Parts of Central Coast told ‘evacuate now’ amid coastal erosion threat
Parts of the Central Coast have been urged to evacuate due to dangerous waves as wild weather continues to hit New South Wales.
Properties along Hutton Road at the North Entrance of the Central Coast and at Wamberal on parts of Ocean View Drive, which backs on to Wamberal beach, and Pacific Street have been told to evacuate now:
The NSW SES is directing people in the following area(s) to EVACUATE NOW due to dangerous waves resulting in significant damage to buildings from coastal erosion caused by storm activity … It may become too dangerous to stay in this area.
We have covered coastal erosion impacting the community of Wamberal in the past. You can read about it here:
Key events
Miriam Bradbury, a meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology, is appearing on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing now.
She says “widespread rain” is impacting much of central and south-east New South Wales, including metropolitan Sydney.
High rainfalls have been observed on the South Coast, with 80mm at Ulladulla and Kiama, including winds in Kiama in excess of 91km/h.
Over the coming hours, going into Tuesday evening, the wet and windy weather will continue, particularly about the coastal fringe and those areas that are included in our severe weather warning.
The coastal low pressure system is forecast to track south off the Illawarra coast this evening, before turning and moving further east into the Tasman Sea on Wednesday, the Bureau of Meteorology has projected.
In its latest update, a severe weather warning that was in place for Lord Howe Island was cancelled as damaging winds and surf had now eased.
A severe warning is still in place for metropolitan Sydney, the Illawarra and parts of the Mid North Coast, South Coast, Tablelands and Northern Rivers, while a coastal hazard warning is also active.
The BoM:
Gale to storm force south to southwesterly winds around the low are expected to generate large and powerful surf conditions, with damaging surf possibly persisting into Thursday.
DAMAGING SURF CONDITIONS which may lead to coastal erosion and localised damage to coastal infrastructure are likely for coastlines between Seal Rocks and the Illawarra, extending south to Batemans bay this evening and further south to the New South Wales/Victorian border during the late evening.
A wave of 5.4m was observed at the Sydney Waverider Buoy this afternoon, while a 5.2m wave was also recorded at the Port Kembla Waverider Buoy at 2pm.
Patrick Commins
The secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sally McManus, says the $3m threshold for Labor’s extra earnings tax on large super balances should be indexed at some point in the future.
I do think it’s got to be indexed, and because you’ve got to make sure eventually people don’t end up there. But that’s a very long time in the future.
She said it wasn’t unreasonable to ask the “small percentage” of people affected to pay an extra 15% tax on earnings made on that portion of their super balance over $3m.
Super isn’t there to be a tax fraud. It’s there to make sure you’ve got a dignified retirement.
McManus pushed back against Paul Keating’s claim that a young Australian entering the workforce today would be “guaranteed” to retire with $3m in retirement savings, saying it was “not realistic”.
I think that it (the $3m threshold) does need to be indexed, though, so I do support what they’re saying about that, but I don’t think there’s some, you know, urgent need to do so right now.
AMP’s deputy chief economist, Diana Mousina, has estimated that an “average” 22-year-old earning $98,000 today would breach the $3m threshold by the time they retire in the year 2070.
Tax experts back indexing the threshold to inflation or wages growth, but have ridiculed the idea that the threshold would stay static for decades.
Heavy traffic in Sydney amid road closures and wild weather
If you’re commuting home today, road closures are impacting Sydney traffic as a result of the ongoing weather event.
According to Live Traffic, one of three lanes are closed on Castleraegh street in the CBD between Liverpool Street and Goulburn Street following a burst water main, and water over the road is causing heavy conditions in Haberfield on the City West Link at Boomerang Street, Alexandria near Sydney Park, at St Leonards on the Pacific Highway and at Jamisontown on the M4 Motorway.
Flooding has also caused around two dozen road closures, including near Wollongong, Newcastle, Gunnedah and Bourke.
🌧️ ALBION PARK: Terry St is closed in both directions due to flooding at Taylor Rd.
🔁 Avoid the area, use an alternative route.
📲 Check the latest: https://t.co/PEdCSqBdi8
— Live Traffic NSW (@LiveTrafficNSW) July 1, 2025
Children’s commissioner says child safety ‘is not a priority in this country’
Australia’s national children’s commissioner, Anne Hollonds, is appearing on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing now after the alleged sexual assaults linked to childcare centres across Melbourne.
The Greens are calling for a royal commission into safety and equality in Australia’s early childhood education system.
Asked if the system had failed families, Hollonds said: “Absolutely”.
These are issues and risks that we’ve known about for a long time … child safety and wellbeing is not a priority in this country.
Hollonds backed recent measures to ban mobile devices in childcare centres and tightening reporting requirements. She said mandatory CCTV cameras was also something “we should be looking at”.
We have been quite slow to take on board the need to minimise as much as possible risks to our children. And to not be just worried about regulatory burdens on providers and governments. There are costs involved in keeping children safe. And we have to bear those costs.
Parts of Central Coast told ‘evacuate now’ amid coastal erosion threat
Parts of the Central Coast have been urged to evacuate due to dangerous waves as wild weather continues to hit New South Wales.
Properties along Hutton Road at the North Entrance of the Central Coast and at Wamberal on parts of Ocean View Drive, which backs on to Wamberal beach, and Pacific Street have been told to evacuate now:
The NSW SES is directing people in the following area(s) to EVACUATE NOW due to dangerous waves resulting in significant damage to buildings from coastal erosion caused by storm activity … It may become too dangerous to stay in this area.
We have covered coastal erosion impacting the community of Wamberal in the past. You can read about it here:
Australia’s avocado production dips, but still enough for 20 per person
Australian avocado production has taken a dip. Australia’s avocado crop is estimated to be down 15% in the 2024-25 season compared to the previous year, according to a global report by Rabobank.
The culprit is alternate bearing, in which trees can produce a lot of fruit one year followed by very little the next. But Australians need not cry into their sourdough. The nation’s farmers were still expected to produce 128,000 tonnes of the green fruit, or about 20 avocados per person, for a year.
Export prices went up in 2024 to $5.18 per kg, with China, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and India the top markets for the Australian industry.
New avocado tree plantings have dropped off sharply across the nation, sitting at the lowest level since 1999 and signalling a plateau in Australia’s crop size, the report states.
Nearly half of Australia’s avocados are grown in Western Australia, followed by Queensland and New South Wales, data from Avocados Australia shows.
The global market has surpassed nearly $30.4bn, with strong demand from consumers in the UK and Germany.
– via Australian Associated Press
Coalition says child abuse allegations in Victoria are ‘deeply disturbing’
The Coalition has condemned reports of alleged “horrific” crimes committed in Victorian childcare and early learning centres as “deeply disturbing”.
Childcare worker Joshua Brown is facing more than 70 child sexual abuse charges allegedly involving eight children aged between five months to two years old who were in his care.
In a joint statement, the shadow education minister, Senator Jonathon Duniam, and the shadow minister for education and early learning, Zoe McKenzie, said the allegations represented “a fundamental breach of trust in the very places on which parents rely to care for their children and keep them safe”.
This is every parent’s worst nightmare – and the Coalition extends our deepest sympathies to the victims, their families, and everyone else affected. We acknowledge the deep distress this has caused our dedicated early childhood educators and carers.
The statement urged the government to review Australia’s child safety safeguards – including those under the National Quality Framework.
The Coalition stands ready to work with the government to ensure our child protection systems are as strong, transparent, and accountable as they must be to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again.
Tory Shepherd
SA’s ban on political donations takes effect
Among all the 1 July changes, South Australia now has a ban on political donations. You can read the details of the legislation here.
Parties will get (capped) public funding instead of electoral donations, with some exceptions for newcomers. Premier Peter Malinauskas said the changes made SA “a world leader in democratic reform”:
We are getting money out of politics. The perception that the makeup of our parliament can be determined by who has the deepest pockets, or who spends the most money, is damaging to our society overall.
We want elected representatives spending their time talking to their communities, not hawking for donations. These reforms will help keep our elections fair and keep the democracy where it belongs – in the hands of the people.
Not everyone agrees. Bill Browne, the Australia Institute’s Democracy and Accountability Program director, says “the vast majority” of taxpayer funding will go to the two major parties. The University of Sydney’s professor emerita in constitutional law, Anne Twomey, has voiced similar concerns, saying public funding tends to favour incumbents.
More than 20 road closures amid NSW flooding as drivers urged to take care
There are 23 road closures due to flooding in New South Wales according to Live Traffic, with the bulk north of Sydney around Newcastle, Tamworth and Kempsey.
There are also four road closures south of Wollongong around Bowral and Albion Park.
Drivers have been urged to “never drive through floodwater, use an alternative route [and] allow extra travel time”.
Meanwhile 11 floods are at “advice level”, including Penrith, and the Sydney Coastline is under a severe weather warning at a “watch and act” level, one behind an “emergency warning”.
NSW SES has responded to more than 900 incidents since weather event began
The NSW State Emergency Services (SES) says there have now been 1,700 calls to its operations centre since the start of the wild weather and that it has responded to 928 incidents.
More than 1,200 volunteers are responding to the impacts of the complex low off the east coast, which is shifting southwards and bringing intense rainfall and damaging winds to Newcastle, Sydney and the Illawarra this afternoon.
In a statement, the SES said calls for assistance were increasing in Sydney and the Illawarra this afternoon with conditions expected to worsen in the coming hours. Widespread rain totals of up to 150mm are likely, and isolated falls of 200mm in 24 hour periods.
Minor to moderate flooding is possible on coastal catchments and in the Hawkesbury Nepean, while riverine flooding and warnings may escalate tonight for low lying properties on the Nepean River.
In the Central Coast, Sydney, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and South Coast regions, damaging wind gusts could reach up to 125km/h this afternoon.
On the south coast, NSW SES volunteers have assisted beachside properties with sandbagging efforts to protect them from coastal surges, while door knockers have communicated possible evacuations on the Central Coast.
Here are the incidents by zone:
Rafqa Touma
Thank you for joining me on the live blog today. Handing over now to the great Caitlin Cassidy who will keep you updated into the evening.
Heaviest rainfalls expected south of Wollongong
The heaviest rainfall is expected south of Wollongong, the Bureau of Meteorology said in a weather update:
We could also see heavy falls towards Sydney, but really through this southern area we could see six hourly totals up to 120mm, leading to flash flooding and riverine flooding. We also see areas of rainfall further north, but the heaviest and the focus will be south of about Wollongong.
BoM also warns of dangerous surf conditions that will build into the evening:
There is a warning for coastal hazards, and damaging surf will build through the afternoon and into the evening, first between Seal Rocks in the north and down towards Illawarra, extending down towards the Victorian border into tonight. Heavy surf and large waves could cause coastal erosion and make conditions dangerous on the beach.
Severe weather warning stretches from southern Queensland to southern NSW
The impacts of a vigorous coastal low pressure system will increase across eastern Australia over the rest of today and will continue into the coming days, the Bureau of Meteorology says in a weather warning.
A severe weather warning is in place for damaging winds above 90km/h stretching from southern Queensland down towards the south coast of New South Wales. The BoM says:
It is quite a broad area, and the timing of the winds will depend on where you are, but generally speaking, for areas south of the central Tablelands and the Hunter, including Sydney, those winds will really ramp up on Tuesday afternoon and into the evening.
Further north and into southern Queensland, those winds intensify from Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.
There is also a risk of locally destructive wind gusts above 125km/h possible in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and down the coastal fringe towards Illawarra and the south coast.
“These could cause significant damage,” the BoM says.
Accused Melbourne childcare worker passed all legal checks, former employer says
Benita Kolovos
The operator of a Melbourne childcare centre where it is alleged a worker sexually assaulted eight infants and children has issued a statement saying the accused is no longer working for them.
Police on Tuesday confirmed that a Point Cook resident, Joshua Brown, 26, was charged in May with more than 70 offences relating to eight alleged victims aged between five months and two years old.
The provider said Brown’s employment, all required employment and background checks – including his working with children checks – were in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements.
They said:
The safety and wellbeing of every child in our care is our highest priority. We are deeply committed to providing a safe, nurturing, and supportive environment for all children and families. We are aware that a former … team member has been charged with offences involving children. These allegations are serious in nature and are extremely distressing. We are focussed on supporting all those impacted not just at our centres, but across the community.
They said Brown was “no longer employed” by the operator and they were cooperating fully with Victoria police, the government and other relevant authorities:
We are committed to supporting the legal process in every way we can.
