Fears for missing Qld teenager

Police fear for a 14-year-old Gold Coast girl missing for four days. Source: AAP

POLICE fear for a 14-year-old Gold Coast girl missing for four days.

Shaylin Cole has not contacted family or friends since she was last seen at Mudgeeraba, in the Gold Coast hinterland, on Tuesday night.

It is believed she may be with a female friend and possibly on her way to Sydney.

Police urge anyone who might have seen Shaylin, who is about 155 centimetres tall with a pink/red tinge to her hair and hazel eyes, to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Abseiler dies in the Blue Mountains

AN abseiler has fallen to his death in the Blue Mountains, while a woman has been rescued.

Both are believed to be aged in their 20s.

The female abseiler was lifted to safety about 1.30pm (AEDT) on Saturday at Katoomba.

The woman was found 20 metres down the cliff at Melatia Point, a well-known abseiling spot.

She was stranded for four hours, with paramedics first receiving reports of someone crying for help at 9.30am.

A ropes system was used to haul the woman to the top of the cliff during a rescue operation involving ambulance and police helicopters.

The woman wasn't injured and was walked to safety, NSW Ambulance duty operations manager Murray Traynor said.

Police are yet to recover the man's body.

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Winds ease fire threat, but blow out power

STRONG winds have blown away much of South Australia's fire risk, but also torn down trees and left thousands without power.

A cool southerly change, which came after temperatures soared past 40 degrees, rolled in on Friday and brought wild wind gusts that remained until Saturday afternoon.

"The winds are over but we're still dealing with a number of tasks," State Emergency Service (SES) State Duty Officer Bob Stevenson said on Saturday.

The city's eastern and southern suburbs were worst hit, he said, with many powerlines down and crews having to respond to more than 650 calls for help.

One downed tree took seven people around four hours to cut up and remove from the street.

Around 8000 homes have lost power, many in the Adelaide area.

Police said the weather conditions were extreme with multiple intersections losing power and debris striking cars, pedestrians and cyclists.

The winds had also stirred up a serious bushfire, which threatened Tintinara homes and lives in the state's southeast.

But CFS firefighters managed to contain the blaze by late evening after it burned through about 1000 hectares.

Only the Flinders region was listed as a extreme bushfire risk on Saturday with the rest of the state rated high to severe.

Elsewhere in the country, conditions have cooled in Sydney and Melbourne after scorching temperatures baked both cities.

The fire danger is rated as low across much of Victoria and there are no fire bans in place.

In NSW, fire bans are listed in four central districts.

Hot and dry northerly winds have resulted in a severe fire danger to Queensland's Channel Country while severe conditions are also forecast along WA's northerly coast.

A bushfire that had been burning for four days in the Pilbara near the North West Coastal Highway is now under control.

The fire is deemed suspicious.

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WA stolen generation test case fails

AN Aboriginal family split up by the West Australian government's past policy of forcibly removing indigenous children has lost a Supreme Court bid for compensation.

Donald and Sylvia Collard, from the wheatbelt town of Kondinin, and their seven children were seeking redress from the WA government after the youngsters were removed without consent by state officials and placed in state care between March 1958 and December 1961.

The action was considered by the Aboriginal Legal Service of WA to be a test case for thousands of other indigenous West Australians.

But on Friday, WA Supreme Court Justice Janine Pritchard dismissed the case.

The reasons for the decision are expected to be published soon.

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New sheriff in town, Qld bikies told

TWO more alleged outlaw bikie gang associates have been refused bail over a pub meeting, with a magistrate warning there's a "new sheriff in town".

Accused Rebels associates Steven Smith and Joshua Carew were remanded in custody in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday.

The pair and three others were arrested and locked up this month after meeting at a Sunshine Coast hinterland hotel.

They were arrested under laws that ban associates of declared criminal organisations from gathering in public.

Paul Lansdowne was refused bail on Thursday. Bail rulings for Scott Conley and Dan Whale are yet to be made.

In refusing Smith bail on Friday, Magistrate Tim Carmody said the argument he was "going to jail just for having a beer with mates" clearly misunderstood the aim of the Newman government's new anti-association laws.

He said the laws were to protect the community, whose members were entitled to go about their business "unintimidated by aggressive criminal gang members who have become too big for their boots".

"The government's tough stance ... is intended to keep the peace and tackle crime by making Queensland a hostile environment for socially destructive drug traffickers like the Rebels," he said.

"There is, it seems, a new sheriff in town with low or zero tolerance for criminals and their activities."

The court was told Smith and Carew were on bail on drug trafficking charges when they were arrested over the pub gathering.

Police had strong evidence Smith had a longstanding association with the Rebels, while Carew had been spotted at their local headquarters and with patched gang members, the court was told.

Mr Carmody cited their apparent gang ties, past criminal histories and breaches of bail conditions as reasons to refuse bail.

However, he indicated he would grant bail to Conley and Whale if they could convince him they would disassociate themselves from the Rebels.

He said the case against Conley was not strong, while Whale had a nine-month-old child at home and was the family's sole breadwinner.

Their cases have been adjourned until later on Friday.

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Leighton wins $100m rail contract

CONSTRUCTION giant Leighton has won a $100 million contract to build a train support facility in the NSW Hunter Valley.

The facility will support rail operator Aurizon's coal haulage fleet and will involve the construction of a train provisioning facility, a combined maintenance building, signalling and power infrastructure, 26 turnouts and 11km of plain line track works.

Leighton Contractors managing director Craig Laslett said the project would benefit the Hunter Valley's coal industry.

"This project will improve operations and supply chain efficiency for our client and deliver wider benefits across the Hunter Valley coal freight network," he said.

Work on the facility is expected to be completed in late 2014, with associated track work expected to be completed by March 2015.

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Grave found in search for Korean man

BRISBANE police are reportedly preparing to dig up a shallow grave as they search for missing South Korean man Min Tae Allen Kim.

Mr Kim, 28, was last seen by his housemates at their Cannon Hill home about 2.45pm (AEST) on Monday.

He'd had gone out to exchange $15,000 cash into South Korean won with an unknown person he got into contact with on the website Gumtree, but never returned home.

Police are preparing to dig up a body in southwest Brisbane on Thursday afternoon, the Seven Network reports.

Police are due to hold a press conference this afternoon about Mr Kim's disappearance.

A police spokeswoman told AAP officers were conducting an operation at a property on Peel St, Algester.

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Santos to buy gas from Origin for GLNG

SANTOS has struck a deal with Origin Energy to buy gas to supply the Gladstone liquefied natural gas (GLNG) project in Queensland.

Origin will supply 100 petajoules (PJ) of gas over five years from January 2016, and could supply additional volumes of up to 94 PJ of gas during the same period.

The agreement adds to existing agreements for the supply of 750 PJ of Santos portfolio gas to GLNG over 15 years, and 365 PJ of Origin gas over 10 years.

Santos has a 30 per cent interest in GLNG, alongside joint venture partners Petronas, Total and KOGAS.

Santos shares were up 35 cents at $14.08 at 1508 AEDT, and Origin shares were up 22 cents at $13.58.

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Qld medics on alert as bacteria kills boy

A SIGNIFICANT jump in the number of deaths caused by a common bacterial infection in Queensland has sparked a state-wide alert to all doctors and hospitals.

The alert comes after a child became the seventh person to die from group A streptococcus infection this year.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says there have been 265 cases of the infection this year, 1.6 times the five-year average.

"Normally we'd see two to four deaths in a year and see around 200 cases," Dr Young said.

"So there is something going on which is why I think it's important to alert general practitioners and emergency departments to be aware and to consider the patient might have this infection."

It is impossible to give a reason for the spike, she said.

"We see disease profiles go up and down."

Flu can be much worse one year than the next.

"It's true with bacteria in general, it's very hard to know why but we've seen the data," she said.

"It may not mean anything for whatever reason we've got these cases but maybe there is something there."

A four-year-old boy from Caboolture died earlier this week at the Mater Hospital.

The hospital said he had "overwhelming septic shock".

Two men in their 90s who died at Greenslopes Private Hospital's rehabilitation centre last week also had the bacteria in their system.

The other four deaths occurred earlier in the year at various locations, Dr Young said.

Acting director of the Metro North Public Health Unit Dr Madhumati Chatterji said officials were in contact with the four-year-old boy's family and the childcare centre he attended.

"Appropriate preventive measures are being undertaken," Dr Chatterji said, adding the risk of infection from casual contact was small.

The bacteria is often found in the throat and on the skin and can cause minor symptoms such as a sore throat.

But in rare cases it invades the bloodstream or the lungs and causes life-threatening illnesses, typically in people with already poor health.

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Hockey highly dishonest on budget: Swan

FORMER treasurer Wayne Swan has lashed out at his successor for "dishonesty of the highest magnitude" and fiddling the budget figures, after Joe Hockey forecast four years of deficits amounting to $123 billion.

Mr Swan, now a Labor backbencher, has joined colleagues in accusing Mr Hockey of padding out the economic forecasts to paint a bleak picture of the budget.

The mid-year budget outlook forecast deficits to 2016-17 of $123 billion, $68 billion more than the pre-election outlook in August.

Underpinning the deteriorating figures are growth forecasts well below the long-run average, which Mr Swan said were being used to "make the numbers look as bad as possible".

"Out of his $68 billion in additional accumulated deficits over the next four years, $54 billion comes from his forecasting fiddle and the rest is spending decisions he's taken since being elected just over three months ago," Mr Swan wrote on his Facebook page.

"He's trying to put these large write downs all at the feet of the previous Labor government.

"This is dishonesty of the highest magnitude."

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Browse would have cost $80b; Woodside

ENERGY giant Woodside Petroleum has revealed the cost of its controversial Browse onshore gas project would have exceeded $80 billion, almost double the previous estimate.

Woodside and its joint venture partners spent $2 billion studying the viability of using James Price Point near Broome as an onshore gas processing hub.

But the company shelved the project with an original $45 billion price tag in April and announced plans to process gas offshore using up to three massive floating LNG (FLNG) vessels.

Vice president of corporate affairs Roger Martin said Woodside would have lost about $1 billion on the onshore project, and Woodside's share would have been about $25 billion of the $80 billion development cost.

"Effectively, we would have spent almost the entire value of our company on an uneconomic project," Mr Martin said in a statement.

"The challenge would have been limiting our losses in an environment in which almost all major resources projects in Australia have increased significantly in cost."

Woodside has a market capitalisation of $30.7 billion.

The release of the Browse figures comes a day after a group of large industrial gas users, including Fortescue Metals Group, Alcoa and Newmont, urged West Australian Premier Colin Barnett to stand firm in insisting the Woodside-led Browse gas project is developed onshore.

But Woodside said that arguing about the benefits of a land-based development versus a floating development was a pointless exercise.

"There is no commercially viable land-based development," Mr Martin said.

"If James Price Point or another land-based option was commercially viable, we would now be undertaking site preparation works for this project."

He said the company was "deeply disappointed" it was not undertaking an onshore project, but it hopes FLNG will allow it to develop the resource.

The James Price Point project option attracted widespread community opposition due to environmental concerns.

However, in October, a WA Parliamentary inquiry into floating LNG heard the difference in the return on investment between an onshore or floating Browse project was about one per cent.

Last week, Prime Minister Tony Abbott called on Mr Barnett to embrace floating LNG technology, saying it was better to have a floating project than no project at all.

Mr Barnett has rejected a floating development for Browse, saying an onshore processing plant in the Kimberley would bring more benefits to the state including jobs. He also fears the massive purpose-built vessels may not be able to withstand severe cyclones.

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RBA's Stevens won't rule out selling $A

The central bank governor says he is willing to intervene in currency markets to lower the dollar. Source: AAP

THE Reserve Bank governor has not ruled out intervening to lower the value of the Australian dollar, and says he has considered doing so more than once.

RBA governor Glenn Stevens has recently described the exchange rate as "uncomfortably high", says it needs to fall to help the non-mining sectors of the economy.

The Australian dollar is currently trading near 89 US cents.

He told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday that the Aussie shouldn't be above 90 US cents at the moment, and he's not ruling out intervening by selling the local currency and buying foreign currencies.

"If it seems to be appropriate ... taking into account the fundamentals as best that we can judge, then we'd do so," Mr Stevens said.

"I don't really want to set out in advance specific triggers which might induce intervention."

Mr Stevens said he had recently considered intervening to bring down the Australian dollar, but the mining boom was always going to end and that would lower the exchange rate.

"On occasion, intervention can be quite useful. It still is. It's just that we've just been through a very unusual episode," he said.

"That's why when I've thought about intervention, more than once over the past several years, we've, by and large, eschewed it to date."

Mr Stevens said he still favoured the Australian dollar staying as a floating currency.

"I think there's been many such frustrations in both directions over the years. But, by and large, it's worked very well and I expect it still will," he said.

"Two or three years ago with the currency rising strongly, with the terms of trade rising, it was always likely the Aussie dollar was going to go quite high for a period and I think that was quite a powerful fundamental.

"So, you can't get anywhere fighting a fundamental trend."

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Budget update a wake-up call: business

BUSINESS groups hope the mid-year budget update will be a wake-up call to the Abbott government to deal with the challenges it now faces.

The mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (MYEFO) released on Tuesday forecasts the 2013/14 budget deficit ballooning to $47 billion, rather than the $30.1 billion predicted in August, and there will be further deficits over the next 10 years if no action is taken.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the government faces a decade of committed reform to put the budget on a more sustainable footing.

"MYEFO shows Australia faces a decade of deficits if the federal government does not begin to correct the excessive spending that has left the fiscal position weaker than it should be and exposed to future global economic volatility," she said in a statement.

She said a disciplined 2014/15 budget that included structural measures to contain government expenditures over time needs to be matched by greater efforts to boost economic growth and productive capacity to greatly assist the budget repair job.

"The ongoing weakness of revenues also highlights the critical role that tax reform will need to play both in shoring up the strength of the revenue base and increasing efficiency to drive economic growth," she said.

Welfare groups believe the government must align social and economic goals.

UnitingCare Australia national director Lin Hatfield Dodds says the political debate has become locked into rhetoric about debt and deficit, rather than having "smart, evidence-based" debates about effective public policy and improving the quality of life of all Australians.

"Current policy debt is thin, impoverishing us all," she said in a statement.

"Achieving a better balance will require collecting more tax, and could be achieved by winding back inefficient and unfair tax concessions."

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said MYEFO showed there were no pain-free options to build a stronger economy over the next decade.

"This budget deterioration makes the work of the Commission of Audit a national priority, especially if it undertakes a root and branch review of government spending, duplication of services and idle or underperforming assets."

He said that with industrialised governments mired in debt and deficit, only private sector growth and prosperity can retain living standards so reform that gives private sector incentive to invest and grow is needed.

Ratings agency Moody's said the projections were worse than they expected in terms of the fiscal and debt positions.

"However, as Moody's have always said, the Australian government has very low debt levels as a starting point, and the larger deficit in the current fiscal year, while leading to a rise in debt, is not likely to change Moody's thinking about the Aaa rating of Australia," it said in a statement.

Accountancy group CPA Australia said the government should lead a community conversation about the country's future.

Unhelpful and distracting rhetoric about debt and deficit should end, chief executive Alex Malley said.

"The announcement by the treasurer today is sobering but it shouldn't be a trigger for wholesale cuts or a knee-jerk reaction that places the importance of a return to surplus above all else," he said.

The Distilled Spirit Industry Council of Australia suggested the government could take another look at alcohol taxes to raise more revenue.

It estimated moving to a single volumetric tax system for all types of alcohol could net $1.8 billion a year for federal coffers.

The Community and Public Sector Union criticised the lack of detail on public servant job cuts, saying the MYEFO statement would only heighten fears among bureaucrats.

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Armed hold-up at Sydney service station

THREE men armed with a rifle, a baseball bat and a length of wood have held up a service station in Sydney's west and fled with cash and cigarettes.

Police say the men entered the service station on Joseph Street in Lidcombe at about 3.35am (AEDT) on Tuesday and threatened the male attendant, demanding money and cigarettes.

Cigarettes were taken and cash was stolen from the register before the men fled the scene.

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Sydney taxi fare freeze recommended

A PROPOSED freeze on Sydney taxi fares will mean a pay cut for drivers and ignores soaring prices for LPG, the NSW Taxi Council says.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) proposed a freeze on Sydney taxi fares for 2014/15 in a draft report released on Tuesday.

It also recommended issuing 190 new annual taxi licences.

IPART says cost is the main reason people don't catch taxis, and the recommendations, if adopted, would make cabs more affordable and easier to find.

But NSW Taxi Council chief executive Roy Wakelin-King said IPART had ignored market realities, such as the 20 per cent hike in LPG.

At the same time, the council released research that shows the industry contributes $1.15 billion each year to the NSW economy, and provides 17,500 full-time equivalent jobs.

Mr Wakelin-King said IPART had dudded the taxi industry, recommending drivers get 3.5 per cent lower wages next year, and "flooding the market" with new licences.

"There is a significant oversupply of taxis for most of the year and those involved in the industry are battling to earn reasonable incomes," he said.

He said IPART's recommendations would force people away from the industry, which would be bad for customers.

The report prepared for the taxi council by Deloitte Access Economics found the industry delivered up to $20 million in annual revenue to the NSW government.

IPART had considered lowering fares from July 2014, but decided freezing fares struck a better balance for drivers and the public.

IPART recommends that maximum fares for urban areas including Newcastle, Wollongong, the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast continue to be the same as fares in Sydney.

Submissions on the draft report close on January 31.

IPART provides its final report in February 2014, with Transport for NSW to decide on the number of licences to be released by the end of March.

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Pressure grows for NSW pub lockouts

EMERGENCY service workers and doctors are demanding NSW government action to stop the carnage caused by alcohol-fuelled violence.

NSW confirmed it was the capital of drunken violence at the weekend, with 540 arrests during a trans-Tasman operation meant to curb the problem.

The NSW opposition is renewing its calls for a trial of reduced trading hours and lockouts in the state's licensed venues after the success of those measures in Newcastle.

The Last Drinks coalition, a group representing concerned emergency department staff, police and paramedics, has joined the chorus.

Its spokesperson, Australian Salaried Medical Officers' Federation president Dr Tony Sara, says the pressure is firmly on the government.

Dr Sara says a trial in select trouble spots would show positive results in a short time.

He said measures in Newcastle cut alcohol violence by 37 per cent and emergency department admissions by 26 per cent, so were worth a try in Sydney.

He challenged NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell to explain what harm a trial could do, believing the government was under the thumb of the powerful liquor lobby.

"How could it hurt?" Dr Sara told AAP.

"It might reduce profits a bit, but either they lose some money or we continue to have people hurt and maimed.

"I think the community comes before profits."

But Mr O'Farrell rejected calls for tougher laws, arguing authorities had done their part.

"Police and government agencies are doing their bit and the hotel industry, by and large, is responsibly getting on with their task," he told reporters on Monday.

"What we now need is for the community to come to the party."

NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson says police tell him privately they support tougher measures such as pub lockouts.

Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione agreed that cultural shift was crucial.

"Police will never arrest our way out of this problem," he said.

"If we don't start today we will lose a generation of young people to this love affair with alcohol."

Mr Scipione said a 23-year-old man who was punched and stomped on in front of dozens of revellers at Bondi Beach at the weekend was no longer in a critical condition.

The Australian Hotels Association NSW would not comment.

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AWE rejects oil and gas suitor Senex

SENEX Energy has withdrawn its $752 million takeover offer for fellow Australian oil and gas producer AWE.

Senex made a non-binding takeover proposal last Wednesday, which AWE rejected on Sunday.

A successful takeover would have merged Senex's onshore oil and gas assets in central Australia's Cooper Basin and coal seam gas assets in Queensland with AWE's mostly offshore assets in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.

AWE said the offer was not in the best interests of its shareholders, who would have received only 47 per cent of the merged group's equity.

It significantly undervalued AWE shares without an appropriate premium for control, it said in a statement.

AWE said it would contribute a far greater share to the deal including: 70 per cent of proven reserves, 90 per cent of production and 67 per cent of sales revenue and earnings.

Senex's offer implied a price for AWE shares of $1.44.

AWE shares came out of a trading halt on Monday and had climbed 10 cents to $1.285 at 1500 AEDT while Senex shares had slumped 6.3 cents to 70.75 cents.

However AWE's shares are valued by analysts at above $2, with the company's strong balance sheet an attraction for Senex to offset its higher cost onshore shale and coal seam assets.

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Aurizon to cut rail fleet, cancel project

FREIGHT and coal haulage operator Aurizon will take a hit of almost $200 million as it cuts the size of its rail fleet and cancels a major Queensland project.

The company, previously known as QR National, is reducing its locomotive fleet by 28 per cent and cutting the number of wagons by 12 per cent in a bid to bring down fuel and maintenance costs.

Aurizon's downsizing will appear as an asset impairment expense of $130 million to $150 million in its accounts for the first half of the 2013/14 financial year.

The company will also incur a $47 million impairment on recent changes to several projects, including Glencore Xstrata's decision to stop the Wandoan project because of weakening thermal coal prices.

Aurizon had proposed a 210 kilometre Surat Basin rail corridor from the Wandoan mine in a joint venture with the Swiss multinational.

"There's not any job losses that are related to that," chief executive Lance Hockridge told reporters on Monday.

In July, Aurizon launched a second voluntary redundancy program in a bid to save $230 million by 2015.

Some 248 voluntary redundancies have since been accepted.

"I think the bulk of it is done," Mr Hockridge said.

More than 2,000 employees have left the company since it was privatised by the former Queensland Labor government in 2010.

Mr Hockridge said he was "cautious but confident" about the thermal coal sector, as well as the future of projects in Queensland's Galilee Basin, where Aurizon has agreed to develop a rail project for the GVK-Hancock joint venture involving billionaire Gina Rinehart.

Aurizon shares were down one cent at $4.69 at 1504 AEDT.

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Police assaulted at NSW soccer game

A POLICEMAN had to use "defensive strikes" to force a man to release his grip on his groin during a brawl at a Newcastle A-League soccer match.

Another police officer was punched in the head by another man in the melee, which saw a spectator punched in the face three times on Saturday night.

Police from the Public Order and Riot Squad and local officers were patrolling the match between the Newcastle Jets and Western Sydney Wanderers at the Hunter Stadium when a fight broke out and objects were thrown at 9.40pm.

They say the crowd turned hostile towards them when they intervened.

During a scuffle, a 21-year-old man allegedly grabbed the policeman's groin and refused to let go.

The man, police say, had been hindering police when he was pushed out of the way and fell on the ground.

He was arrested and charged with assault police.

He will appear in Newcastle Local Court on January 16.

At the same match police spoke to three spectators who were allegedly causing trouble.

One man refused to follow a police direction to return his seat.

Police allege he punched another spectator in the face three times before turning on the officers who tried to arrest him.

The 41-year-old is accused of punching one officer in the side of the head.

He was charged with assault police and behave in an offensive manner.

He will also appear in Newcastle Local Court on Monday.

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Missing Qld man found after four days

A MAN who went missing for four days in southwest Queensland, sparking a massive air and land search, has been found.

Two aircraft, police and State Emergency Service volunteers helped search a property south of Quilpie after the man, in his 50s, was reported missing on Saturday morning.

But he had not been since Thursday, December 12, police said.

The man had been working on his property and went to check bores but did not return.

His bogged vehicle was found on a neighbouring property on Saturday.

Police said the man was found at 5.20pm on Sunday on a property near Eulo, in the area they'd been searching.

He was airlifted to Roma Hospital for treatment.

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Fawcett auction items sell for $200,000

PERSONAL items belonging to late actress Farrah Fawcett have fetched $US200,000 ($A224,997.19) at auction.

Items including the iconic red swimsuit she wore for an Esquire magazine shoot, her passport, a script from her 1984 TV film The Burning Bed, and a People's Choice Award went under the hammer at Heritage Auctions in Dallas in Texas on Thursday.

Margaret Barrett, the director of entertainment and music auctions for Heritage, said: "The intense competition for Farrah's items in this auction speaks to how popular she continues to be with collectors."

In addition to Fawcett's belongings, the suit Gene Kelly got wet in 1952 movie Singin' in the Rain sold for just over $US106,000.

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Woman hit by garbage truck in Melbourne

A young woman is in a critical condition after she was hit by a garbage truck in Melbourne CBD. Source: AAP

A YOUNG woman is in a critical condition in hospital after she was hit by a garbage truck during a night out in Melbourne.

The woman in her 20s was struck by the truck, which allegedly failed to stop, at the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale Streets after 4.30am (AEDT), police say.

A 40-year-old Wallan man has been arrested and is speaking to police.

The woman's condition is critical, a Royal Melbourne Hospital spokeswoman said.

Police are reviewing CCTV footage in the area.

Anyone who may have witnessed the incident should come forward, especially two women who were at the scene, police said.

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Bali punch victim on the mend

THE family of an Australian surfing teacher who suffered major head injuries when he was punched in Bali hope he will be able to speak and swallow soon.

Matt Scarff, 41, was allegedly punched by a stranger outside the Townhouse Club in Seminyak on November 15 while going to the aid of a woman in danger.

A Facebook page was set up by family members to raise money for Mr Scarff's travel expenses and rehabilitation.

After two operations, Mr Scarff awoke from an induced coma at Royal Perth Hospital almost two weeks ago and smiled, winked and nodded at his family.

Tony Maguire, who runs the Facebook page, posted on Sunday morning that his cousin was continuing to progress slowly after a small setback with another bout of pneumonia.

"He is comprehending conversations and is mouthing words and writing things down," Mr Maguire said.

"Hopefully his tracheostomy tube and feeding tube will be removed soon, allowing him to talk and swallow.

"Yesterday we were allowed to wheel him outside for a few minutes of sunshine and fresh air, which he enjoyed."

Mr Maguire said Mr Scarff's progress was encouraging but he had a long road ahead.

Mr Scarff runs Bali Learn to Surf - a surf school that mainly teaches Southeast Asians, including orphans, and includes surf trips to Java and up the Southeast Asian coast.

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Bushfire threatens lives, homes in WA town

High temperatures in Western Australia have prompted bushfire warnings for much of the state. Source: AAP

FIREFIGHTERS are battling an out-of-control bushfire that is threatening lives and homes northeast of Perth.

An emergency warning has been issued for people four kilometres east of Toodyay.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) says the fire is burning on both sides of Goomalling Toodyay Road, and homes in the Wicklow and Dumbarton Estates are under direct threat.

"You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive," the DFES said.

"The bushfire is out of control and unpredictable."

About 150 career and volunteer firefighters from the Fire and Rescue Service and Bush Fire Service are fighting the fire, which was reported at 9.18am on Sunday and has so far burned about 100 hectares.

Two helitacs and two fixed-wing water bombers have been sent to assist ground crews.

The DFES says the bushfire is moving fast in a south-southeastern direction.

Residents in Toodyay, about 86km northeast of Perth, told AAP there was smoke in the township but they were pleased with the quick response from firefighters.

Shire president David Dow said the blaze was burning in a semi-rural and rural area but there were still hundreds of people living there.

"The fire is obviously very serious," he told AAP.

"Everyone is just getting out at the moment."

The DFES has warned that if the way is clear, residents should leave now.

"Do not wait and see. Leaving at the last minute is deadly," it said.

Residents who plan to stay and actively defend their properties are warned not to rely on mains water pressure because it may be affected.

People have been told to leave in a western direction towards the Toodyay township.

Goomalling-Toodyay Road has been closed and motorists have been warned to avoid the area.

The cause of the fire is unknown.

In December 2009, a bushfire caused by a fallen power pole destroyed 38 homes and damaged about 137 properties in Toodyay.

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