "rogue nuclear state" less than a year after the Coalition government praised India's "impeccable record" of non-proliferation. Read more.

July 22, 2013: A very royal happy birthday to young Prince George of Cambridge! The future king of the United Kingdom turns three today. See how he celebrated his second birthday here. The cutie was also excited to meet a bilby for the first time during a visit to Aus - check it out below:

Safety investigator for the Australian Rail Track Corporation, Geoff Thrower, has travelled a long way from his humble start as a station assistant at Yass Junction in 1973.

The Goulburn man officially retired from the ARTC on July 15.

His 43 years in the industry have been happy ones, and given him insight to Australia's transport future.

Back in '73, "I basically got on a train at Goulburn and travelled to Yass Junction, where I started out as a station assistant," Mr Thrower said.

"The stationmaster there at the time, Brian Watt, said to me, 'Son, welcome to the railways: you're guaranteed a job for life.' We remained great mates until he died, just recently."

Mr Thrower said the railway industry had changed dramatically over four decades, especially advancing in technology. Read more.