Two men have suffered "significant head injuries" and another four are being treated in hospital after a wild, 50-person brawl erupted in Melbourne's south-west overnight.

Police say a group – believed to have consisted of approximately 30 people – were enjoying a "nice barbecue after work" at a warehouse in Laverton, when another group consisting of about 20 people approached sometime between nine and 10pm.

The two parties immediately clashed and a serious brawl erupted, resulting in a number of people becoming seriously injured.

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Officers say there's no clear motive for the clash and detectives are still unable to determine "why the other party has attended, or the relationship between the two parties".

"For something like this to happen, with six victims overall, for people that were just meant to be having a nice barbecue after work, it’s obviously of great concern for us," Detective Senior Constable Erin Hardie said.

"For two people to be injured in such a way, that’s obviously of great concern for us to find out who has been involved in that.

"At this stage we have no idea in relation to motive, or why the other party has attended, or the relationship between the two parties.

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"Our inquiries are still ongoing… but some of the calls have come through to say that there was between 40 to 50 people.

"They sustained head injuries… significant head injuries."

Hardie said "planks of wood" and other items that may have been used as weapons were found in the vicinity following the brawl. 

She said a number of those hurt during the incident self-presented to "various hospitals" around the city.

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A 36-year-old Williams Landing man, a 28-year-old Tarneit and a 35-year-old Tarneit man currently remain hospital with serious injuries.

"Today it's just a case of processing the crime scene and trying to work out exactly what's happened," she said.

"We've got CCTV at a number of businesses which we'll be sifting through.

"If anyone has seen anything, if anyone knows anything… contact police or Crime Stoppers." 

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New Zealand man Pita Shelford (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi) knew something wasn't right as soon as he woke up from surgery – from hip to toe, he had no feeling in his left leg.

Within a week it had turned dark purple, and was swollen and cold to the touch.

He'd had spinal cord surgery in January 2022 to drain a cyst from his neck to waistline; according to medical staff the operation went as intended, but he was left with debilitating side effects including reduced mobility and neurological function, and regular shaking fits.

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In private correspondence, staff from Waikato Hospital have acknowledged some gaps in his treatment, including failure to lodge an ACC treatment injury claim, and incomplete discharge documentation which delayed his rehabilitative care.

Shelford's spent more than a year trying to get answers about what went wrong and for the hospital to take ownership of those mistakes, including seven formal letters and a complaint to the Health and Disability Commission.

"There was nothing wrong with my left leg prior to surgery, and now there is everything wrong with it," he said.

The father, PhD candidate and husband previously enjoyed exercise and travel, but is now unable to walk without aid, and he's had to come to terms with paralysis and loss of sensation in his leg.

Shelford said his interactions with the health system had been "appalling", and left him "managing life, not living life".

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A 'successful' surgery

Initially, Shelford was told the surgery to insert a draining shunt "was a success".

When he raised concerns about limited circulation, with blood flow reduced to about a third of what it would usually be, he was told to just do his weekly physio.

Shelford eventually sought a second opinion from private neurosurgeon Dr Peter Heppner​, who was surprised that no imaging had been done for two months following the surgery "given Pita woke with a profound neurological deficit".

"Unfortunately given the time that has lapsed since surgery with such a profound neurological deficit, I do not see any likelihood that there is going to be significant functional improvement for Pita over time," Heppner wrote in an assessment for Shelford's GP.

"I think he would therefore be classed as being permanently disabled."

Five months later, Shelford was still missing feeling in his leg and sought a third opinion from another private neurosurgeon, Dr Peter Gan​.

He was told that his shunt wasn't in the right position and was pushing into the fibres of his spinal cord, leading to nerve damage. Waikato Hospital eventually issued him with a wheelchair.

Gan said an ACC Treatment Injury Claim should have been submitted the day Shelford woke up from surgery – that didn't happen.

In response to a complaint, Waikato Hospital nurse director Kim Holt wrote in a letter that "the treatment injury was not evident at the time of discharge".

Shelford ending up filing his own claim via his GP, chasing the hospital over an eight-month period to provide his health information to ACC before the claim could be approved. During that time, he had to self-fund his rehabilitation.

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Fight for review

In October 2022, Shelford was told his surgery would undergo an adverse event review which would produce recommendations for the Health Quality & Safety Commission​.

However, in March 2023 Shelford was told by panel chair Dr Margaret Fisher that his case did not meet the criteria for "an SAC1 or 2 serious event review", and therefore a formal report would not be produced.

Te Whatu Ora declined to comment on why Shelford's case had not been subject to an Adverse Event Review, and said all necessary information had been shared directly with the patient.

In a letter responding to Shelford's complaints about the lack of an Adverse Event Review, Waikato Hospital's interim lead of hospital and specialist services Michelle Sutherland and interim operations director Kim Holt wrote that initially, "the decision was to lodge it as a serious event in order to generate this review", but that "in hindsight this was the incorrect process to follow".

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Another letter, in place of a formal report, arrived over a year after the surgery and did not involve consultation with Shelford. There were no answers for why he had experienced such a significant loss of blood circulation since the operation.

Shelford said the letter was "disappointing, to say the least".

"This to me is a broken promise and a cop-out," he said. "We were told we'd be part of the process and that didn't happen."

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Aussie royalty descended on Sydney's Darling Point yesterday for the wedding of the self-proclaimed "king of radio", Kyle Sandilands and his former assistant Tegan Kynaston.

The busiest bushfire season since the 2019-2020 Black Summer fires has officially come to an end in New South Wales, a number of weeks after it was extended due to dangerous conditions.

Officials say March was the busiest busiest month of the season, with firefighters responding to over 2800 incidents, "which accounted for almost 50 per cent of the total hectares burnt across the whole fire season".

Though the season has formally drawn to a close, authorities say the risk, while reduced, remains. 

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"We saw an increase in activity late in the season, with significant fires in Narrabri, Mudgee and Upper Lachlan LGAs," Commissioner of the NSW RFS Rob Rogers said.

"Across the season, firefighters have worked on more than 24,800 bush and grass fires which burnt through over 116,000 hectares.

"We also sadly saw the loss of eight homes, 15 outbuildings and hundreds of livestock across firegrounds, however hundreds more homes and buildings were saved due to the actions of firefighters and landholders.

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"Whilst the bush fire season has ended, this doesn't mean the risk of fire has, with the shift from recent wet weather to drier conditions already being seen across much of NSW."

Rogers said a warmer-than-average winter could spell trouble for the state in the coming months and residents should remain on alert. 

"With a warm and dry winter predicted, there is a real risk of fires occurring across the cooler months this year," he said.

"Landholders must know their obligations if conducting burns and know the costs if you do the wrong thing, but most importantly, if a fire does get out of hand, make sure you report it immediately to Triple Zero (000)."

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Australians are being warned to protect themselves against a "virus triple threat" this winter, with a leading doctor warning that COVID-19, flu and RSV infections are continuing to rise.

Dr Brad McKay told Weekend Today that Queensland was already experiencing its worst flu season in decades, and warned other states would follow.

He said it was important to get vaccinated early to ensure Australians were best protected.

READ MORE: When should you get your influenza vaccine?

"We are seeing a large escalation of respiratory virus occurring," he said.

"We are also seeing flu cases going up at the moment, we are also seeing COVID-19 cases starting to rise too."

Queensland Health has reported 6,374 influenza cases recorded between 1 January and 9 April this year, "with numbers continuing to rise".

Dr McKay said the rise was due to many people, particularly children, not getting vaccinated against the flu.

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"The main problem here is that we are really not vaccinating enough people against flu," he said.

"We (can) forget about kids. We have been concentrating on the elderly when it comes to COVID-19, but when it comes to flu, it is those young kids who are under the age of five who actually can get a free vaccine if you are between six months old and five years old.

"Hardly anybody in that age group is being vaccinated. We really need parents to get out there and go to your GP, to to your pharmacy, yeah, have your vaccinations across-the- board."

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Just two per cent of children aged six months to five years have received a flu vaccine this year, and only 1.4 per cent of five to 15-year-olds, according to the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.

The flu shot is free for kids under five.

It comes days after the World Health Organisation warned of a new Omicron subvariant XBB 1.16 – colloquially known as "Arcturus" – circulating.

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Home ownership will soon be in closer reach for millions more Australians as the federal government expands eligibility for its Home Guarantee Scheme (HGS), in a bid to tackle the housing crisis.

Under one of the changes friends and family will be allowed to team up to buy a first home as the definition of the word "couple" will be changed from those who are married, or in de-facto relationship, to "any two eligible individuals" from July 1.

Federal Housing Minister Julie Collins has told Weekend Today the eligibility expansion is about "moving with the times".

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"What we are doing here, is widening the eligibility criteria. What we want to do is support more Australians to get into a home," Collins said.

"(It's) particularly (for) those who have been long-term renting (or) those who are having difficulty over coming the 20 per cent mortgage deposit threshold.

"We need to accept that different people, are doing different things to get into home ownership and that is what today's changes are about."

Under the scheme the federal government acts as a guarantor making up the majority of a loan for prospective buyers,

Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) is also waived.

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What are the changes and how will they work?

The HGS includes three different Guarantees:

• First Home Guarantee, which supports eligible first home buyers with a deposit as little as five per cent.
• Family Home Guarantee, which supports eligible single parents with a deposit as low as two per cent.
• Regional Home Buyer Guarantee which helps regional buyers crack into the housing market.

The Family Home Guarantee is currently only open to single parents with at least one dependent child.

Under the new changes this will be extended to single legal guardians of children from July 1.

It means guardians of children such as grandparents, aunts, uncles or foster carers will become eligible.

Australian permanent residents will also be included in the expansion, instead of just citizens.

The scheme will also widen to people who haven't owned a property in 10 years, helping those who have lost their home in financial crisis or a relationship breakdown.

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Collins said the scheme would be capped at 50,000 places to ensure it would not impact the housing market.

"We have price caps on it, and what we don't want to do, is impact prices but obviously we do want to get and support Australians into home ownership sooner," she said.

"This is just a part of the suite of reforms we are doing as a government."

The changes come weeks after new research by YouGov showed nine in 10 people believe young Australians will never own their own homes due to the cost of living crisis and interest rate hikes.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud said the changes would help the housing crisis in a "small way".

"It's part of the total package of solutions that are required but the biggest challenge we have got, is supply," he told Weekend Today.

"We need to increase supply and there is going to be more pressure now that the government wants to bring in 650,000 new migrants over the next two years."

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An urn lost during the devastating floods that hit New South Wales' Hawkesbury region last year has been reunited with family members.

The urn was handed into police in November after it was found near a skip bin by a local business owner in Brooklyn, more than 30km away from where it was lost.

Sergeant Ben Garrod began investigating with local funeral directors after noticing the urn bore the words "Mollie 'May' Grinsted".

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It was discovered Grinsted had died in 2007, and her next of kin, nephew Peter Hart, had taken care of her ashes at his property by the Hawkesbury River in Lower Portland.

Hart kept the ashes on his bookshelf but they were soon lost after his house went underwater during widespread flooding last year.

Sergeant Garrod said Hart was in shock after he was notified the urn was recovered.

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"He couldn't believe it – he thought Mollie's ashes had been lost in the floods," Sergeant Garrod said.

"When I came to his home in Lower Portland to return her urn, he showed me all the damage to his property from the floods and he showed me Mollie's old bedroom. Being able to return her ashes to her family is such a special and rewarding feeling."

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Being reunited with his aunt's ashes brought tears to Hart's eyes.

"Mollie never wanted to leave here, she loved it here and now she has come back home," he said.

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As the weather begins to cool, and the crisp winds blow, sightings of fanged reptiles will become less common as snake season draws to a close.

Already two Queensland-based snake catchers have told 9news.com.au they've seen a drop in snake activity, reporting an average of "around" one to "two or more" a day over April.

But what actually happens to the reptiles in winter, and where do they go?

Here is everything we know about the end of snake season. 

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What months are snakes most active in Australia?

Snakes are most active during snake season, which typically begins around September and runs until April.

"You're really looking at spring, summer and early autumn for the active months," Billy Collett, operations manager at the Australian Reptile Park on NSW's Central Coast, told 9news.com.au.

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When does snake season end in Australia?

There's no set month snake season ends.

Instead, it's all dominated by the cooling weather.

"It just depends on the season, how much rain, the temperature, all of that," Collett said.

"Like this autumn gone by, it hasn't really been that cold.

"I saw a red-bellied black snake just yesterday cruising around the edge of a dam and we're almost in May."

Collett added that by early to mid-May, sightings should "definitely" begin to drop off.

READ MORE: Why Australia's deadliest snake is so lethal

Do snakes hibernate?

The answer to this question is no.

Instead, snakes enter a dormant period called "brumation".

"The temperature gets too cool for them to be active so they will just sit still and shelter somewhere where they can maintain a little bit of heat," Collett said, explaining some species like pythons prefer trees, while others like hollows and burrows.

"Some will go underground, some will be in rocky ledges, some will literally just tuck up in a hollow log on the ground, as long as they are sheltered and away from the elements."

Are snakes active in winter in Australia?

Collette said vanishing snakes is a bit of a myth about snake season.

While you can expect to see fewer snakes during winter in Australia, it doesn't mean you won't occasionally see some reptiles about.

"People think they won't see snakes until springtime," he said.

"It's not uncommon in the middle of winter, even when it is freezing cold, if we have sunny days, with not much wind to see them.

"They will take the opportunity, cruise out from wherever they are camping, and sit in the sun for the day to get a bit of UV, a bit of heat, and then the tuck back down."

Do snakes eat during winter?

Snakes throughout east and south-eastern Australia will not touch a bite until the weather begins to warm.

If they do, it could prove fatal.

"Snakes need to maintain a warm body temperature to digest food so if it gets too cold it will literally rot inside their stomach," Collett said.

"They will be forced to regurgitate it, otherwise it will kill them.

"Maybe if we're in Cape York, up around Darwin, or the Kimberley, some of those snakes will eat a little bit – like once a month – but only if it's warm enough."

READ MORE: Snake myths busted and, in one case, verified

Collett added that snakes have evolved to "go months without eating", partly for this reason and partly because of the harsh climate.

"When we look at places like western Queensland where they have lots of dry periods, and I'm talking dry periods that last five to six years at a time, they may not see much food," he said.

"So they will eat just once or twice a year."

What should you do if you're bitten by a snake?

Should a person find themselves on the receiving end of a snake's fangs in winter, first aid should be quickly applied.

"Move away a few metres, don't go running, sit down and call for someone to grab you a pressure bandage if you have something like that," Collett said.

"If you don't, rip up your shirt or whatever is at hand and start wrapping it around the limb.

"Go around the bite site three times, one below and wrap all the way up past it.

"If you have a second bandage throw that on too."

After this, the person should seek professional medical help by calling triple zero or seeking out hospital care.

"But it's about getting the bandage, or the equivalent of a bandage, on as soon as you possibly can," Collett added.

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The record-breaking cavern is so large it dwarfs the small boat of researchers, as they managed to send a camera inside of it.

A man has saved a baby dolphin by wading into the ocean, picking it up and carrying it back out to sea in Adelaide's south.

Rescuer Brock McIntosh saw the dolphin calf was in trouble so instead of waiting for animal rescue services he saved the mammal himself at Moana Beach.

"My partner's like you've got to do something so I ran down there and picked up this dolphin," McIntosh said.

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"Another bloke there he was holding it and said we're getting someone down here to help and I said 'nah you've got to get it back out there', so yeah just swam out there with the dolphin."

He said he followed it for about five minutes.

"Eventually it ducked off out the back through a wave and went out to the ocean it was like something you see in a movie," McIntosh said.

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"Drove home in my jocks so it was all good."

The South Australian now has a new nickname.

"Oh yeah mate I'm the new dolphin whisperer, yeah daddy the dolphin whisperer."

Photographer Roger Foster said they usually had a pod of dolphins at the beach every morning, which he suspected the baby dolphin was part of.

"Hopefully he got back out to his mum again," Foster said.

There haven't been any reports in the local area of the dolphin washing in again.

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