In less than a week's time, Australian holidaymakers will be able to fly overseas and go on a cruise, but ships are still banned in our waters.

Cruising restarted in other parts of the world months ago.

The Cruise Line International Association told 9News more than three million people have safely cruised since then.

EXPLAINER: Cruise fans may be allowed to set sail from overseas long before Australia

Australia is the only remaining major market where cruising hasn't resumed.

"Many of the cruising community have booked cruises from overseas, they just want to get back on the sea," Honida Beram from the blog 'Cruising With Honey' said.

Since the Ruby Princess disaster in March 2020, cruise ships have been banned in Australia. That ban is due to expire on December 18.

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Under a restart plan, Australia could start domestic cruises before ships call at international destinations.

The Federal Government says on its website: "Since 27 March 2020, no foreign-flagged cruise ships may enter Australian waters (with limited exceptions).

"The Australian Government has extended the cruise ship ban to 17 December 2021, but this does not mean the ban will be lifted at that time."

Joel Katz from the Cruise Line International Association said: "The Federal Government has responsibility for the borders and the State Government has the responsibility for the health, so we need to be able to sit down with the State Governments, with the health teams to finalise those protocols that the industry has proposed."

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said the state government will do "whatever it can" to get cruising back as safely and quickly as possible.

The cruise industry is highly popular in Australia.

According to the Port Authority of NSW, 1240 cruise ships visited 47 Australian ports in 2019.

Passengers, crew and cruise firms spent $2.5 billion, with Sydney the main port but regional areas also benefitting.

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Cruise operators need confirmation about when they can resume as soon as possible.

It takes between 90 and 120 days to get their ships up and running. Many are currently in the Northern Hemisphere.

When cruises do eventually restart in our waters there will be a number of health measures in place.

All passengers and crew will need to be double vaccinated and test negative before boarding.

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If someone does test positive to the virus during the cruise, there'll be rooms set aside for isolation and there are medical facilities on the ships with staff given extra training in treating COVID-19.

Cruise enthusiasts are hopeful the industry will safely restart in Australia next year.

"I feel completely confident that cruising will be a safe way to travel," Ms Beram said.

Gladys Berejiklian's former Chief of Staff has told an ICAC inquiry she did know about her secret relationship with Daryl Maguire, but thought it was over before she was premier.

Sarah Cruikshank was a key adviser to Ms Berejiklian and the pair have known each other since their early 20s.

Ms Cruikshank told the corruption inquiry today Ms Berejiklian told her about her personal dealings with Mr Maguire two years before it was made public, and cast doubt on the timing of it.

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"(She) told me that she had had a historical, and I'm not sure if she used the word relationship, but I'll use it… she disclosed, in the past, with Mr Maguire I think she said relationship," Ms Cruikshank said.

She told ICAC Ms Berejiklian called her in 2018 just after Mr Maguire was exposed as corrupt and quit parliament.

"She said it was before she became premier… she said that a couple of times to me and that's when I found out there had been something in the past," Ms Cruikshank said.

But Ms Berejiklian told ICAC last year the relationship only ended in 2020.

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"He lost his career, his friends, he lost everything and was in a very dark place and I didn't feel I could stop being his friend at that time," the then-premier told an inquiry in October last year.

"She lied to you?" ICAC Commissioner Ruth McColl asked Ms Cruikshank today.

"That's your word Commissioner, but yes," she replied.

ICAC also heard as premier in 2018 Ms Berejiklian was given a sensitive legal note "to inform the Premier that the Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet is providing information to the ICAC…"

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The note briefed her that government staff had information on Mr Maguire, a note she signed off on while she was still dating him.

Her staff though the relationship was over they didn't do anything about it.

"I would have sat down with her and gone through with her if there were any implications for her with things she had done," Ms Cruikshank said.

Mr Berejiklian was due to front ICAC on Thursday, but her appearance has been pushed back.

Mr Maguire's appearance has also been pushed from Wednesday to Thursday due to new evidence.

Firefighters have contained one of the first bushfires of the season in Sydney's west.

The fire broke out alongside Knox Road in Doonside late this afternoon.

RFS crews conducted a backburn to contain the three-hectare blaze.

Two other bushfires in the area had already been contained.

Motorists are advised to take extra care with extensive traffic delays at the intersection of Knox and Richmond Roads.

https://twitter.com/NSWRFS/status/1452898044257521664

A 24-year-old has become the first Queenslander to receive open brain surgery while still conscious, a life changing operation that has cured his severe epilepsy. 

Footage shows the cavalier Ben Tondeleir going under the knife in August, happily chatting to nurses while surgeons operated on his brain. 

"There's this moment where you walk in and you're like, this is really happening," Mr Tondeleir said of undergoing the operation whilst awake. 

"I didn't think I could ever have a fun conversation with my brain open."

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Mr Tondeleir was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was six-years-old, suffering from over 15 seizures a day. 

The seizures were the result of a small lesion on the primary cortex of his brain, that caused constant and violent convulsions.

Mr Tondeleir's epilepsy has had significant impacts on his life, proving unresponsive to medication.

"It feels like something else is taking over your body," he said.

"If I had to say what death felt like it would've been that."

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After several unsuccessful surgeries and multiple admissions into intensive care, he made the decision to undergo the awake craniotomy required to erase his symptoms.

Recipients of the surgery can't feel what's happening to the brain, due to the lack of pain receptors, however an anaesthetic is used to numb the scalp.

Mr Tondeleir underwent the two-hour procedure at Brisbane's Mater Hospital.

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Advanced Epilepsy Service Director, Lisa Gillinder, said the operation was a first for Queensland.

"We are really pleased to be able to offer this kind of surgery now," Ms Gillinder said.

Neurosurgeon Dr Jason Papacostas added that the new capabilities will significantly impact people's lives across the state.

"Pushing the boundaries and being able to do these things gives us more confidence moving forward," Dr Papacostas said.

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Today, the ecstatic patient celebrated 10 weeks seizure-free as a result of the surgery.

"You've given me the key to the shackles," Mr Tondeleir said of the surgeons who changed his life. 

He added that without the concern of unexpected seizures, he looks forward to living life to the fullest.

"One day, being able to go travel, by myself or with someone else."

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A driver is facing trial charged with killing a baby by placing him in his lap before they crashed in Sydney's south west.

Peter Wafta pleaded not guilty in the NSW District Court today to the manslaughter of the 11-month-old.

Crown Prosecutor Ken Gilson told the jury panel the car was involved in a low speed, almost head on collision with another vehicle after it attempted to turn right in February, 2019.

Witnesses are expected to tell the court they saw the baby with a distinctive bruise on his left cheek.

The Crown alleged his injuries were inconsistent with being restrained properly in a baby capsule and were instead caused by the steering wheel and airbag.

Mr Wafta is expected to argue the baby was in its capsule at the time of the collision.

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A Ballarat police officer says her "world instantly broke" when she stopped to help at a fatal hit-run collision scene last week and discovered the victim was her father.

Sophie Thomson was driving on her usual route to work at Ballarat Police Station at around 7am on Thursday when she stopped to offer help to her colleagues at a crime scene on La Trobe Street in Delacombe.

Senior Constable Thomson said "it was just like any other day" for her until colleagues quickly ushered her away from the scene and revealed the cyclist who had been killed was her dad, David Thomson.

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"My world instantly broke," she said.

"I had unknowingly attended my dad's own crime scene."

Mr Thomson, 60, was riding his bike to work at Eureka Concrete along La Trobe Street about 5.41am on October 21 when he was struck head-on by a car as he approached an intersection.

Detective Senior Constable Sandro Lombardi, who is investigating the crime, said the driver did not pause after the collision, immediately fleeing the scene.

"There was no braking," he said,

"The driver cannot say he was unaware that it happened."

Senior Constable Lombardi said police had footage of the crash and there were a number of witnesses at the scene.

"The natural response is to stop and render assistance, but unfortunately on this occasion, the driver has fled," he said.

"It's really a tragic set of circumstances."

Police have today released footage of the "silver-coloured, sporty-like vehicle" involved in the crash, showing the damage it sustained to its windscreen and bonnet during the collision.

Senior Constable Lombardi has called for anyone who knows anything about the car or the incident to contact Crime Stoppers immediately.

"Please don't have allegiance to the driver. Do the right thing for the family."

Senior Constable Thomson has also called for people to share information and for the driver to turn himself in.

"My police family won't stop looking for you," she said.

"We just need some answers please."

Senior Constable Thomson said her father, a grandfather of two and a Ballarat cricketer for decades, had recently begun riding his bike to improve his fitness.

"David was my father, my hero and my absolute rock."

Anyone who witnessed the collision or has information about it or the car should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.

The mum of missing Western Australia girl Cleo is holding out hope her little daughter will be found alive.

With abduction now a primary focus for police, the massive search for Cleo, four, has widened from the tiny coastal campsite in Carnarvon to a much broader zone of remote WA.

"We have hope that our girl is (out) there, somewhere," Ellie Smith said.

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"She was taken," Ms Smith said, sitting next to her partner Jake Gliddon, when asked what she believed had happened to Cleo.

"How did someone come into that tent and take Cleo? How could someone take a child?" she asked, with tears in her eyes.

"My gut just felt sick."

So far there have been few clues, at least made public, surrounding the mysterious disappearance of Cleo.

Cleo was staying inside a tent at the Blowholes Campsite with her mum, Mr Gliddon and baby sister Isla.

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A tent door zip was reported to be at least partly open, beyond the reach of little Cleo, and her sleeping bag was also missing from inside the family tent.

The question police are desperately trying to answer, with crucial time fast ticking away, is who took Cleo?

Police have called for CCTV footage from businesses and homes from a massive 1000-kilometre radius out from Blowholes Campsite, as they try to track a potential abductor who could have whisked Cleo away in a vehicle.

They are currently to locate a car witnesses said drove away from the campsite in the early morning hours when Cleo was reported missing, on October 16.

Ms Smith said she last saw Ellie in the tent at 1.30am when the girl woke for a drink, but she was gone at 6am.

She has not been seen since.

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The Blowholes camp ground is very isolated, situated just behind a beach and surrounded by sand dunes and a lighthouse.

Land and air searches of the coastline turned up nothing, and the search around Blowholes has been suspended.

Police have asked farmers and locals to check sheds and any unused shelters on their properties for clues.

"She could be anywhere," 9News reporter Mia Egerton told Today.

"It is very difficult terrain to search," adding that "a four-year-old just can't vanish into thin air."

Egerton said the Smith family is well-known in the Carnarvon community.

"You can't walk through town without seeing Cleo's face on every single shopfront," she said.

"There are bumper stickers on the back of every single car with her little face on them."

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Locals have gathered for candlelight vigils and undertaken a number of independent searches, including experienced stock musterers.

One local chopper company flew multiple sorties up and down the coast and inland, looking in vain for Cleo.

The Carnarvon community has raised $74,000 to support the family.

An abduction remains the "main line of inquiry" for police, but Egerton said detectives are ruling nothing out.

Police still have no suspects.

Meanwhile, the Blowholes campsite is open for business, with a small number of travellers staying at the WA tourist spot.

Egerton said there was now an "eerie" feel to the place.

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