See what's making headlines here:

MINIMAY farmer and Country Fire Authority volunteer Tim Hawkins watched helplessly, taking refuge in a firetruck, as flames hurried towards his property on Tuesday night. Read more.

EMERGENCY Services have rescued two people who were trapped in their car after the vehicle overturned on the Wimmera Highway, Miga Lake. Read more.

MOUNTING costs, increased frequency and scorching temperatures are predicted for future bushfire seasons, with a new Climate Council report predicting the economic cost of fires in Victoria will hit $378 million by 2050. Read more.

HORSHAM Art’s Council’s 50th Anniversary spectacular has been recognised as the 2016 Community Event of the Year by Horsham Rural City Council. Read more.

THOUSANDS of people across the Wimmera owe a total of almost $7.7 million in unpaid fines, civil judgement, bills and debts. Read more.

Need a national news snapshot first thing – well, we have you covered. 

►GOULBURN, NSW: Tales of devastating losses have been shared at The Loaded Dog pub after fires sweep through the region.  Employee Vicki Bowes said she heard of one landowner who had lost 200 head of sheep at Lower Boro: “He lost stock in the fire before Christmas. He had just replaced those and now he’s lost more in this fire.”...read the full story. 

►MELBOUNRE, VIC: Rainbow Serpent Music and Arts Festival organisers are calling for a fresh approach to recreational drugs laws after a horror weekend in Melbourne resulted in three deaths…full story here.

►SYDNEY, NSW: 40 years on the memories of the Granville train disaster are still raw for rescuers like Gerry Buchtmann who pulled both the living and the dead from beneath a road bridge that had collapsed onto two commuter train carriages in the nation’s worst rail disaster.

► WAGGA WAGGA, NSW: If it’s so hot outside you wouldn’t walk your dog, why would you race a horse? animal activists ask.  This comes after a full cart of races went ahead on Tuesday in temperatures above 40 degrees...catch up on the full story. 

►Properties have been damaged and other homes remained under threat as bushfires raged into the evening across the Hunter Valley and near the ACT...catch up on the latest here.

►A toddler has been taken to hospital in a serious condition after he was pulled unconscious from a backyard swimming pool in Sydney's west.  The boy is the latest victim in a string of water-related incidents this summer...full story here.

► 2016 has been declared the hottest year on record.  The World Meteorological Organisation said temperatures in 2016 were about 1.1 degrees higher than the pre-industrial period...That beat the 2015 record by 0.07 degrees.

► Now will Julian Assange be extradited to the US to face charges? Last week, the WikiLeaks Twitter account, widely believed to be run by Julian Assange, tweeted: "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition.”  But he has in the past promised much more than he delivered.

►INDONESIA: Permadi Arya became famous – or infamous, depending on how you look at it – for his satirical YouTube videos lampooning extremism.  One of them, You are Shiite, sends up those who preach that only Sunni Muslims will be guaranteed a plot of land in heaven.  But not everyone was amused.

With two generations of leather tanning in her blood and a love of nature, taxidermy was a natural progression for Hillston local Cassandra Hall.

Her grandfather was a drover and the source of Cas’ skills in leather working.

Not scared to get her hands dirty as a child, Cassandra would go out hunting with him and help mount his prized catches.

Full story and photos here.