Health News at Your Fingertips

A police helicopter is on its way to rescue a Perth family who have been stuck in the Simpson Desert since Wednesday last week.

On Friday they put out a beacon saying the need to be rescued. They do have food and no one is injured but they have two young children with them.

The helicopter left about 10 am, South Australian time and stopped on the way to refuel.

It should reach the family within the next 20 minutes. They will be taken to Olympic Dam, which is a remote mine next to Roxby Downs in the state’s far north.

I will bring you updates on the rescue and families health when we have them.

I’ve got some more information on the Forbes evacuation warnings.

About 800 properties are impacted, of which 500 are homes.

The river peaked overnight upstream at the floodgate and was about 1 metre higher than the peak in September 2016. That resulted in damaging flooding for the area.

It is expected to peak tomorrow.

if you have Twitter follow @NSWSES and @BOM_NSW for updates and warnings.

If you don’t, the SES website has updates:

https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/evacuation-notices/flood-evacuation-order-forbes-evacuate-by-tuesday-16th-november-2021-930pm/?major=1&active=EvacuationOrder

Thank you, Matilda. As always impossibly large blog shoes to fill. Cait Kelly here, I will be taking you through the afternoon news.

An Evacuation Order has been issued for low lying areas of #Forbes. There is more information below and I will bring you updates throughout the afternoon.

With that, I shall hand you over to the amazing Cait Kelly who will take you through the rest of the afternoon in news.

See you all tomorrow!

More on the Victorian opposition’s opposition to the new pandemic powers bill:

He said the legislative framework also needs to be looked at to protect employers who want to impose rules for patrons. "Let's have that discussion, but that's about moving on. That's about finding ways for our labour market to move on safely and securely," Mr Guy said.

— Benita Kolovos (@benitakolovos) November 16, 2021

The Australian Capital Territory has recorded 12 new local Covid-19 cases.

There are now four people in the territory hospitalised due to the virus, one of these people are in the ICU and require ventilation.

Crowds outside Victoria’s Parliament House appear to have become hostile to media, forcing senior 7 News reporter Nick McCallum to retreat up the road.

Blog treat! You’ve earned it!