You read the rules and acted accordingly? Sorry, you what?

Now, regional Victorians learn they could've indeed continued their festive break north of the border in NSW if they lived in the "border bubble".

Instead they "did the right thing" packed up their gear and went back to where they came from. Why? Because the messaging was not nuanced. It was broad-brushed and not communicated well enough.

Much has been made of NSW's alleged "gold standard" approach to COVID-19 (obviously the whole Ruby Princess disaster was too long ago to remember). Well, welcome to gold standard jibber-jabber from authorities regarding the impending cricket Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Of course, it'll go ahead - it has to because the Test in Melbourne went ahead. Gladys and Bradys (Berejiklian and Hazzard) can't have the MCG and the Vics getting one up on the SCG and the New South Welshies, can they? There's an economic reality to this pandemic, after all.

First the crowd was going to be capped at 25,000, no mention of masks. Now it's 10,000 and it'll be masks on, thanks everyone. But, the message was very clear today, regional NSW, please don't come. Oh, and if you're from a handful of select western Sydney suburbs you'll actually be fined for turning up.

New day, new rules. Let's see what happens between now and 10.30am Thursday.

It's no surprise the news rules were announced on the very same day the Victorian government revealed a man infected with coronavirus attended day two of the second Test at the MCG.

On the numbers front, there were four new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in NSW on Wednesday, and one case in hotel quarantine. Victoria recorded just one new case of local transmission from 37,000 tests on Wednesday plus the another two cases in returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

Queensland, which reported one new overseas-acquired case in quarantine, is mighty wary of three regional NSW towns - Orange, Nyngan and Broken Hill. Chief health officer Jeannette Young wants any Queenslanders to get tested if they've stopped in any of the centres recently.

And after all of that, revel in the glory that is the palm cockatoo. Thing is, they're not in good shape from a survival perspective, but this, from the BBC, will explain all.

If that doesn't get you in, how about the fact that they craft their on drumstick and bang away in an attempt to attract a mate? Any wonder the zoologist on camera reckons they're very human-like (Cue emails from angry drummers in 3, 2, 1 ...)

Did you know you can receive this daily digest by email? Sign up here

THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW