Fans wearing Daft Punk helmets arrive at a venue in Australia’s tiny town of Wee Waa prior to the French band’s album launch this morning. Wee Waa, better known for cotton-picking than culture, was relishing the limelight as thousands of electo-pop fans descended on it. The cotton town’s population will more than double for the event.
Photograph: Shanna Whan/AFP/Getty Images
Now if this isn’t worth a thumbs up, I don’t know what is: an amateur Australian prospector who hadn’t had much luck searching for gold has struck it rich, unearthing a nugget heavier than a newborn baby and worth more than A$300,000 (£198,000).
Photograph: David Caird/Newspix/Rex Features
Dramatic pictures of five young children and their grandmother huddled together under a jetty in the Tasmanian town of Dunalley were captured by their grandfather Tim Holmes as the family took shelter from Australia’s wildfires in the water to escape the flames. The family was forced to stay in the water for several hours as homes around them were razed to the ground. The pictures, taken on 4 January have just been released. Click on the image for more
From environmentguardian: Australia adds new colour to temperature maps as heat soars
Photograph: Australian Bureau of Metereology temperature map - with a new colour for 52-54C. / BOM
Sydney is the first major city to welcome in 2013, with a dazzling firework display. Check out our gallery, which will be updates as the new year arrives around the world.
Happy New Year to all on tumblr from The Guardian!
Animals at Sydney’s Taronga zoo are given Christmas presents containing food. The sun bears seem keen to open their gifts of nuts and honey, and the meerkats show a festive spirit, playing with decorations. But the tortoises don’t seem particularly interested in their watermelon carved Christmas trees
(Source: Guardian)
A 10-month-old Tasmanian Devil joey pays its first visit to the vet for health checks at Healesville Sanctuary, Melbourne, Australia.
From picture desk: live, our photo coverage of the day’s events in the UK and around the world
Photograph: Robert Leeson/Newspix/Rex Features
A 32-year legal mystery over the death of a baby in Australia’s outback came to an end on Tuesday when a coroner found a dingo was responsible for the death of infant Azaria Chamberlain, a case that split national opinion and attracted global headlines.
The coroner’s finding ends a three-decade fight for justice by Azaria’s parents, Michael Chamberlain and Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, who was jailed for three years over her daughter’s death before she was later cleared.This saga began in August of 1980, or before most of the people reading this were probably born. While not a surprise, the decision ends a decades-long legal saga that was one of Australia’s most well-known and controversial.
Meryl Streep played jailed mother Lindy Chamberlain in A Cry in the Dark. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive
Three decades after her death, a coroner in Australia has finally concluded that baby Azaria Chamberlain was taken from her tent by a dingo, near Uluru in central Australia.
Source: YouTube/SOHfestival
An installation light projection on Australian landmark the Sydney Opera House makes it look as if its roof crumbles to the ground. The display forms part of the Vivid light and music festival in the New South Wales capital, and is created by the German design company Urbanscreen
Photograph: Gerry Ellis/Corbis
Koalas under threat in Australia - in pictures on our environment news pages
A selection of stories, photos, quotes, video and audio from guardian.co.uk, curated by James Walsh, Hannah Waldram, Carmen Fishwick and the Guardian's editorial team. We are also editors of the news tag.
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Flickr has had a re-boot and, as a result, it has released all of the photos of mine it previously had locked up...
