Tag Archives: oceania

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State memorial for Olivia Newton-John will be 'like a concert'

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed Olivia Newton-John's family has accepted the offer of a state memorial service.

The service however will be more of a "concert" rather than a traditional ceremony, celebrating her music and life, Andrews said.

"The family was quite touched at the prospect of Victorians being able to come together and celebrate Olivia's life."

READ MORE: 'Large' cloudband stretching over Australia brings threat of more flooding and rain

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

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

Newton-John's husband John Easterling paid tribute to the beloved actress overnight.

"Our love for each other transcends our understanding," he said in a post on Instagram post.

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Olivia Newton-John and John Easterling.

"Every day we expressed our gratitude for this love that could be so deep, so real, so natural. We never had to 'work' on it.

"We were in awe of this great mystery and accepted the experience of our love as past, present and forever.

"At Olivia's deepest essence she was a healer using her mediums of song, of words, of touch."

Landmarks across Australia including the renowned sails of the Sydney Opera House glowed in pink on Wednesday night, to honour the Australian icon.

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'Large' cloudband stretching over Australia brings threat of more rain

A large northeast cloudband is stretching across Australia, bring the threat of more rain and flooding to "every other state and territory" apart from Western Australia.

Weatherzone shared satellite images of the weather system writing, "this week's weather will be a perfect example of how a negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) affects Australia."

It comes a day after the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warned another rain event would exacerbate the risk of flooding in inland New South Wales, "areas that have recently seen significant rainfall".

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The large northeast cloudband brings the threat of more rain and flooding to "every other state and territory", apart from WA.

Sharing images of the cloudband, Weatherzone said it is being fed by moisture-laden air from the tropical Indian Ocean.

"This stream of tropical moisture is linking up with a mid-latitude low pressure system and associated cold air mass to creating a large and thick band of cloud," the weather service wrote.

"This type of weather pattern is common during a negative IOD and this is the second such cloudband that has affected Australia since the negative IOD was declared last week.

"After soaking parts of WA earlier this week, this cloudband will drift further east over the next few days and produce widespread cloud and rain over parts of every other state and territory in Australia."

A negative IOD was declared last week, and is a driver of wet weather like La Nina.

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Forecast accumulated rain during the next seven days (Wednesday to Tuesday) accoring to the ECMWF-HRES model.

Rainfall forecasts suggest up to 30mm of rain could fall over " a broad area of eastern and southeastern Australia between Thursday and Sunday".

This could extend from central Queensland to Tasmania and South Australia.

Numerous flood warnings are already in affect for NSW and Victoria.

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Residents in NSW can stay across flood updates here, while Victorian warnings will be issued here.

BoM defines an IOD as "the difference in sea surface temperatures between the eastern and western tropical Indian Ocean."