Last Top Stories: Decorators sweeten show

• Decorators sweeten show

  

  Decorators sweeten showByAMBER WILSONNov. 14, 2015, 4:30 p.m.MOVE over cutsie cupcakes – moulding is all the rage in the cake decorating world right now.AMAZING: Talented Melbourne cake decorator Yolanda Sutandio was on show with over the weekend. The cake on the right took several days to make. Picture: Kate HealyMOVE over cutsie cupcakes – moulding is all the rage in the cake decorating world right now.The Cake Decorators Association of Victoria Ballarat Branch was in full force at this year’s..

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• State of the Nation | Saturday, November 14, 2015

  

  ▻BALLARAT: The man responsible for one of the Ballarat region's worst murders will spend most of their lives behind bars. On Friday, a Supreme Court Judge ...

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• Autistic teenager's killer gets 24 years

  

  A Victorian man who told a 14-year-old autistic boy to die as he murdered him with an axe has been jailed for 24 years.Joel Parker Henderson, 42, killed Timothy O'Brien, known as Timmy, despite the pleas of a woman at the scene to spare his life in what a judge says was apparent 'retaliation' for the young man's defence of his stepfather.Henderson's co-accused, Darren Wilson, 37, is serving a 30-year sentence for the horrific crime.The night of the murder, January 5, 2013, Henderson an..

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• Draft series: Geelong Falcons livewire Brett Blair flies onto AFL radar

  

  Brett Blair gets a handball away for the Geelong Falcons against Gippsland Power.GEELONG Falcons boss Mick Turner describes it as the best half of footy he has seen.It was the moment Brett Blair made himself known to AFL recruiters, teaming up with Charlie Curnow for an irresistible forward line double act that still gets talked about today.When the Falcons played North Ballarat in this year’s qualifying final, Blair kicked five goals and Curnow four, with the bulk of their damage coming in a br..

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• The many trials of Cardinal George Pell

  

  The coincidence could hardly be more unfortunate, but it could not have been foreseen. Back in March, on the second anniversary of his pontificate, Pope Francis announced a year to be dedicated to the major theme of his papacy, mercy.The Year of Mercy, he announced, will begin on the day the church calls the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8.“I am convinced,” Francis said, “that the whole church will find in this jubilee the joy needed to rediscover and make fruitful the mercy o..

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• Old photos and letters reveal truly fascinating stories

  

  WHILE organising a chattels auction for a client whose Mapleton property he'd just sold, real estate agent and auctioneer Martin Fisher of Elders Woombye found an old suitcase.In it were family documents, photographs, personal letters, greeting cards, Christmas and birthday cards - even sweetheart cards and notes - dating back to the mid-1800s.As Martin set about tracing their history, two amazing stories unfolded.MY CLIENT in Mapleton, John Major the bush poet, bought a house in Rockhampton in ..

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• Growing pains: why Caroline Springs and Point Cook rate poorly for...

  

  Point Cook and Caroline Springs are planned suburbs – so what went wrong?Growing pains are plaguing Melbourne’s urban expansion corridors.An exclusive Deloitte Tract study has ranked Melbourne’s young postcodes of Point Cook at 309 and Caroline Springs at 313, on a liveability list of suburbs.Both are so-called “masterplanned communities”, developed on the city’s fringes.Tony Hooper, president of the Point Cook Residents Action Group: “Point Cook is a good suburb – but we can lift it from good t..

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• From Polly to Pavlich, a remote possibility increases

  

  Kevin Fernando on Melville Island.Photo: Glenn CampbellOn Bathurst Island there's a local in his 50s who's known to all as Polly Farmer. "I couldn't even tell you his real name, and I've known him forever," says Brian Clancy, secretary of the education board that runs Tiwi College on adjacent Melville Island.Among the school's 70-odd students is a boy who's rarely out of a Western Bulldogs jumper with No.10 on its back. For years he called himself Eagleton; lately he's undergone an identity upgr..

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• Open gardens, plant sales and more gardening related events

  

  ConferenceTherapeutic horticulture will be in the spotlight at a Therapeutic Landscapes Network Australia conference to be held at the University of Melbourne's Burnley campus on Friday, November  27. Academics, healthcare professionals, garden designers and other speakers will discuss the connections between nature, horticulture, health and wellbeing. It runs from 8.30am to 4pm, $250. Go to trybooking.com/IFOA to make a booking.Public consultationThe public is being asked to contribute ideas fo..

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• Karen Hitchcock, Frankie J. Holden and Josh Pyke address the...

  

  Lizie left Canterbury Girls in Year 10 and enrolled at Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, then did a music theatre degree at Ballarat University.

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