State of the Nation | Wednesday, December 7, 2016

►BALLARAT: Convicted axe-murderer Darren Wilson will not spend any additional time behind bars for attempting to intimidate witnesses before his murder trial.

Wilson, 39, was on Tuesday sentenced to three years and six months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice.

►WAGGA: Forest Hill residents are being urged to attend one of two public meetings on Wednesday for an update on the discovery of a fire-fighting chemical in surface and ground water outside RAAF Base Wagga.

Senior Australian Defence Force officer at the base, Group Captain Ross Jones, said preliminary testing had found the presence of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in three of five water samples, but in very low concentrations.

►BENDIGO: Animal cruelty charges against a central Victorian equine dentist have been dropped in court after police failed to convince a magistrate to proceed with the allegations.

The 55-year-old instead pleaded guilty to 23 counts of possessing drugs of dependence and scheduled poisons – all used in the sedation of horses.

►WARRNAMBOOL: Concern about the future of Alcoa Portland has taken an unexpected turn with Western Victoria MP James Purcell calling for community consultation about getting nuclear power to supply the smelter.

His proposal was part of a round of responses from across the political and community spectrum about the smelter that highlighted the awareness of the industry’s importance to Portland and the state.

►LAUNCESTON: Three Tasmanian Aboriginal ancestors were repatriated on Tuesday, after being studied at the Australian National University in Canberra.  The remains arrived in Launceston under the watchful eye of Tasmanian Aboriginal delegates Jarrod Edwards and Thomas Riley.

►ORANGE: Cancer patients will have the chance to join a world-first medical marijuana trial at Orange Health Service. Currently, half of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy suffer significant nausea and more than a third experience vomiting. Marijuana, or cannabis will be compared to anti-nausea medications.

►WOLLONGONG: Actress, singer and media personality Natalie Bassingthwaite returned to her hometown on Tuesday to revisit her old stomping ground, the Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts.

The 41-year-old was visiting as part of the school’s centenary celebrations and inspire some of the current pupils who are keen to follow in her footsteps.

►ESPERANCE: Why would Esperance Police Senior Sergeant Richard Moore be beaming like this. Find out.

►NSW: Financial market analysts believe the economy went backwards immediately after the July election, ending five years of continuous economic growth and calling into question the government's repeated election promise to "deliver jobs and growth".

►MELBOURNE: The Uniting Church will next year offload up to 65 properties worth around $80 million. The funds are earmarked to finance $1 billion in developments of around 200 projects which the Church has underway or in planning.

Check out what’s expected near you today.

►CAMBODIA: A Cambodian court has rejected an appeal by an Australian victim of an internet dating scam against her 23-year jail sentence on heroin smuggling charges.

The decision will shatter the hopes of Yoshe Ann Taylor's early release from one of Cambodia's notorious jails after her conviction three years ago on charges which lawyers and others involved in the case are convinced was a miscarriage of justice.

Taylor, a mother of two from Queensland, wasn't brought to the court to hear the decision on Tuesday because of a mix-up with the transfer from jail.

►LONDON: He's torn up precious stretches of London roads to create cycle paths and rolled out thousands of rental bikes, universally known as "Boris Bikes" across the capital, but the former Mayor Boris Johnson has been forced trade his two wheels for four since becoming Foreign Secretary.

"I used to cycle all the way around London," Mr Johnson, who is often simply referred to as "Boris", bemoaned this week.

2006: Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.

2005: Brokeback Mountain premieres

1983: Military Junta dissolves in Argentina.

1978: The Soviet Union signs a 20-year friendship pact with Afghanistan.

1921: Irish Free State declared

School holidays spent at Quirindi led one of the most senior females in the $1 billion animal health industry to her chosen career path.

As soon as the school term ended, Sarah Hunter, commercial manager at Virbac Animal Health, would head off to the property to which her grandparents retired after leaving Warrah Station – the property which her maternal grandfather managed on behalf of the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) for 35 years.