More than 5000 clowns, ranging from all shapes and sizes along with a property are for sale in Melbourne's west.

Jen Kneebone lives alone in her Melton home and is looking to downsize into a smaller home, however it means that she cut back on her clown collection.

"I collect clowns and I mean 5000 clowns which are in every inch of my home, my rooms all consumed with clowns of all shapes, sizes, materials," she said.

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The 74-year-old is hoping to sell her extensive collection from all around the world to a collector.

"Unfortunately I cannot take them with me to my new home," she said.

"I would love some help in being put in contact with someone to buy, and perhaps open some sort of a clown museum.

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"They are far, far too valuable to just take to the local op-shop this would really be a tragedy."

The collection has posed some extra challenges for the agents selling the house.

"One person was terrified but she faced her fears and did a walk through, but she did leave through the gate at the side," YPA Melton's Ryan Anders said.

"She couldn't get through the whole house."

Kneebone is open to negotiating them into the sale of her house.

"I am hoping and praying that there is someone out there that can learn to have a passion the same as mine," she said.

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A police pursuit has been caught on camera – and there are 17 cop cars involved.

The family of a four-year-old Melbourne girl says her medical bills could soon exceed half a million dollars as she bravely battles her third type of cancer in three years.

Uma Tomarchio was born in Australia and has spent her whole life here but does not qualify for Medicare – which would normally cover the cost of her cancer treatments – because her parents are Italian.

Uma's parents moved to Australia seven years ago and the family of four, including Uma's older sister, has been living here on temporary skilled work visas ever since.

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Uma's health problems began in 2020, when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at two years old.

Eighteen months later, Uma appeared to be in the clear after initially responding well to chemotherapy. 

However, just as she was due to finish all of her treatment in October 2022, Uma relapsed. 

The cancer came back in a more aggressive form – acute myeloid leukaemia. 

The cost of Uma's treatments had, until then, been covered under the family's health insurance, however, the bone marrow transplant she needed was not.

Beating seemingly insurmountable odds, Uma's family managed to fundraise the $300,000 cost of the transplant, which took place at the Royal Children's Hospital in September last year.

Uma's father, Giuseppe Tomarchio, told 9news.com.au the bone marrow transplant appeared to have been a huge success – at first.

"The transplant went great," Tomarchio said.

"Uma didn't have any complications during the transplant. She was doing really well. She never stopped walking and playing during transplant.

"It was really impressive."

After spending 45 days in hospital, Uma was discharged earlier than expected.

But, one month later, Uma suddenly developed a fever.

Concerned, her parents took her back to hospital, where her condition deteriorated rapidly as doctors tried to figure out what was wrong.

The news, when it came, was devastating.

Just before Christmas last year, Uma was diagnosed with lymphoma – a cancer of the lymphatic system. The lymphoma was likely caused by a rare complication related to the bone marrow transplant.

"It was devastating, we couldn't believe it. It was like come on, this is not fair," Tomarchio said.

All up, Uma spent 40 days in the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) – some of them in an induced coma – with failing kidneys and a ventilator allowing her to breathe.

"She was critical, the doctors were really unsure whether she would make it," Tomarchio said.

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Uma underwent more chemotherapy to slow down the growth of the tumours in her lymph nodes.

Then, three weeks ago, Uma was given an infusion of donor white blood cells from Queensland.

Defying her weakened state, Uma responded amazingly well to the treatment and was now out of the ICU, Tomarchio said.

"She actually walked a bit for the first time the other day. It was a big day and a big celebration," he said.

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Beloved Australian singer and actor Olivia Newton-John will be farwelled at a state memorial service later this month.

The free, ticketed service will be held a Hamer Hall on February 26, and will include a performance by Delta Goodrem.

The Melbourne-raised performer died at her ranch in Southern California last year surrounded by family and friends, aged 73.

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After surviving cancer in 1992 and again in 2013, it returned in 2017 and on August 9, 2022, the Grammy-award winner lost her battle with spinal cancer.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the service was being planned in close consultation with her friends and family.

"Dame Olivia Newton-John was an inspiration to many around the world – her work in cancer research and treatment saved lives and changed lives and her music was the soundtrack to a generation," he said.

"We know Victorians are eager to celebrate the life of a driving force in medical research and an icon of film and music, with a service befitting her international acclaim."

Across six decades, Newton-John released 28 studio albums, won four Grammy awards, and sold more than 100 million records worldwide.

Can I livestream the Olivia Newton-John funeral?

The Victorian Government website will also be streaming the event.

The link to view the livestream will be made available on this page closer to the event.

Where can I get tickets?

The service will be free but ticketed in line with the capacity of Hamer Hall.

The public will need to attend with ticket registrations opening at 12pm on Friday 10 February 2023. 

Doors will open at 3.00pm and the service will begin at 4pm.

There will be a limit of two tickets per booking, seats will be allocated on a best available basis at the time of booking.

You will need an account with Arts Centre Melbourne to book your tickets.

To register an account with the Arts Centre you will need to provide your name and email address.

Can I make donations?

Newton-John's family have asked for memorial tributes to be made in the form of contributions to the Wellness Programs at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre.

You can make a written tribute here.

A man is fighting for life after he was allegedly stabbed in the chest and locked on the balcony of his Brisbane home while two children were also inside.

Neighbours and a jogger who was passing the house in Grange about 5.20am managed to rescue the children and tried to pull the man from the balcony before emergency services arrived.

A woman, believed to be the man's long-term partner, then allegedly locked the man on the balcony and set fire to items inside the house, including books and clothing.

She was arrested at the scene but has not been charged.

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Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham said police believe the 44-year-old woman stabbed her 42-year-old partner in the chest with a 20cm serrated kitchen knife as he was having a cup of coffee on the balcony.

The stab wound just missed the man's heart, he said.

Police allege the woman then locked the man on the balcony and set fire to some items inside the house.

Massingham said two children, aged 11 and nine, woke to smoke alarms and were "quite distressed" as the front door was locked.

He said it was "extremely lucky" the jogger was passing the house at the time, and that neighbours also heard screams and called triple-zero.

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Witnesses were able to free the children before they sustained any injuries and used a ladder to get the man down from the balcony.

Firefighters arrived to find a curtain of fire inside the brick home.

The woman was found barricaded inside a bathroom. She was not injured. 

The man was rushed to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, where he is undergoing surgery.

He is in a critical condition, but Massingham said he was conscious when he was being worked on by paramedics and gave some information about what happened. 

The woman was given medical treatment and is now speaking with police.

Massingham said the children and witnesses faced a "sudden and horrendously graphic scene".

"Today is a tragedy," Massingham said.

"It's such a horrific event."

He said the house and people involved had not previously been known to police.

A neighbour of the home earlier told Today the incident is a shock for the "very quiet street".

"Nothing happens in this street," Tegan Sprenger said.

She said the young man who lived at the home had lived there for a while and seemed "like a nice guy".

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact police.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

In an emergency, contact triple-zero (000).

Prosecutors in the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh have played footage in court that could undercut the disgraced former attorney's claim he was not present at the scene of the killings when his wife and son were murdered.

Court proceeded Wednesday with the continued testimony of Lt. David Britton Dove, a supervisor in the computer crimes center at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, who extracted all forensics from the phone of Murdaugh's 22-year-old son Paul, as well as those belonging to Alex Murdaugh and his wife Maggie.

The video, just short of a minute long, was filmed on Paul's phone starting at 8:44pm. the night of the killings, Dove testified.

In his review of the trio's phones, the footage was the only video or photo Dove deemed relevant to the investigation, he said, telling the court it appeared to be recorded in the area of the Murdaugh family's kennels.

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Dove believed Paul was trying to take a video of a dog's tail, he told the court, adding three different voices could be heard in the footage. And while Dove did not personally know the voices, he said, "You can tell that they're different voices".

Murdaugh appeared emotional while the video played in court.

The prosecution ended its direct questioning of Dove without clarifying who the voices belonged to.

Prosecutors believe one of the voices heard on the video played in court belongs to Murdaugh, and that voice is the only other on the video besides the victims, placing him at the scene at the time of the murders.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters of the South Carolina Attorney General's Office – which is prosecuting the case due to the Murdaugh family's decades-old ties with the local solicitor's office – teased the video in his opening statement last week, saying that while Alex claimed to investigators he was napping at the house, video evidence would show he was present at the family's kennels, where the bodies of his son and wife were found.

"You'll see that video and you'll hear from witnesses that identify Paul's voice, Maggie's voice and Alex's voice," Waters said, telling the court Paul was filming a dog that belonged to his friend because they were concerned about the animal's tail.

Murdaugh "told anyone who would listen he was never there … The evidence will show that he was there. He was at the murder scene with the two victims" minutes before Paul's phone "locks forever."

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Prosecutors have indicated mobile phone evidence is key in their case against Murdaugh, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the killings of his wife Margaret "Maggie" Murdaugh and his 22-year-old son Paul on June 7, 2021.

Murdaugh called 911 the night of the killings to report he'd found his wife and son shot dead at the family's home in Islandton, South Carolina – a property known as Moselle.

But prosecutors accuse Murdaugh of committing the murders to distract attention from a series of alleged illicit schemes he was running to avoid "personal legal and financial ruin," per court filings.

Separate from the murder charges, he is also facing 99 charges stemming from alleged financial crimes, per the state attorney general.

Evidence will show, the state has claimed, that Murdaugh's alleged financial crimes were "about to come to light" when his wife and son were killed.

Calls missing from call log on Murdaugh's phone, expert says

In his testimony Tuesday, Dove, the 15th witness called by the prosecution, detailed the communications of Maggie's phone the night of the killings, including a text from Alex at 9.47pm that read, "Call me babe".

It was never read.

In his opening statement last week, Waters told the jury Murdaugh repeatedly called his wife that evening before texting her that he was going to visit his mother and driving to Almeda, South Carolina.

"It's up to you," Waters said, "to decide whether or not he's trying to manufacture an alibi."

According to Dove's testimony Tuesday, the night she was killed, Maggie read two text messages in a group chat at 8.31pm and 8.49pm, seconds before her phone locked for the final time.

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The display of Maggie's phone turned off minutes later, at 8:53 pm. At 8:54 pm, the orientation changed to landscape and the camera activated – an indication, Dove said, the phone was moved and the camera tried to locate Maggie's face in an unsuccessful attempt to unlock.

Maggie's phone showed repeated missed calls from her husband over the course of the next hour, Dove testified, along with evidence it had switched to portrait mode.

That, the expert said, was another indication the phone was likely held in someone's hand.

A final call from Murdaugh was missed just before 10.04pm.

But those calls appeared to be missing from Murdaugh's phone, Dove said Wednesday, testifying that call logs show a gap in calls between June 4 and 10.25pm the night of June 7.

"A gap like that would indicate" that calls were "actually removed from there," Dove said, adding the only way to remove the calls from the log would be to do so manually.

Asked specifically if the calls were deleted from the log, Dove said, "it would appear that way," noting there was no way to know when they were deleted or who was responsible.

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A massive rockfall has been caught on video as it cascaded down the side of a cliff on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island.

The rockfall on the Coromandel Peninsula at Rumahanga Bay closed the road between Tapu and Waiomu on Wednesday evening.

A video shows rocks, trees and debris falling from a cliff face and smashing onto the road with cars lined up on the road just metres away.

PHOTOS: Auckland mansion teeters on edge of cliff

Part way through the rockfall, the first car in line, a silver vehicle starts reversing from the slip as rocks are still falling.

Other people can be seen out of their vehicles watching the slip happen, including people in high-vis and hard hats.

Wild weather has caused flooding, landslips and damage to roads on New Zealand's North Island, particularly in and around Auckland.

The transport agency advises against non-essential travel in the Coromandel and parts of east Waikato due to the road conditions making travel hazardous.

State Highway 25 has been compromised in many areas with multiple slips, surface water, mud and other debris on the road.

Meanwhile, State Highway 25A remains closed after the road collapsed.

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State Highway 2 through the Karangahake Gorge is open following the clearance of two slips. It was down to one lane overnight as the embankment is still saturated and active.

In west Waikato, the road between Raglan and Hamilton was closed overnight due to the severity of cracking and slumping of SH23.

Waka Kotahi NZ closed it to all traffic overnight from 7pm on Wednesday.

"We have been doing everything we can to keep this road open but a geotechnical inspection late this afternoon has confirmed the risk to the travelling public has increased," Cara Lauder, Waka Kotahi system manager for the Waikato, said.

"Despite our best efforts to keep water out of the cracks, the fissures are growing."

For public safety the road was closed and is to be re-assessed on Thursday morning.

"As well as applying cold mix asphalt to the cracks, an asphalt bund was added to direct road water flow away in an effort to prevent further damage, however it hasn't been enough to stop it getting worse."

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Three men have been rescued after they were found clinging to an esky off the south coast of Western Australia.

The trio were found after authorities responded to a distress signal yesterday morning.

They had been fishing near Eclipse Island off the Albany coast, 17km offshore, when their boast capsized.

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The three men faced a gruelling ordeal, treading water for two hours in rough seas.

Waves reached as high as three metres.

However, they were wearing lifejackets and were able to cling on to a bright blue esky, staying afloat until rescuers came to their aid.

More to come.

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A leading toxicologist has revealed what makes eastern brown snakes so dangerous as more details emerge about a Queensland father who died from a suspected bite from the species over the weekend.

On Saturday morning paramedics were called to a home in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane, but the father-of-two had died before emergency services arrived. 

It's believed the man, in his 60s, was bitten on the hand by an eastern brown snake as he attempted to remove it from the property.

READ MORE: What to do if you encounter a deadly snake, spider or jellyfish

Fatal snake bites have become relatively rare since the introduction of a national antivenom program, with two people dying per year on average.

However according to statistics released by the National Coronial Information Service, eastern browns are responsible for the majority of snake bite deaths.

Up to 65 per cent of fatalities between 2000 and 2016 were attributed to the venomous species, which is found across most of eastern Australia.

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Associate Professor Naren Gunja, a clinical and forensic toxicologist with the University of Sydney, told 9news.com.au that a lot of patients he's treated don't even realise they've been bitten.

Gunja said this is partly because of the physiology of the species' fangs.

"Brown snakes have very sharp, small fangs when compared to death adders and tiger snakes, for example," he explained.

"The fangs are short and pencil-like, very fine, you may not even feel a bite. 

READ MORE: British tourist bitten by venomous snake on Fraser Island

"It's very easy to dismiss it.

"Sometimes when bushwalking you may just think you've been scratched by a twig or a stick.

"In some cases I've not even been able to find where they've been bitten, normally you see a double puncture wound, but sometimes the wound is so fine you don't find a bite site."

The fangs are short and pencil-like, very fine, you may not even feel a bite. 

Given this, Gunja said it's extremely important for people to know the symptoms of eastern brown snake envenomation.

"Some people get a very early fainting collapse, within 10 minutes, they faint and feel like they can't stand up. Often they will recover from that," he said.

"But then they may get nausea, vomit, and then often there are no other symptoms before they start bleeding to death."

Gunja explained eastern brown snake venom works as a procoagulant, meaning it initially forms blood clots.

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"The venom makes you clot, tiny little clots over and over again, thousands of times," he said.

"This causes the body to use up all its clotting ability, called clotting factors. You run out of these clotting factors within a few hours.

"If you run out of this you then start bleeding; bleeding in the brain, bleeding in the abdomen, bleeding in the chest and from the bite site."

Gunja added eastern brown snakes often deliver "dry bites" without venom, as most strikes serve as a defensive warning.

However, all bites should be treated as if envenomation has occurred.

Staggering amount of Queenslanders being bitten each year

In data shared with 9news.com.au, Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) revealed more than 800 people have been bitten by snakes in the state each year from 2020-2022.

In January 2023 alone, 97 people were bitten.

This data is not broken down by species, but the highest number of bites coincide with the warmer months, also known as snake season, when the reptiles emerge to look for food and mate. 

A QAS spokesperson said most snake bites occur on the lower limbs, and many happen when people are trying to kill or move a snake.

"It's important to know snake bite first aid and have appropriate equipment especially if you live on a remote property where it may take longer for a paramedic to reach you." they added.

If a snake bite is suspected patients, or witnesses, must call Triple Zero (000) immediately.

"Keep the patient as calm and still as possible. You should also try to bandage over the snake bite firmly, then work up the limb starting at the extremities," the spokesperson said.

"Splint the limb to keep it straight and advise the patient to avoid unnecessary movements.

"Avoid washing a snake bite wound – the hospital may need to test the bandage for venom to identify the type of snake."

Gunja said the simple act of keeping still after a bite could save a life.

"The best way to keep still is to lie down," he said.

"Traditionally, Indigenous Australians if they got bitten by a snake they would go to a cave sometimes, or a very quiet place, and not move for 24 hours.

"What they realised is if you kept still, and not move for a day, you could be ok as that prevents venom from circulating.

"They knew thousands of years ago, what we're realising now."

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Heavy rain warnings for Auckland, Coromandel, Northland and Bay of Plenty.