Hunter trains: There is a good service on the Central Coast and Newcastle line and the Hunter line.

Hunter weather: Mostly sunny and windy day for Newcastle (23 degrees), mostly sunny day with strong winds in Raymond Terrace (22 degrees), mostly sunny day with strong winds in Maitland (23 degrees) and winds expected but a mostly sunny day in Scone (21 degrees).

Hunter beachwatch: Cleaner waves for today with freshening offshore winds throughout the morning. Tides full around dawn which will suit the shorebreaks and reefs. Swells from the South at 1 to 1.5m and slowly dropping. Wind out of the West at 15 to 20kts swinging S/W later on. Flatrock,Bar Beach,Cliff and Merewether best for the early. As tide runs out,Nobbys,Alley and Dixon to improve. Up at Port Stephens,Samurai and Burubi. Dudley, Redhead, Frenchmans Catho and Birdie to the South. Smaller conditions by late afternoon and wind may go sideshore. Warmer in if in for a dip. All beaches are now patrolled and only swim in the flagged areas. Water temp 18C.

► NEWCASTLE will replace Sydney as host of the season-ending V8 Supercars race from next year. Premier Mike will make the long-anticipated announcement during a visit to Newcastle on Tuesday, unveiling a “picturesque” East End street race that will take in some of the city’s iconic landmarks including Nobbys Beach and Fort Scratchley. More here.

► JETS defender Jason Hoffman will be available for the season-opener against Adelaide on Sunday week but will miss Newcastle’s next two pre-season friendlies through suspension. More here.

► NEWCASTLE is on the cusp of something great, and NSW Premier Mike Baird is determined that we recognise it.  More here.

► AN ABERDEEN woman accused of causing a crash on the New England Highway that killed her two-year-old daughter and seriously injured her then 11-month-old son has had her trial delayed.  More here.

► A random act of kindness from a Newcastle-based bloke has won a host of admirers on social media. Tyson Crawley, a 30-year-old carpenter from Albury, was on his way to work when he stopped at a petrol station to fill up his ute and jerry can. More here.

► KARLIE Noon will become the first indigenous person in the state to attain a double degree in science and mathematics when she pulls on her academic gown for her University of Newcastle (UON) graduation this week. More here.

► It wasn’t until about 20 minutes after Peter Dow heard a loud crack and flash of light that he began to smell smoke. Then, as he looked across his living room, he could see fire “dripping” from the ceiling of his Aberglasslyn home. More here.

► HE spent all but two games of last A-League season warming the bench, and Ben Kennedy could again be watching from the sideline as Newcastle’s 2016-17 campaign kicks off. More here.

► The Hunter RSPCA is always looking for families to adopt the creatures in its care. If you can give any of these pets a second chance contact the shelter on 4939 1555. More here.

► KOFM will maintain its identity, but sister station NXFM will become known as Newcastle’s Hit FM 106.9 in Southern Cross Austereo’s mass re-branding of its regional radio network. More here.

► A young family is reeling after their car was torched in the driveway of their new home at Weston, only a few metres from gas bottles supplying the house. More here.

► Each year a Maitland high school selects an issue pressing on the nation’s conscience and fixes its attention. More here.

► Clarence Town butcher Ethan Patfield competed at the NSW Sausage King Competition in Bathurst on Saturday. Mr Patfield was among the state’s best in the Traditional Australian Beef category. More here.

► A community effort helped to find a 14-year-old Cessnock boy after he went missing at Kitchener on Saturday morning. More here.

►  Paterson River and Seaham netballers completed a great season with four teams making Maitland Netball Association grand finals. More here.

►  With the impending closure of the greyhound racing industry in NSW next year, thousands of greyhounds will need to be rehomed. More here.

►  SMART ideas for growing plants, saving on power bills, recycling clothes and even what to do with discarded crusts from kids’ sandwiches were on offer at the seventh annual Living Smart Festival at Speers Point Park on Saturday. More here.

► AN architect living in Port Stephens has been recognised in the Australian Timber Design Awards for his design of a house in Salamander Bay. Murray Wood, a senior associate at the Newcastle-based architectural practice CKDS, entered his house design in three categories of the 2016 awards. More here.

► SEVENTY years of history will be marked at Halifax Holiday Park in October. The historic Nelson Bay beachfront property was established in 1946 and has generated happy holiday memories for countless visitors, some of whom have enjoyed breaks at the park for more than 50 years. More here.

► BARRY Morgan spent the best part of the last year travelling around Australia sharing the joys of the organ and teaching thousands of people his famous one finger method for playing. More here.

► IN typical Helen Sinclair fashion, she deflected the attention from herself and paid tribute to her colleagues instead. More here.

► THE first access agreements for the construction of the $14 million Scone to Murrurundi water pipeline have been signed. More here.

► BURDEKIN Park is being re-imagined as a horticulturally-focused, peaceful and inviting open space as Singleton Council plans for the future of the park after a long history of issues caused by a significant population of flying foxes. More here.

Need a national news snapshot first thing - well, we have you covered. 

Before we get into the serious stuff (although some would argue this very much is), let’s have a look at the red carpet arrivals at the 2016 Brownlow Medal last night. Check out all the photos here.

NEWCASTLE: A random act of kindness from a Newcastle-based bloke has won a host of admirers on social media. Read more.

BENDIGO: A THIRD housemate has been charged with the murder of Kangaroo Flat woman Samantha Kelly. Read more.

ALBURY: An Albury man has admitted he almost tossed away his division one winning TattsLotto ticket, which netted him more than $684,000 in the weekend’s TattsLotto draw. Read more.

TAMWORTH: POLICE allege a man who wielded a shortened shotgun at patrons in a pub used the firearm two days before the bizarre incident near Gunnedah. Read more.

TASMANIA: A MAN has died in a single-vehicle crash at Forthside on Monday night. Read more.

BALLARAT: Western Bulldogs ruckman Jordan Roughead has shown positive signs in his recovery following a freak eye injury suffered in the club’s historic victory over the Giants. Read more.

BALLINA: A great white shark was seen off Lighthouse Beach in Ballina, on the NSW North Coast, a short time after a teenage boy was bitten on the leg while surfing, police say. Read more.

FORBES: Floodwaters have peaked in Forbes, but residents have been warned that more wet weather forecast for later in the week could cause river levels to rise again. Read more.

DENILIQUIN: Securing Keith Urban as the headline act was a “dream come true” for theDeni Ute Muster team. Read more.

MT ISA: THE 25-YEAR-OLD man alleged to have tried to strangle a police officer at the Mount Isa Races on Saturday has not applied for bail. Read more.

National news

Australia has lost in its claim that an international commission has no jurisdiction to hear a complaint by East Timor in the bitter dispute over undersea oil and gas riches. Read more.

Three federal politicians are calling on whistleblowers to send them poker machine industry secrets with a promise they will be made public using parliamentary privilege. Read more.

High-level talks between the Turnbull government and the opposition on the same-sex marriage plebiscite have achieved nothing but animosity, with both sides blaming each other for a failure to compromise. Read more.

UNITED STATES: An active shooter in Houston may have injured at least six people Monday morning before being shot by police, authorities said. Read more.

INDONESIA: The boyfriend of Byron Bay woman Sara Connor has "come up with the courage" to apologise to the family of a police officer found dead on Kuta beach. Read more.

PHILIPPINES: A seven-months pregnant mother of two has told how a masked assassin accompanied by police shot dead her husband they mistook for a pusher in president Rodrigo Duterte's deadly anti-drugs crackdown across the Philippines. Read more.

1066 - William the Conqueror's troops set sail for England

1290 - Earthquake in Gulf of Chili China, reportedly kills 100,000

1540 – Society of Jesus (Jesuits) founded by Ignatius Loyola comfirmed by Pope Paul III in Rome

1779 – John Adams negotiates Revolutionary War peace terms with Britain

1821 – Mexican Empire declares its independence; Mexican revolutionary forces occupy Mexico City as Spanish withdraw

1822 - French scholar Jean-François Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta stone

1905 –  The physics journal Annalen der Physik publishes Albert Einstein's paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².

Facts supplied: onthisday.com

Right now, “Bulldog Ray” Neville is in Swans territory.

This was not how he had dreamed of spending an AFL grand final week, before his beloved Western Bulldogs’ ‘big dance’, but he knows it will be an experience.

Read his story.