Good morning Canberra,
Expect Wednesday's rain to hang around, with a medium chance of showers throughout the day and a top of 16.
Here are our headlines for Thursday, October 4:
Blown Floriade budget reveals problems with procurement
Floriade workers put the finishing touches. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
An audit of last year's Floriade found ACT government bureaucrats handed out $1.4 million worth of work while flouting procurement laws.
Documents obtained by The Canberra Times under freedom of information laws reveal Events ACT staff signed $550,000 worth of contracts without the correct authority.
Staff also gave out nearly $700,000 of work without a contract and failed to get the minimum three quotes for around $160,000 worth of work.
Katie Burgess has more.
Garema Place rally to urge Commonwealth to reconsider pill testing
Dean Barnes of Reason ACT and Max Black of the Smashed Avocado Movement are holding a rally in Garema Place on Saturday to call for pill testing at Spilt Milk. Credit: Elesa Kurtz
Canberrans are expected to come out in force this weekend to demand the federal government reconsider its pill testing opposition.
Reason ACT and the Smashed Avocado Movement are coordinating the Garema Place rally to urge governments across Australia to roll out pill testing as a harm reduction measure.
Katie Burgess again with the story.
ACT private rental visitor nights double in one year
ACT Tourism Industry Leaders' Forum chief David Marshall says it might be time for the ACT government to develop a policy on the operations of companies like Airbnb.Credit: Melissa Adams
The rise in the number of Canberra's overnight visitors has prompted concerns it may be time for the ACT government to develop an official position on companies like Airbnb.
The number of nights visitors to Canberra stayed in private rental accommodation more than doubled in the year to June, rising to more than 500,000 for the first time.
It marked a 108 per cent increase, from 276,000 last fiscal year to 568,000 in 2017-18.
Daniel Burdon has the story.
Terror and tragedy: Journalist's WWI diaries paint a harrowing picture
From left: Australian War Memorial director Dr Brendan Nelson, AWM historian and editor of the book Peter Burness, Charles Bean's granddaughter Anne Carroll and Deputy Prime Minister of Australia Michael McCormack.Credit: Karleen Minney
For the first time, the first-hand accounts of Australia's first war correspondent have been pieced together in a new book, The Western Front Diaries of Charles Bean.
Charles Bean's private diaries provide some of the most comprehensive insights into the terror, tragedy and sense of sheer pointlessness of World War I.
The book is thanks to the Australian War Memorial's longest serving employee, Peter Burness AM.
Dan Jervis-Bardy reports.
Canberra BMX star Caroline Buchanan's intimate Nevada wedding
Caroline Buchanan married Barry Nobles at the Valley of Fire in Nevada.Credit: Adam McGrath/hcreations
The capital's own BMX bandit and eight-time world champion, Caroline Buchanan, has married fellow BMX cyclist, Barry Nobles.
After a nine-year relationship in the fast lane of Olympic Games campaigns, life-threatening crashes, injuries and travelling the world, Buchanan and Nobles decided to do something different. They slowed down.
Chris Dutton has the word.
(The wedding looked off the chain.)
Today’s cartoon
The Canberra Times editorial cartoon for Thursday, October 4, 2018.Credit: David Pope