TOWNSVILLE: Police here have called for calm after a vigilante group was formed overnight in nearby Ayr to track down a local who admitted to fellow drinkers that he regularly changed the empty toilet roll holder for his wife and family.

PERTH: A greying and very wrinkled former Liberal Prime Minister, Mr Harold Holt, has emerged from the Swan River in Perth just upstream from the famous WACA cricket ground, declaring "that's the strongest rip I've ever encountered".

MELBOURNE: Carlton United Breweries has threatened to take action against publicans offering mid-strength 303 beer to patrons at $20 a carton. "The most a pub is allowed to give away is $24.50 and that's the absolute limit," a brewery spokesperson warned.

BRISBANE: Red-faced Kenmore police have released a two metre grey kangaroo they arrested at Lone Pine Sanctuary late yesterday after receiving a tip-off that the marsupial was prison escapee Brendan Abbott in disguise.

"After interviewing the suspect for more than two hours, we had to reluctantly let him hop," a police spokesman said.

CANBERRA: On the eve of the Constitution Convention, Prime Minister John Howard has announced the induction of Queensland barrister and former Fraser Government Navy Minister Sir James Killen as Australia's first living fossil.