The University of Canberra (UC) Vice-Chancellor Bill Shorten says the time is right for the university to merge with the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT).

The CIT has faced recent upheaval, including the resignation of its embattled former chief executive this week.

Mr Shorten says there is no timeline on his pitch, while the ACT government is yet to take a stance.

Got my letter in the mail today, doesn't seem that long ago that we had the last one...

Census date is 11th of August if you haven't gotten the letter yet.

I note they're definitely trying to spread the load this time by highlighting you can do it as soon as you get the letter rather than waiting for the actual date. Smarter move - albeit less amusing - than everyone doing it on the night, crashing the servers, and the ABS claiming it was a DDoS attack (I mean most of the country accessing your server does fit the definition, but they asked for it).

ACT Parks and Conservation says interventions in the Namadgi National Park are helping mosses to recover faster and bogs to stay wetter for longer.

The landscape is still scarred from the 2020 Orroral Valley bushfire which burnt 80 per cent of the park.

Experts warn the ecosystem is fragile in the face of climate change and Canberra's water supply is directly affected.

The NSW government will establish a $1 million community fund to help Captains Flat residents remediate lead contaminated soil on private properties.

The confirmation of lead in surface soils in 2021, due to a mine next to the town that closed in the 1960s, prevents residents from building or altering their homes and growing vegetables in the ground.

Monaro MP Steve Whan says the fund will be administered by the local council, and a "containment cell" for contaminated materials will also be set up.

Residents of Lorne, on Victoria's scenic Great Ocean Road, have been locked in a battle of wits for years now.

They've been fighting skirmishes with a large flock of increasingly intelligent sulphur-crested cockatoos that love lifting the lids of the town's wheelie bins and spreading rubbish on the ground.

"What began as a simple idea became a complex and demanding project," Mr Walls, a retired caravan park broker, explains.

Made from recycled plastic at Horsham in Victoria's Wimmera region, the frames are screwed or pop-riveted to the wheelie bin lid to thwart entry.

"The theory is you can't lift what you're standing on … and in the five years we've had them out testing them there hasn't been a failure that I'm aware of," Mr Walls says.

The design has been so successful that Surf Coast Shire has spent $50,000 to buy and install 500 of the aprons on Lorne residents' bins for free.

The ACT was the first Australian jurisdiction to require public event organisers, vendors, and caterers to use reusable, recyclable, or compostable alternatives.

But for many vendors and waste advocates, it is window dressing, with nearly all of it ending up in landfill because there is no facility to compost it.

The ACT government says waterproof and non-stick coatings on many seemingly compostable products should not be composted, which adds to the complexity.

The ACT will become the first in the nation to abolish stamp duty for all first home buyers, regardless of income or home value.

The move continues the ACT government's decade-long ambition to abolish the tax on all house sales.

The announcement of tax changes was made ahead of today's ACT budget.

If you've got a storage type water heater they have a sacrificial anode inside to reduce corrosion of the actual heater tank. They're meant to be replaced at intervals (around five years typically) to make the heater last longer.

I changed mine today and it was showing very noticeable wear, I doubt anyone had changed it since the heater was put in around ten years ago (in part because it's installed in an awkward position under the sink so you have to remove the sink to change the anode).

Comparison photos between the old and new anodes:

Technically you should probably get a plumber to do this but it's easily done if you've got a decent sized socket set and are cluey enough to realise you should turn the inlet tap off and have a pull at the pressure release valve before you open the tank.

More than 800 tiny, technicoloured northern corroboree frogs have been released into the wild in the Brindabella National Park in southern NSW to try to bolster the numbers of one of Australia's most critically endangered amphibians.

Weighing just 2–3 grams and no bigger than a paper clip, the 842 frogs were born and bred at Sydney's Taronga Zoo in a special quarantine facility designed to keep out a deadly fungus that had driven the species to the brink of extinction.

The federal government is putting $50 million towards priority upgrades to the Canberra-Sydney rail link, with the ACT and NSW governments each contributing $25 million.

The upgrades are expected to improve the travel time between the two cities, which currently takes more than four hours.

Upgrade works are expected to commence this year and be ongoing for up to five years.

The ACT government has locked in its preferred route for the extension of Canberra's light rail to Woden, opting for the more-direct path following feedback.

The Stage 2B extension is proposed to run from Commonwealth Avenue, through the National Triangle, along the east of State Circle to Adelaide Avenue, and then on to Woden.

The project's final Environmental Impact Statement will now be lodged with the federal government and Territory Planning Authority, with an outcome expected by the end of the year.

Experts are calling for Canberrans to check their beehives and register as beekeepers, with more than 1,000 ACT hives having been destroyed by varroa mite so far.

ACT biosecurity engagement officer Micah Wood says hives impacted by varroa mite can survive long term if they are managed properly, but it requires diligence.

The impact of verroa mite will be felt by more than just beekeepers, with the loss of pollinators likely to also disrupt fruit and vegetable yields in the area.