Fw: Wed.13.1.21 daily digest
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Roderick Smith

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train motel NSW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgKMznhdPjs

Wed.13.1.21 Metro Twitter
Bridge Road tram-track renewal works, 11pm Sunday 3 January to 5am Saturday 16 January.
Craigieburn line: Buses replace trains on sections of the Craigieburn line from 9pm Thu 7 Jan to 10pm Sat 16 Jan, while levelcrossings works take place.
8.52 Werribee line: Delays up to 15 minutes (an 'operational issue' with a train stopped near Hoppers Crossing).
- 9.07 Delays up to 20 minutes.
- 9.24  Delays up to 40 minutes..
- 9.56 Minor delays, clearing.
Early works are underway to remove four level crossings in Preston. We'll raise the rail, build two new stations and deliver new open space. The level crossings will gone by the end of 2022 and open space ready in 2023.
18.16  Craigieburn line: Major delays (police near Newmarket).
- 18.25 clearing.
19.23  Frankston line: Major delays (an 'operational incident' near Mordialloc). Trains may terminate/originate at intermediate stations.
- 21.21  Clearing.
Buses replace trains Ringwood - Belgrave from 20.25 until the last train (works).
Werribee/Williamstown lines: Buses replace trains North Melbourne - Newport/Williamstown from 20.30 until the last train (works).
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: All trains direct to/from Flinders St from 21.00 until the last train (maintenance works).  From Southernn Cross or loop stationns, take any train to Richmond.

COVID-19 IN AUSTRALIA Data updated 5.14pm on Jan 13, 2021
16 New cases (Jan 13)    321 Active cases    25817 Recovered    909 Deaths    View full Australia and global data


Lilydale teens’ 1920s romance led to William Bent’s killing by his love interest’s brother-in-law
Mitchell Toy January 13, 2021 Herald Sun 2 comments
In 1925, Lilydale local William Bent was boy of upstanding morals who was found with a bullet in his skull. And that was only the tragic tale’s beginning.
Seventeen-year-old shooting victim William Bent, and his sweetheart Vera Chandler. Pictures: Trove
At just 17 years of age, William Bent was the crossword puzzle champion of Lilydale.
It was all the time he spent on the train that kept him in practice.
The young railway clerk rode the line every day between his home town and Spencer St.
When he wasn’t chatting with the other teens who took the same route, he was scribbling away at the puzzles.
It was March 1925, and the bright William, a keen violinist and boy of upstanding morals, was about to become something of a puzzle himself.
One cold Saturday morning he was found near the railway line in Lilydale with a bullet in his skull.
Still breathing, he was taken to hospital where he died.
The young man who everybody liked, appeared to have been murdered.
And the investigation that followed, as one newspaper report observed, was so unusual, it could have flowed straight from a novelist’s pen.
A map of the 1925 crime scene, and how the area looks today. Pictures: Trove, Google
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
One of the youths on William Bent’s train route was Lilydale local Vera Chandler, aged 15.
The two had been at school together and now they were close friends, and sometimes went on walks together around the town.
There were plenty of people in Lilydale who thought they would get married when the time was right.
In one strange incident, Bent’s parents were approached by a local man who thought that their son and Vera Chandler were such a nice match, he offered a pound for William to take her to the Williamstown picnic.
The money was refused, but William took her to the picnic anyway.
William’s mother was wary of Vera, and when William brought up the possibility he might be married before the age of 21, with Vera in mind, his mother discouraged it and suggested it would be against the law.
The main street of Lilydale about 1920. Picture: State Library of Victoria
On the Friday night he was shot, nothing seemed unusual in William Bent’s life.
He was seen at a local billiard saloon in the evening, then walked outside and chatted with a neighbour for a few minutes, then disappeared.
Vera Chandler was very quiet about what might have happened, and speculation flourished around the town.
When whispers spread that police were pursuing a theory that William’s death was a crime of jealousy, all eyes were on Vera.
Two bloodied handkerchiefs were found at the scene, one of which carried a few spots of paint.
Police had spoken to Vera’s brother-in-law, a 40-year-old painter by the name of Howard Vernon, but released him.
When they tried to find him again for additional information, he was gone.
Murder suspect Howard Vernon, left, and how he looked dressed as a woman for a local fair, right. Pictures: Trove
STRANGER AND STRANGER
Vernon became the prime suspect and a citywide manhunt underway.
It emerged that Vernon sometimes did a convincing impression of a woman at local fairs, dressing up in ladies’ clothing, and that he might have been using it as a disguise.
In the following days, sightings of Vernon sprang up around Melbourne, including from a credible witness who saw him on Chapel St, Prahran.
Eventually the law caught up with him.
Vernon was found sitting on a park bench in Middle Park and was arrested, a few days after the shooting.
His confession in custody was extraordinary.
Yes, he had been watching William Bent closely and resented that he was close to his young sister-in-law, of whom he was very protective, he claimed.
He had seen them on walks together around Lilydale and had witnessed them embracing in a way he didn’t think was decent.
Newspaper photographs of Howard Vernon and Vera Chandler. Pictures: Trove
He’d even approached Bent to warn him off.
And that Friday night, he knew where Bent was going after he left the billiard saloon.
He was going to Meet with Vera.
And meet with Vera he did. The pair walked down Nelson Rd near the railway line and sat together in a peaceful spot.
That was when Vernon jumped out of the scrub with the rifle.
It was discharged, and Bent hit the dirt.
The frantic Vera tried to wake him up, but Vernon told her to go home. He would deal with Bent.
The unconscious teen was dragged down the road and left near the tracks, Vernon leaving behind the bloodied handkerchiefs.
When police approached Vera with this version of events, she conceded it was true.
But the horrific details of the shooting were just part of the disturbing picture of Vernon’s controlling relationship with his sister-in-law that emerged in court.
Far from being protective, Vernon had been sexually intimate with the teenager for at least a year, while married to her sister, who was in her 30s.
The town of Lilydale around the time of William Bent's killing. Picture: State Library of Victoria
He was viciously jealous of Bent, and any other boy who consorted with Vera.
But strangely, Vernon had also been the man who called on young William’s family, and offered them a pound for the teenager to take Vera to the Williamstown picnic.
He also claimed to have visited his victim’s grave site at midnight while he was on the run, distressed and anxious about the shooting.
After a coronial inquiry found the death was wilful murder, Vernon was committed to trial.
No friends came to visit him in jail.
Eventually he was found guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter, after telling the court he had only meant to shoot above Bent’s head to scare him off.
More Coverage
How a Clifton Hill tram conductor became a ruthless killerThe diary of an embattled MPDiary of a Melbourne mayor
He was sentenced to 12 years’ jail.
Soon after his imprisonment he was divorced by his wife, whose sister, Vera Chandler, suffered for the rest of her life for the crimes of an evil man.
<www.heraldsun.com.au/news/lilydale-teens-1920s-romance-led-to-william-bents-killing-by-his-love-interests-brotherinlaw/news-story/ceee003efbb46ef486e4e487b73e011a>


Plans for towers above station on Sydney's north shore approved. Matt O'Sullivan January 13, 2021. 34 comments
Plans for high-rise buildings above a new train station at Crows Nest on Sydney's lower north shore have been given the green light, despite community opposition to the scale of development.
The concept plan for the Crows Nest over-station development has been reduced from earlier versions and conditions imposed, but this has not been enough to allay residents' concerns.
If the state government can woo the private sector, the development will comprise three buildings of up to 21, 17 and nine storeys respectively.
An artist's impression of the three buildings planned above the Crows Nest station.CREDIT:NSW GOVERNMENT
It compares with earlier plans for two towers of up to 27 storeys, a 17-storey hotel and conference centre and an eight-storey commercial building.
However, the difference in metres of the maximum allowable height of the tallest building compared with earlier plans will only be about eight metres.
Planning Minister Rob Stokes said good planning was all about striking the right balance, and a train station in Crows Nest had created the opportunity to concentrate growth near public transport and close to major centres in St Leonards, North Sydney and Sydney's CBD.
The tallest building above the metro train station will be up to 21 storeys.CREDIT:NSW GOVERNMENT
"While I understand that some current Crows Nest residents won't be happy about growth, this proposal has improved considerably," said Mr Stokes, who approved the concept plans.
"Residents were concerned about overdevelopment, and for more focus on providing more jobs than more homes. In response, the building envelope has been reduced, jobs capacity doubled and the number of new homes halved."
But North Sydney councillor Zoe Baker said the approval was a betrayal of the community, describing the reduction in building height to avoid overshadowing of a nearby park as a token gesture. "It is well, well over what the community expected [in scale]," she said.
North Sydney and Lane Cove councils had objected to the plans, partly due to the bulk and scale of what was proposed. Almost all of the 636 public submissions objected to the plans outlined in an environmental impact statement, and many raised concerns about building heights and overshadowing.
Despite the approval, Cr Baker doubted the government would be able to attract interest from the private sector to develop the site above the station.
"To date, there has been very little interest from the commercial sector in the form of development that the government has sought to impose on the site. Even the second tier developers have not had interest because it just doesn't stack up," she said.
The rationale for developments such as Crows Nest is that offices, shops and apartments help to cross subsidise the cost of the train station below, which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Chairman of Wollstonecraft Precinct community group John Hancox said residents' concerns about the heights of the buildings had been "totally ignored".
"We think it stinks. The community is quite universal in its opposition to this," he said.
Mr Stokes' approval came after an assessment report by his department determined the project was acceptable, citing measures to mitigate the scale and length of the proposed buildings. They include recesses within the facades of the two tallest towers.
Whilst the concept proposal has been approved, a separate development application for the towers will need to be submitted and approved before construction can begin.
The approval of the concept plan comes amid community concerns about higher density development across St Leonards and Crows Nest.
The Crows Nest station – about 1 kilometre from the North Sydney CBD – is one of seven new stations to be built as part of a multi-billion-dollar metro rail line from Chatswood, under Sydney Harbour to central Sydney and on to Bankstown.
The rail line is scheduled for completion in 2024.
RELATED ARTICLE The plans for St Leonards South will include nearly 2000 homes in buildings up to 19 storeys.  Residents angry as high-rise plan for St Leonards South given green light
RELATED ARTICLE An artist's impression of the buildings  above a new metro station at Crows Nest.   Change of tack for metro station development on Sydney's north shore
<www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/plans-for-towers-above-station-on-sydney-s-north-shore-approved-20210112-p56thb.html>


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