Exciting times. Life is returning to normal, finally.
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Restrictions all over the country are easing as the national marches closer and closer to its vaccination targets. Right now, just under 85 per cent of eligible Australians are double vaccinated.
In Victoria this week, Premier Dan Andrews announced that all restrictions would be lifted.
"It really will be a normal Christmas," Mr Andrews told media on Thursday.
So, if things are returning to normal in Victoria, we expect a truck to hit the infamous Montague Street Bridge any minute now. Nature is healing, after all.
Speaking of nature, it's been a wild one on the weather front.
It's been snowing. In November.
Dreaming of a white Christmas
Considering its spring with summer just weeks away, it was a strange sight to see white flakes falling over parts of Tasmania, Victoria, ACT and NSW.
An Antarctic blast pushed through a cold front earlier this week, bring with it fresh powder.
In NSW, Charlottes Pass and Perisher Valley saw blizzard conditions return with 250mm of snow pounding its slopes.
Meanwhile, residents of Hobart in Tasmania shivered through their coldest night since 1953 on Sunday night when the mercury fell to just 2.9 degrees.
Up to 300mm of snow was also dumped over the Huon Valley.
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One week, we're bringing you stories of snake sightings, the next we're back into snow spotting. Strange times.
But springtime snow is not the only crazy weather we've seen lately.
In the NSW Central West town of Forbes, residents and business owners are desperately bracing against the possibility of worsening floods as the Lachlan River breaks its banks once again.
And yet, more rain is forecasted for the battling agricultural region.
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Dragon eggs
In August, we brought you the story of the 'Australian first' mating of two komodo dragons on the NSW Central Coast.
Well, now those dragons have popped some eggs! Daenerys and Kraken are going to be parents! We're thrilled.
The Australian Reptile Park's resident mumma dragon laid 15 eggs this week. Girl's living up to her "mother of dragons" namesake.
Keepers risked the potentially fatal venomous bite of the largest living lizard species to retrieve the eggs, giving them the best chance of hatching successfully.
The eggs will be monitored carefully, and in eight months time, we may well see some baby dragons getting about!
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Who are you calling chicken legs?
Chris Cairns was known as one of the greatest all-rounder cricketers New Zealand ever sent to the field.
But now, having narrowly sidestepped death, the sports star cannot say whether he will ever walk again.
Speaking to Australian Community Media (ACM) exclusively this week, Cairns and wife Melanie told of the day that changed their lives dramatically and left the cricketer battling for his life.
It's a remarkable and heartbreaking tale with some confronting insights into the family's 'new normal' as Cairns learns to remobilise after suffering an aortic dissection.
But in the midst of the tumult, the couple have kept their wit and optimism.
"We don't know what happens going forward. I don't know if I'll walk, I don't know if I'll stand," Cairns said.
"But I may stand. I may walk. The only option is to keep going. The thing is I'm not even just lucky to be here. I'm very lucky."
Heartwarmingly, Mr Cairns told ACM journalists of his new favourite t-shirt, bought by his wife and presented soon after his surgery.
"Then Mel went and bought me a shirt that said: 'Who you calling chicken legs?'," he laughs.