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The day Lachlan McLaren turned 16 should have been filled with celebration, instead he was ripped away from his loved ones while walking his girlfriend home in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs.

The straight-A student had insisted he'd go to keep her safe, but just minutes into the walk last August, the pair were struck by a white ute.

The rented vehicle had been speeding on the wrong side of the Nepean Highway at Mentone.

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Christopher Hennessey, 32, was high on ice and unlicensed behind the wheel.

He travelled 800 meters at speeds up to 134km an hour, narrowly avoiding multiple head-on collisions before he crossed a median strip and side road, hurtling toward the teenagers.

Lachlan's last act was to move his girlfriend toward safety.

"His gut reaction was to save her, to push her out of danger, and I think that says a lot about the kind of person that he was," Lachlan's mum Michelle McLaren told 9News.

She and his dad Carey remember Lachlan as "a really kind, generous kid who just loved life and had everything to look forward to".

A basketballer and cadet, the Mentone Grammar student had been Year 6 school captain and wanted to be a doctor, forensic scientist and to fight climate change.

"He pretty much could've been anything he wanted to be," McLaren said.

On Monday Melbourne's Country Court was filled with Lachlan's loved ones, even more watching on video link to see his killer sentenced.

When Judge Michael Tinney finished handing down a record 15 years behind bars, there was a cheer and clapping.

Hennessey pled guilty to culpable driving and seven counts of endangering life.

Other than his guilty plea, the court heard he'd shown no remorse.

His license had been suspended multiple times in Queensland and he was a long term user of cannabis and ice.

On the day of Lachlan's death, Hennessey came close to hitting another 11 people in seven vehicles.

Lachlan's girlfriend was also injured.

"You were death on wheels, quite literally," Judge Tinney told Hennessey.

"That's how bad your driving was. It was really a matter of who you might kill or injure."

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He noted Lachlan, a young man "of great promise and potential" should have been blowing out his 16 birthday candles with his family, but instead took his last breath at the crash site.

Lachlan's parents were cooking his birthday dinner but they rushed to the scene after receiving a harrowing phone call.

They were unable to believe what happened.

"I demanded to see who it was under the white blanket," Lachlan's father told 9News.

"Probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do was peel the blanket back."

Lachlan was farewelled during one of Melbourne's COVID-19 lockdowns.

With only 10 people allowed to attend his funeral, thousands lined the streets of Mentone to pay their respects.

The hearse given a police escort and driven past Lachlan's favourite places.

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Many also lit candles and stood in their driveways taking part in 'Light for Lachie' a few days after his death.

While the man who killed him will spend at least 11 years behind bars before he's eligible for parole, Lachlan's parents said they've been given a life sentence.

Hennessey was unlicensed when he rented the ute that hit their son.

Lachlan's parents have questioned how someone from Queensland was able to rent a vehicle in Victoria with a suspended licence. 

It's a question they want to spark action.

They are advocating for digital licensing or a national data base to police hire cars.

"There's got to be a change," he said.

"Other families can't go through what we've been through – he was ripped from us in 15 minutes."

After Bruce Saunders was retrieved from a woodchipper, Sharon Graham asked a friend to claim she was still with her ex-partner "because of the insurance", a court has been told.

Graham, 61, and Gregory Lee Roser, 63, have pleaded not guilty to murder after Saunders, 54, died while working on a property north of Brisbane in November 2017.

Graham is accused of asking Roser and another man, Peter Koenig, to kill Saunders and make it look like an accident to claim her ex-partner's $750,000 life insurance policy.

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The jury was on Wednesday shown police video of Saunders' legs protruding from the chipper at the Goomboorian property near Gympie after he had been clearing trees with Roser and Koenig.

Friend Kim Simpson told Brisbane Supreme Court Graham had split with Saunders but moved back into his Nambour home, living in separate bedrooms.

Graham rang her on the night of Saunders' death telling her "one of the guys had fallen into the woodchipper", Simpson said.

"She very upset," she said.

A "week or two" later Graham asked Simpson to write a letter to her lawyer after earlier mentioning that Saunders "had left everything to her", the court heard.

"She asked me if I could write a letter to her lawyer stating that her and Bruce were in a relationship at the time of his death… because of the insurance," Simpson told court.

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Asked if she wrote the letter, Simpson said: "No, because it wasn't true".

Graham's friend Leonie Whyte was visiting at the time of the tragedy and was told by Koenig and Roser that Saunders' death was an accident.

"They did say that Bruce was messing around with something at the machinery and he wasn't being very careful that day or something to that effect," she told the court.

Graham told another friend that Saunders had been texting her before his phone fell into the woodchipper and he may have died trying to retrieve it, the court heard.

"Can't talk I'm devastated Bruce has passed away. He was texting me when his phone must have drop into the wood mulcher and he must of went to grab," Graham's text to the friend said.

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"Police have said it is tragic accident. Both guys have been vomiting all night.

"As Greg turned around to pick up tree stump he just push button to stop but too late.

"Oh my God I am so sick… Been crying all night. I'm devo."

Graham has been accused of being in a "love quadrangle" with Roser, Koenig and Saunders, plotting the latter's murder for months.

The trial before Justice Martin Burns continues.

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Police have identified a 77-year-old man who remains in critical condition after being struck by a hit-run driver in Queensland.

David "Michael" Dommel was hit by a mystery driver on a road at Mount Rascal on September 5.

He remains in a Brisbane hospital weeks later, with his family holding a bedside vigil.

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They are urging anyone who knows anything to contact police.

Sergeant Stephen Coote of Toowoomba's Forensic Crash Unit said they are looking for anyone who was travelling on Freyling Road between 6am and 7am that day to contact police.

"We believe Michael was struck sometime between 6.20am and 6.50am on Monday, September 5 before he was located lying unconscious on Freyling Road with life threatening injuries by a passing motorist around 7am," Coote said.

"The vehicle involved would have sustained either front end or left hand side damage, so I appeal to anyone who is aware of a vehicle sustaining this type of damage on or 'just after' the 5th to come forward.

"Someone knows something and I urge them to do the right thing, for Michael and for his family. Now is not the time to stay silent."

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After being hit, Drommel was taken to Toowoomba Base Hospital before being airlifted to Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Drommel's wife Debbie said their dog was also struck in the hit-run crash.

"Michael has always been a rock for his family and we are beyond belief that someone could hit him and leave for dead on the side of the road," she said.

"Michael only buried his 96-year-old mother a few weeks ago. This accident not only affects his family in Toowoomba but his three sisters and their families in Melbourne."

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There has been a second stranding of whales this week, with the latest occurring today near Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania's west coast.

A pod of approximately 230 whales are stranded on Ocean Beach, while a number of animals have also washed ashore on a sand flat inside Macquarie Harbour, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania said in a statement.

About half of the animals are reported to be alive.

Earlier this week, fourteen young male sperm whales washed ashore on King Island, off Tasmania's north coast. All fourteen of the whales were confirmed to have died yesterday.

Today's mass stranding also comes exactly two years after an enormous pod of around 470 whales was beached in almost the same location at Macquarie Harbour. The previous mass stranding, on September 21, 2020, left hundreds of whales dead.

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A team from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania's Marine Conservation Program (MCP) is assembling whale rescue gear and heading to the area.

They will work alongside staff from the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service and Tasmanian Police at Strahan.

Wildlife scientist Dr Vanessa Pirotta said it was "absolutely unusual" to see two whale strandings in the same week.

It was also very strange that today's Macquarie Harbour stranding occurred on exactly the same date as the one two years prior, she added.

"The fact that it also happened two years ago to the day, in a similar location, what is going on? That's really interesting," Pirotta said. 

Unlike humpback whales or the southern right whale, pilot whales did not have predictable migration patterns, she said.

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Pirotta said it was still largely unknown why whale strandings happened.

"There are several theories, one could be misnavigation," she said.

"In that area it could be the topography. So you might have deep, deep waters going shallow relatively rapidly, with a shelf.

"There might be a sick individual that might have led the pod astray, they could be fleeing from something, you just don't know." 

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While people would naturally be wanting to help in such situations, Pirotta said it was best to leave it to the authorities to manage the initial response.

"People have the best intentions but it's the authorities who know how to work around an animal that's very large and can be stressed and can potentially injure humans," she said.

"But people can help in a variety of ways, such as providing food or tea or coffee for those who are working on the front line. 

"It's going be a very exhausting and environmentally challenging situation to deal with when you've got animals that are essentially dying on a beach."

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania said in its statement any stranding response was complex.

"If it is determined there is a need for help from the general public, a request will be made through various avenues," the statement said.

The department's Cetacean Incident Manual had undergone extensive an review since the 2020 mass stranding and would guide its stranding response, the statement said.

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