Melbourne Express, Tuesday, September 11, 2018

That's it for Melbourne Express for another day. We're off to sunbake.

Don't forget to place your entry in our weather comp, predicting Melbourne's first spring day over 30 degrees. Today's clue: the earliest it has ever happened was in 2006 on September 19.

Parliament is sitting again today. Here's Labor MP Julian Hill's take on it to sing us out for the day. See you from 6am tomorrow.

And couple of last ideas from Express readers for Harry and Meghan's first royal visit to Melbourne in October:

• Take a run around the tan, then grab brunch somewhere in the city.
• Visit DFO in Spencer Street.
• Come to Sydney
• Sit in traffic on Eastern Freeway for two hours on a Monday morning, get chased by a gang down St Kilda Road at midnight, visit a local AFL match and watch some thug break someone’s jaw or simply pay $15 per hour to park their car and walk down Acland Street to get harassed by junkies.

Making news this morning:

The child injured in an alleged hit-run at Laverton on Sunday night is now in a stable condition. Damon Michell was rushed to the Royal Children's Hospital after the incident. He was fighting for life yesterday morning. But hospital staff said this morning he had improved.

A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to help his family pay medical costs. An L-plater charged over the incident will face court again on Friday.

Police have released video footage in the search for one of Australia's most-wanted fugitives, who has been on the run since the alleged murder of his brother in February last year.

A massive police hunt by homicide investigators and members of the fugitive taskforce found no trace of Jonathan Dick until he allegedly hit a former friend in the head with a hammer in a driveway in Keilor on August 23.

Update for the commuters:

There's a left lane closed inbound on Princes Highway East due to a crash before the South Gippsland Highway at Dandenong. Delays through the area.

Sure, sure we're all Republicans with no interest in the royal tour. But watch the ideas for Harry and Meghan flowing in. Here's some others:

• The Penguin Parade on Phillip Island. Then they could take a boat to see the seals sunning on the rocks and have a quick visit to Churchill Island.
• Meet and chat with regular Melbournians under the Flinders Street clocks. Don’t tell the public until they are there.
• Donate some of their significant inherited wealth to the homeless of Melbourne.
• Take a ride on the Southern Star, get stuck at the top due to a mechanical malfunction and be forced to survive the ordeal on Snickers bars shot into the cabin by some sort of high-pressure air gun fired from a low-flying helicopter. Due to the panoramic windows, the whole ordeal could be live-streamed around the world and HRH could tweet his impressions of Melbourne for the duration of his "captivity".

Thirteen degrees now in the city ahead of a downright summery 24. It'll be Melbourne's warmest day since May 3.

In Mildura, it's heading towards 31. Here's something to refer back to when it's all getting too much later:

We're a bunch of royal tour planners here at Express. Plans are flowing in for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's first Melbourne visit, including the cheeky suggestion of making an "Australian baby", which they can then call Victoria. And more:

• Take a drive up through the Black Forest to Marysville
• Town Hall Kebab
• Shrine of Rememberance
• Melbourne Zoo to see the kangaroos, koalas and Australian snakes.
• Visit Hanging Rock
• 1000 steps at Upper Ferntree Gully
• Visit the State Library and see the Ned Kelly collection
• Who cares? Spend the money on public housing and the homeless.

And your idea here:

On the road, Nicholson Street is still closed between Victoria and Alexandra parades. Delays inbound also on St Kilda Street in Brighton after yesterday's water works. A right lane is closed inbound on CityLink/Tulla near Bell Street in Pascoe Vale South due to breakdown.

On the trains, there are major delays on the Hurstbridge line. And the level-crossing removal largesse continues on the Frankston line. Fruit this morning, not muffins: