A Vincent Van Gogh painting was sold for 21.7 million dollars at an auction on Thursday only to be erroneously sold a second time for 20.3 million. 

Auction house Sotherby’s said a glitch with its online system during the sale allowed for the double sale.

The painting has been kept in a private collection for more than a century prior to sale, away from the public eye.

The identity of the buyer has not been revealed.

Western Australia’s peak mental health consumer body is calling for more community support for people transitioning out of hospital mental health care.

Chief Executive of Consumers of Mental Health Western Australia, Shauna Gaebler, says more support is needed for people to create a stable life outside of hospital and avoid readmission.

Mental Health Minister Stephen Dawson says the government plans to establish active recovery teams by the middle of the year which will ensure patients have support to leave hospital and remain well in the community.

Business owners in the Northern Territory have expressed concern at the resurgence of business after COVID-19 lockdowns. 

Darren Lynch and his wife Pina Somerville are two of many business owners in the Northern Territory struggling to cope with the resurgence of business after COVID-19 lockdowns.

Australia’s border closure has meant migrants and travellers have not taken up their usual jobs to fill gaps in work rosters.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads has gone out to tender for specialist divers to dive underneath the bridge sections of the Pacific Motorway for a maintenance procedure.

The process is key for keeping the structure safe for motorists. It includes scraping away barnacles and vegetation so the bridge sections can be checked for any issues.

A spokesman for Transport and Main Roads says underwater inspections are fundamental for keeping bridges safe and up to date with traffic needs.

The inspections are required every eight years.

Researchers at QUT have developed a simple way to use the gas released as a by product of cement creation to create more cement.

At present, nearly 900 kilograms of carbon dioxide is emitted for over a thousand kilograms of cement. The cement industry contributes seven percent to overall emissions and this figure is expected to grow as urbanisation continues to increase.

Project manager Professor Anthony O’Mullane says the process is perfect for the concrete industry to reduce its carbon footprint. 

The brightly-coloured external cladding on Brisbane Square was removed from the building as it contains a combustible central core that poses a fire risk. Hundreds of buildings in Queensland are clad by the panels. They are built of the same material that accelerated the fire in Grenfell Tower in 2017, which resulted in 72 deaths.

Shaye Griffiths-Rudd, property manager of the investment firm that owns Brisbane Square, said replacement of the cladding with solid aluminum panels will be complete in 2022, and confirmed that the colour scheme of the building will not change.

Almost 200 cows are roaming free in New South Wales’ mid-north coast after floodwaters swept them away from their Mondrook property.

Owner of the cows, Peter Bowie, has begun the process of retrieving the animals. Some of them have been found fifteen kilometres downstream from the property.

Bowie says many of the cows can’t be reached due to floodwaters.

One cow ended up in Taree resident Harmony Burton’s backyard. Burton says the cow, nicknamed Bruiser, has become a welcome guest at the household.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has made a recommendation that the COVID-19 vaccine be deferred for people with a history of specific rare blood clotting disorders. The recommendation applied to both Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines after 18 cases of clotting were recorded in 20 million vaccinations.

The rare conditions include cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) and heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT).