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Sophie Aubrey

Sophie Aubrey

Sophie Aubrey is a city reporter for The Age. To send tips, email sophie.aubrey@theage.com.au or soph.aubrey@protonmail.com

Mike Callander at lunch at Cookie in the CBD.

The man in the cage: 15 years inside Melbourne’s most famous nightclub

There have been no bodies under the pool table, but DJ Mike Callander lifts the lid on the legends – and explains why this club has been an enduring city favourite.

  • Sophie Aubrey

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Nick Solomos with Adrian Portelli during an auction on The Block.

Mystery rich lister leads Adrian Portelli in race to buy Derrimut gyms

The rival bidder is said to have “even deeper pockets” than billionaire Portelli and is already helping to backstop the business’s finances while it is in administration.

  • Sarah Danckert and Sophie Aubrey
Nick Solomos, founder of Derrimut Gym.

Offers open for fallen Derrimut Gym empire

Staff of the popular debt-riddled gym chain, who are still owed superannuation, were handed hope on Monday.

  • Madeleine Heffernan, Sarah Danckert and Sophie Aubrey
Nick Solomos placed a key company within his Derrimut 24:7 gym empire into administration on Thursday.

Derrimut gym empire enters administration

Derrimut gym founder Nick Solomos handed over control of a key company on Thursday as he continues his desperate fight to rescue his debt-ridden empire.

  • Carla Jaeger, Sophie Aubrey and Sarah Danckert
Nick Solomos with Adrian Portelli during an auction on The Block.

Billionaire Portelli backs out of Derrimut gym deal

Billionaire Adrian Portelli has pulled out of providing a lifeline for the floundering franchise Derrimut 24:7 Gym.

  • Ashleigh McMillan, Sophie Aubrey and Sarah Danckert
The exterior of the Thomastown gym.

Derrimut gyms to be sold as debts spiral

Two gyms and the head office of the floundering fitness empire are being offered vacant to prospective buyers under instruction by receivers.

  • Sophie Aubrey and Sarah Danckert
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WoMEDA is pushing for Sunshine to become Melbourne’s second CBD.

‘A metropolis of multiple cities’: The radical plan to fix the west’s brain drain

Planning experts say Sunshine should be Melbourne’s second CBD, while satellite cities in the outer west would allow western suburbs residents to work close to home.

  • Sophie Aubrey and Gemma Grant
A V/Line train pulling into Sunshine railway station, which will be redeveloped into a “superhub”.

This western suburb could be our second CBD, but residents fear the dream is under threat

The $4.1 billion Sunshine Superhub rail upgrade will be a boon, but many developers are waiting for the state government to deliver a greener, safer and better-linked precinct.

  • Sophie Aubrey and Patrick Hatch
Yarraville resident Sarah Tartakover, who lives near one of the two West Gate Tunnel vents, is calling for filters to be urgently added.

‘Like a bathroom exhaust fan’: West Gate Tunnel air stacks leave locals exposed to noxious fumes, report finds

Residents of suburbs around the West Gate Tunnel will breathe in truck pollution as twin ventilation stacks feature sleek design but no filters.

  • Sophie Aubrey
Aidan McLindon

‘Wrecking ball’ mayor upset staff, brought council into disrepute before ban, probe finds

An inquiry has found former Whittlesea mayor Aidan McLindon failed to take the role seriously and brought the council into disrepute through bizarre public remarks.

  • Adam Carey, Sophie Aubrey and Cara Waters