Laura Mayers is a senior news reporter for ABC Ballarat, covering online, radio, and television stories. Laura previously worked as a reporter for ABC South East SA, and ABC Capricornia. She began her journalism career with WIN News Rockhampton.
When seagulls started madly squawking near the Portland marina in western Victoria, Matt Smith thought they'd found a dog in the water. He was in for a surprise.
Earlier this year, businessman David Penman brought charges against five of the Hepburn Shire Council's seven councillors, who were forced to stand down.
The state of Victoria's roads is again in the spotlight after a motorcyclist died after reportedly hitting a pothole at the weekend.
A man has applied for bail after allegedly hitting and killing a man with his car following a chase through Ballarat city streets.
This abandoned psychiatric hospital has been a huge drawcard for the small town of Ararat. Now it has been closed, local businesses are on edge.
Fire authorities say they have their "fingers and toes crossed" for heavy spring rain, with an increased risk of bushfires predicted in parts of Victoria from Spring.
Police say the car that struck the man did not have number plates. Anyone with information is being urged to come forward.
Topic: Road Accidents and Incidents
Charges laid by a private resident against five central Victorian councillors and a CEO have been dropped after the Director of Public Prosecutions intervened in court.
Investigators say a 33-year-old woman was walking home from work in Warrnambool, south-west Victoria, when a woman tried to push her into a car.
Advocates say that unproven charges such as those against councillors at Hepburn Shire, triggering automatic stand-down laws, can bring any other council across the state to a shuddering halt.
Three more councillors at Hepburn Shire Council have been served with criminal charges by a private citizen, leaving only two councillors in office.
The Christian Brothers order plans to sell off its remaining assets to fund compensation claims to abuse survivors but admits it will not be enough to cover the amount owed.
One of China's biggest wool companies is being accused of illegally blocking the flow of water from a farm it owns in western Victoria.
Indigenous and environmental groups are accusing a Chinese company of hoarding water on a Victorian property and causing a sacred waterfall to run dry.
A Victorian court hears that a regional pub where five people died when a driver had a hypoglycaemic episode, crashing his car through diners, did not have a valid outdoor dining permit at the time of the crash.
The Bureau of Meteorology says it is unusual to see large funnel clouds so far west in Victoria.
The man was pulled from the house by emergency crews, but could not be revived.
Santiago Vergara, 33, hopes to have nabbed a Guinness World Record after running the Ballarat half-marathon on stilts in a time of 2 hours and 34 minutes.
A CFA firefighter is in hospital in a serious but stable condition after being injured during a planned burn in regional Victoria.
The diabetes doctor of the driver responsible for a 2023 collision in the Victorian town of Daylesford, that killed five people, tells a coronial inquest that he is "concerned" for his patient's memory.
The driver who was behind the wheel of a car that ploughed into a group of people outside a central Victorian pub has detailed his sorrow over the crash.
The federal government is exploring the feasibility of manufacturing wind energy infrastructure locally, with the federal minister for industry saying he is "sick of the naysayers" who say local manufacturing is not sustainable.
The latest seasonal bushfire outlook has identified large parts of Victoria, NSW and southern WA as still at risk, even though summer is almost over.
The operators of Ballarat Gold Mine have been charged over a rockfall that killed 37-year-old miner Kurt Hourigan and seriously injured a 21-year-old workmate in March 2024.
Topic: Workplace Accidents and Incidents
The death of a man following a collision near the Victorian town of Bacchus Marsh caps a horror two weeks for roads across the state's south west.
Topic: Road Accidents and Incidents