As it happened: Brisbane on Monday, November 11

Turning to news of another tragedy in Victoria: One adult is dead and a child has been injured after a truck crashed into a kindergarten north of Melbourne.

The truck careened into the Macedon Ranges Montessori Preschool on Main Road at Riddells Creek, 55 kilometres north of Melbourne, earlier this afternoon.

A truck veered into Macedon Ranges Montessori Preschool (pictured) about 2.20pm on Monday local time.Credit: Nine News

A Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed one adult, who is yet to be formally identified, died at the scene.

“A child was injured and has been taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries,” she said.

“The driver of the truck has also been taken to hospital for observation. The exact circumstances are being investigated.”

It comes less than two weeks after 11-year-old Jack Davey was killed and four other students injured after an SUV crashed through a fence at Auburn South Primary School in Melbourne’s east.

A private funeral was held for Jack on Sunday.

Read more here.

Thank you for joining us on this Remembrance Day. We will be back tomorrow with more rolling news coverage from Brisbane and beyond, so please join us.

In case you missed them, here are some of the stories making headlines today:

The grandmother of a teenage boy who was allegedly behind the wheel of a stolen Audi that crashed into a car at Murrumba Downs last week, killing 69-year-old Rosemary Franzidis, spoke out against her grandson saying he should be behind bars.

More wild storms are expected to strike Brisbane in the coming days, with hail, heavy rain and strong winds forecast. Thousands of households lost power during a severe storm on Sunday night that produced 200,000 lightning strikes over Brisbane.

Tragedy struck Victoria twice today, killing two people in separate incidents. About 8am, local time, a man died after being crushed beneath a fan blade at a wind farm in Rokewood, a small rural township in Victoria’s west. One adult was killed and a child seriously injured when a truck crashed into a kindergarten at Riddells Creek, north of Melbourne, about 2.20pm local time.

Premier David Crisafulli has poached South Australia’s top public servant, Damien Walker, to be Director-General of Queensland’s Department of Premier and Cabinet.

A house on Brisbane’s only private lake smashed its auction reserve by $300,000 at the weekend, selling for $2.3 million, while a family returning to Brisbane from Sydney shelled out $3 million for a designer house in Grange.

Researchers at the Queensland Museum have discovered a new species of large hermit crab that makes a song very much like cicadas.

One of Australia’s richest men and chairman of Visy Australia, Anthony Pratt, has announced he will be moving to the United States after being granted permanent residency there.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton wants the social media ban for children under 16 in place by Christmas, as he urges the government to speed the laws through parliament’s final two sitting weeks with the Coalition’s backing.

And, a musical based on the supernatural, scatological kids’ TV series Round the Twist, which has a unique place in the hearts of Gen Y kids, is premiering in Brisbane.

Aldi says it strives to be consistently 20 per cent cheaper than supermarket rivals Woolworths and Coles, as it seeks growth through more customers rather than new stores.

“We’re not focused on the same levels of growth ... it is our desire to increase sales from existing stores with new customers,” national buying managing director Jordan Lack told a public hearing for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s inquiry into supermarkets today.

Aldi says it is not focused on opening new stores.Credit: Oscar Colman

Lack said 85 per cent of the nation’s population lives within 20 minutes of an Aldi.

Properties are still experiencing strong demand across Brisbane, but a shift in stock levels is slowing price growth, economists and agents say.

“We have seen a good lift in listings this spring and that has helped taper that very strong price growth seen across the city,” LJ Hooker chief economist Matthew Tiller said.

Four registered bidders went head-to-head for a sprawling family home in Sunnybank Hills, which sold under the hammer for $1.456 million on Saturday.

The four-bedroom, two-bathroom home on a 994 square metre block at 6 Ashwood Court had a reserve of $1.45 million.

Selling agent Kathy Lu of LJ Hooker said a local buyer nabbed the keys after falling in love with the beautifully kept home, which had remained in the same family since 2007.

“The Brisbane market is still very strong and I think we will stay this way in the new year … but we have seen a shift in buyer behaviour with more stock on the market,” Lu said.

Read more here.

A man in his 40s suffered critical injuries in a motorbike crash north of Brisbane early yesterday afternoon.

The man’s black 2021 Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 appeared to veer off the left side of the road while he was travelling on Uhlmann Road in Burpengary East between 12.15pm and 1pm.

Paramedics, including a critical care team, were sent to the scene where the driver had suffered head and chest injuries.

He was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a stable condition.

Police are appealing for witnesses and anyone with dashcam footage of the motorbike prior to the crash to come forward.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Policelink on 131 444, or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Turning to news of another tragedy in Victoria: One adult is dead and a child has been injured after a truck crashed into a kindergarten north of Melbourne.

The truck careened into the Macedon Ranges Montessori Preschool on Main Road at Riddells Creek, 55 kilometres north of Melbourne, earlier this afternoon.

A truck veered into Macedon Ranges Montessori Preschool (pictured) about 2.20pm on Monday local time.Credit: Nine News

A Victoria Police spokeswoman confirmed one adult, who is yet to be formally identified, died at the scene.

“A child was injured and has been taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries,” she said.

“The driver of the truck has also been taken to hospital for observation. The exact circumstances are being investigated.”

It comes less than two weeks after 11-year-old Jack Davey was killed and four other students injured after an SUV crashed through a fence at Auburn South Primary School in Melbourne’s east.

A private funeral was held for Jack on Sunday.

Read more here.

No storms are appearing on the radar for Brisbane just yet, but more wild weather is expected to lash the city in the coming days, with hail, heavy rain and strong winds forecast.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Pieter Claassen says Brisbane residents should brace for a repeat of Sunday night’s storms, which delivered 200,000 lightning strikes and cut power to more than 19,000 households.

The most severe storms are expected on Wednesday and are tipped to bring hail, strong winds and up to 50 millimetres of rain in some suburbs.

Read more here.

Australians hoping to start a family are delaying or giving up entirely as the cost of housing skyrockets, the adviser to state and federal governments on population has warned amid signs the nation’s birth rate has dropped to an all-time low.

The Centre for Population has used a new report on population trends to admit that “low fertility is here to stay”, arguing that fresh policies were needed to support people who want to have or start a family.

The high price of housing has been blamed for Australia’s falling fertility rate, which is tipped to fall to a record low this year.Credit: iStock

The drop-off in people having babies is so rapid that some economists now believe the states may have to reduce their expected spending on schools through the 2030s because there will be fewer students.

Read more here.

Using Brisbane City Council data, we can reveal where it is hardest to find a metered parking spot, and at what times of the day.

During the week, the three-hour parking spots on the mostly residential Birley Street in Spring Hill – near Brisbane Private Hospital – are often all gone by 9am.

Graham Street in South Brisbane, near the Queensland Children’s Hospital and Somerville House, where cars can stay for 12 hours, is particularly on Thursday afternoons.

On weekends, drivers are lucky to find parking on Grey Street at South Bank, with its meter occupancy the highest in the inner-suburbs, on average, almost every hour between 7am and 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Read more here.

Premier David Crisafulli has poached South Australia’s top public servant to head Queensland’s state bureaucracy as Director-General of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

South Australian Damien Walker, the chief executive of that state’s DPC, will take the equivalent role as the head of Queensland’s public service from December 23.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas appointed Walker to the role in April 2022, weeks after leading Labor to power in the state.

Damien Walker during Queensland budget estimates in 2018.Credit: Dan Peled/AAP

Before returning home to South Australia, Walker served as director-general of Queensland’s Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning under the Palaszczuk Labor government.

Walker also came under intense questioning by Crisafulli during budget estimates in 2019 over the granting of taxpayer funds to a company co-owned by then-premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s chief of staff, David Barbagallo.

Walker was also responsible for the Queensland government’s delivery of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Read more here.

Anthony Pratt, the chairman of Visy Australia and one of Australia’s richest men, has announced via LinkedIn he will be moving to the United States after being granted permanent residency there.

President Donald Trump and Anthony Pratt during the official opening of Pratt Industries Wapakoneta recycling and paper plant in Ohio in 2019. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

In the post to the social media platform, Pratt said:

Honoured to be granted my Green Card for permanent USA residency last month.

We decided it was time to live in America because:

(1) My family are all U.S. citizens.

(2) Over the past 30 years we have invested to build 70 factories in America, creating 12,000 well-paying American manufacturing jobs.

(3) I will remain Chairman of Visy Australia, and will be returning to Australia on a regular basis.”