The Latest Breaking News from Peter Lorimer

Hunger pains are being felt across Lake Macquarie as the cost of living continues to rise.

Almost 120mm of rain has fallen in the city since Saturday

If politics is about change, then Newcastle must be a political town, with the reworking of the city's face and character in recent years, to the point that it barely resembles the place in that 1970s hit, "The Newcastle Song", but one thing that hasn't changed in more than a…

Standing on Birubi Beach, fourth generation fisherman, Greg Tarrant, points to the spot where his crew would usually be dragging bulging nets of silver ashore.

The event was No Limit Boxing's third in Newcastle.

Amid the military pomp and solemn prayers that filled Newcastle's Civic Park, Vietnam veteran Michael Carmody remembered the four mates who he had lost in the past 18 months.

By around 2pm, the streets surrounding the Dungog Showground were lined with cars. More were streaming in every minute to the Showground proper to find a park among the trees and the stock floats - horses unloaded and saddled - ready for the town's first rodeo in two years.

"That was my first time at Bells this trip so far but I've come down here for a long time, since I was a kid."

The Libs' Paterson candidate, Brooke Vitnell, was perhaps fortunate to be out of town when Scott Morrison dropped into Edgeworth Tavern this week to exchange pleasantries with the locals.