Victoria has declared a Code Brown emergency as the state's hospital system is put under significant strain due to escalating COVID-19 hospitalisations.

Hospitalisations are expected to soar past 2500 COVID-19 patients next month, triggering the emergency activation across all Melbourne public hospitals and major regional facilities as of midday tomorrow.

The emergency measure aims to relieve hospitals and staff from unsustainable pressure, by reconfiguring workers and systems.

Here's everything you need to know about what a Code Brown declaration means.

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What is a Code Brown?

A Code Brown is a formal emergency management structure that aims to make the best use of hospital resources.

According to the Department of Health, a Code Brown is used to plan, prepare, respond and recover from an external emergency.

In Victoria, the most common external emergencies requiring activation of Code Brown plans include transport accidents, chemical spills and natural emergencies such as fire and flood.

However, this is the first time a Code Brown has been declared system-wide across the state.

Health services and facilities use a set of colour codes for both internal and external emergencies that are recognised nationwide – hence the word "brown".

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When is a Code Brown called?

A Code Brown is activated by a health service or facility (or in this case, the Victorian Government to apply to all Melbourne hospitals and major regional facilities) when additional capability and capacity needs to be mobilised to receive an influx of patients due to an external emergency.

What impact will this Code Brown have?

Hospitals and health services could reconfigure services to free up more staff, including the delivery of outpatient services outside the hospital and the rapid offload of ambulance patients at emergency departments.

Hospitals may also choose to redeploy staff to work in areas of highest clinical priority.

Non-urgent clinical services may be ceased, reduced or changed in frequency in terms of access.

Staff may also be asked to defer taking leave if it is essential.

"This is about prioritising emergency and urgent care services, to say if you need that level of care for COVID or non-COVID reasons, that you can access it," Deputy State Controller Adam Horsborough said.

Why is calling a Code Brown necessary?

Victoria's Deputy Premier James Merlino said the Code Brown would help better manage the immense pressure hospitals are facing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Healthcare workers are bracing for hospitalisations to surge past 2500 COVID-19 patients next month and therefore must reconfigure their systematic approach.

"We've reached a point in our health system where it's juggling severe workforce shortages," Mr Merlino said.

"It is the right time to do it now, not wait for a Code Brown until two or three weeks down the track when we're seeing the impact of the peak of Omicron hospitalisations and ICU patients."

The Code Brown is expected to last four to six weeks or until health officials say otherwise.

The average Australian would need to earn over $300,000 a year to consider themselves as officially "rich", new research has found.

Financial comparison site Finder found that in order to subjectively "feel" wealthy, most Australians would need to earn $326,900 per annum, some seven times greater than the median personal income of $49,805.

One in four Australians said they wouldn't consider themselves rich until they were earning at least $500,000, with those from Generation X (born 1965 to 1980) reporting the highest median figure of more than $350,000.

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Of the Australians surveyed, women reported needing slightly more ($333,010) than men ($318,952) to feel wealthy.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the average weekly earnings for Australians is $1,737.10 – ending up with a yearly salary of just over $90,000.

However as Finder's personal finance expert Kate Browne explains, this is an average – meaning the country's uberrich are likely pushing up the baseline figures of ordinary workers.

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"A small percentage of high-income earners make average income statistics look impressive, but the reality is that the typical middle-class Australian is actually earning a $50,000 salary," Ms Browne said.

"If you are already fortunate enough to earn more than the median wage it's a good reminder that you are already ahead.

"It can be tempting to keep striving for more, but it's also important to truly enjoy your work."

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Ms Browne reminded Australians that competing with friends and family over salary will not be as personally rewarding as trying to maximise happiness while being financially conservative.

"Remember social media is a highlight reel, and while it can seem like everyone around you is hustling their way to the top, appearances can be deceiving," Ms Browne said.

"There's nothing wrong with striving to be financially comfortable, but endeavouring to compete with others is exhausting, expensive, and you'll never be satisfied with what you already have.

"It can also encourage you to overspend on items you can't afford."

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.

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Aussie homeowners who sold their property during the peak of last year's lockdown made a median profit gain of $270,000 as overwhelming demand supercharged the market.

New data in property research firm CoreLogic's Pain and Gain report showed that in the three months to September 2021, the median nominal gain of selling a property – that is the "middle range" of those who made a profit – was $270,000.

In those three months the collective profit made by sellers was an eye-watering $27.3 billion, while the total combined loss made by sellers was a relatively paltry $368 million.

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Social distancing restrictions, lockdowns and the inability to physically inspect property in some states meant that only 99,000 property transactions occurred in the September period.

Despite this, an overwhelming 92.4 per cent of properties made a profit of any kind with properties that had been held for 30 years or more reaping the biggest returns with a median profit of just over $745,000.

Of particular note were investors in the Tasmanian capital of Hobart, where 100 per cent of investment home resales made a profit.

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CoreLogic's Head of Research Eliza Owen described the profit made by sellers as "remarkable", noting that profits have increased quarter-on-quarter for more than a year.

"The increase in the rate of profit-making sales is a reflection of strong capital growth across Australian dwelling markets despite COVID-induced disruptions to transaction activity," Ms Owen said.

"The three months to September was the fifth consecutive quarter in which the rate of profit-making sales across Australia increased."

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The biggest winners were sellers in regional Australia, particularly if their property aligned with tree or sea-change aspirations of buyers wanting to escape the city.

"Regional Australia has seen a more rapid increase in the rate of profit-making sales, and this trend is likely to continue as regional dwelling growth saw momentum ramp up toward the end of the year," Ms Owen said.

"Sea change and tree change markets have seen immense price growth over 2021, as the prevalence of remote work amid the pandemic, the relative affordability of regions, and the potential for retirement decisions being brought amid labour market disruptions contributed to elevated levels of migration to regional Australia through 2021."

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Despite across-the-board profits for sellers, Ms Owen said there are signs the housing market is beginning to cool.

"There are accumulating headwinds for property market performance in the coming months, in the form of higher supply of advertised stock, normalising interest rates, affordability constraints and the possibility of tighter lending restrictions," Ms Owen said.

"A downswing in Australian housing market values would ultimately impact the profitability of resales, particularly for recent purchasers."

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.

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Coral on the Great Barrier Reef is showing early signs of bleaching, which has experts concerned as the Sunshine State is staring down the barrel of a long, hot summer.

A team of research scientists have documented pale and fully-bleached coral — which occurs when symbiotic algae inside hard coral is expelled — off the coast of Magnetic Island in Far North Queensland on Sunday.

They're concerned, as this could be the first signs of a "widespread" die-off at the World Heritage site.

If it proves true it would be the sixth mass bleaching event on the reef since 1998.

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Augustine Crosbie, PhD candidate at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies told 9news.com.au he's worried, as the signs of stress are being seen relatively early in summer.

"Currently there are only early signs of stress, however this is happening much earlier into summer than during past bleaching events," he said.

"It's also too early to make predictions on how bad it will be.

"(But) we still have a predicted long, hot summer ahead."

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Mr Crosbie explained coral can only tolerate a narrow temperature range, adding the ideal water temperature on the Great Barrier Reef should be between 22 – 30C.

The water temperature off Magnetic Island on Sunday was 31C.

"Prolonged temperature this high will lead to further coral bleaching," Mr Crosbie said.

"There have predictions from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) that waters would reach temperatures 1 – 2C above average for many parts of the reef during December 2021 and January 2022.

"This could lead to widespread coral bleaching."

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The latest GBRMPA reef health report predicted Queensland water temperatures could reach "as high as 1.5C above average in parts of the central region" — especially around Townsville.

The government-run body said so far it has only received a few isolated reports of low-level coral bleaching.

The Great Barrier Reef has already seen five mass bleaching events; 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020, with the 2016 bleaching described as "the largest on record".

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"In 2016, sea surface temperatures on the Great Barrier Reef were the hottest ever recorded (1.03 degrees Celsius above the 1961–1990 average); a marine heatwave that led to the largest recorded mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef," the GBRMPA stated on their website.

The government body said climate change is the main driver of bleaching events.

"Climate change, specifically temperature extremes, is the primary driver of coral degradation in the Region and has substantially altered the abundance and species composition of coral communities.

One of the most powerful weapons in the US Navy's arsenal made a rare port call in Guam over the weekend, sending a message to allies and foes amid increasing tensions in the Indo-Pacific, analysts said.

The USS Nevada, an Ohio-class nuclear-powered submarine carrying 20 Trident ballistic missiles and dozens of nuclear warheads, pulled into the Navy base in the US Pacific Island territory on Saturday.

It's the first visit of a ballistic missile submarine – sometimes called a "boomer" – to Guam since 2016 and only the second announced visit since the 1980s.

"The port visit strengthens cooperation between the United States and allies in the region, demonstrating US capability, flexibility, readiness, and continuing commitment to Indo-Pacific regional security and stability," a US Navy statement said.

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Movements of the 14 boomers in the US Navy's fleet are usually closely guarded secrets. Nuclear power means the vessels can operate submerged for months at a time, their endurance limited only by the supplies needed to sustain their crews of more than 150 sailors.

The Navy says Ohio-class submarines stay an average of 77 of days at sea before spending about a month in port for maintenance and replenishment.

It's rare for one to even be photographed outside their home ports of Bangor, Washington, and Kings Bay, Georgia. The secrecy surrounding the ballistic missile submarines makes them the "most important survivable leg of the nuclear triad," which also includes silo-based ballistic missiles on the US mainland and nuclear-capable bombers like the B-2 and B-52.

But with tensions brewing between the US and China over the status of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, and as North Korea ramps up missile tests, Washington can make a statement with its ballistic missile submarines that neither Beijing nor Pyongyang can, according to the analysts.

"It sends a message – intended or not: we can park 100-odd nuclear warheads on your doorstep and you won't even know it or be able to do much about it. And the reverse isn't true and won't be for a good while," said Thomas Shugart, a former US Navy submarine captain and now an analyst at the Center for a New American Security.

North Korea's ballistic submarine program is in its infancy, and China's estimated fleet of six ballistic missile submarines is dwarfed by the US Navy's.

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And China's ballistic missile subs don't have the capabilities of the US boomers, according to a 2021 analysis by experts at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

China's Type 094 ballistic missile subs are two times louder than the US subs, and therefore more easily detected, and carry fewer missiles and warheads, CSIS analysts wrote in August.

Besides the political signalling, the presence of the USS Nevada in the region presents another opportunity, said Alessio Patalano, professor of war and strategy at King's College in London.

"The presence of this type of boat – especially in training and exercises – adds an important opportunity to learn how to hunt those of other actors in the region," Mr Patalano said.

"The DPRK (North Korea) is pursuing the development of such a type of a platform, and China already fields them. Honing in the skills to track them is as important as deploying them as strategic deterrent," he said.

The last time a US Navy boomer visited Guam was in 2016, when the USS Pennsylvania stopped there.

Analysts said tensions across the Indo-Pacific have significantly increased since that time, and more such military displays are likely from Washington in the current environment.

"This deployment reminds us that the nuclear order at sea in the (Indo-Pacific) matters, and whilst often outside wider public conversation, we are likely to see more of it in the development of regional strategic balance," Mr Patalano said.