Welcome Grace Crivellaro and Charles Rushforth to the ABC Illawarra team.

Grace is our new Wollongong reporter and joins our team following Nick McLaren's retirement. She previously worked as a court reporter at the Illawarra Mercury and a federal politics reporter in Canberra for the national newswire. Grace graduated with a law and journalism degree from the University of Wollongong in 2020.

Charles is our new Shoalhaven reporter who joins us while Romy Gilbert is away on maternity leave. Charles is a seasoned ABC reporter with experience across TV, radio, and digital platforms. From human-interest stories to breaking news, he's passionate about breaking meaningful Shoalhaven stories and building connections that amplify community voices.

In this week's newsletter we have the latest news on the arrival into Port Kembla of John Travolta's 707, we have a story on the Australian paratrooper that was killed in a parachute training accident at Jervis Bay this week and a fabulous story from Braidwood about a recently restored hand-powered mill that revolutionised cider-making which has crushed its first batch of apples in more than 100 years.

Have a great week, and remember, If you have a story for Grace or Charles or the rest of the ABC Illawarra team please drop an email to 973@your.abc.net.au.

Rory Macdonald

ABC Illawarra Editor

After nearly a decade of delays and millions of dollars in repairs, John Travolta's old luxury jet needed a boat to get to Australia.

Warrant Officer Class Two Lachlan Muddle, a highly qualified special forces sniper and military free-fall parachutist, has died after a mid-air collision with another paratrooper during an army training exercise.  

Advocate for equal access to high-quality healthcare appointed national president

Emergency service crews were called to an apartment complex in the Wollongong suburb of Warrawong overnight after a 25-year-old man was set on fire.

A recently restored, hand-powered mill that revolutionised cider-making has crushed its first batch of apples in more than 100 years.

A probe into a cloud-based image-sharing folder resulted in the largest amount of child abuse material files seized in a single investigation in NSW history.