News in 5: Pink fans vent frustration; Australian family's quake escape; AFL coward punch.

1. Fans are airing their frustration to Pink cancelling concert shortly before the show.

Pink’s cancellation of her Sydney concert just hours before she was due to take the stage has been met with mixed reactions from fans.

The US singer was forced to cancel her second Sydney show (after also missing Friday’s on doctor’s orders) on Monday afternoon, after being admitted to hospital while suffering from a gastric virus.

While no fans seem to be suggesting the 38-year-old should have gone against doctor’s orders and performed, the detail that’s left fans so frustrated is that organisers waited until just before 5pm Monday to cancel, when doors were due to open at 6.30pm.

Many complained they had travelled a long way to get to the concert, and would have stayed home if it had been cancelled sooner.

Others were dissapointed, but more sympathetic to the mum-of-two’s difficult situation.

2. Australian man’s terrifying near-death escape from Lombok earthquake with wife and toddler.

An Australian man sent goodbye texts to relatives before bundling up his family and fleeing through pitch-black jungle after Lombok's deadly earthquake.

Evan Burns believed he would die alongside his wife and toddler son when the quake struck on Sunday, killing at least 98 people.

It all but destroyed his home, and he fears some of his neighbours perished in the rubble of their houses.

After surviving the jolt and a series of strong aftershocks, Mr Burns, his wife, and his toddler son made a terrifying, 3km dash up a nearby mountain, fearing the quake may have spawned a deadly tsunami.

Nursing a twisted ankle, the family and about 200 others from their village waited in the dark for the danger to pass.

He has since returned home and is struggling to comprehend the scale of the destruction.

"The force was so severe that it threw us out of bed, and the walls immediately started cracking," he told AAP on Monday.

His house is now uninhabitable, having sustained severe structural damage, including a second storey that is caving in. Both windscreens of his car are smashed from falling debris.

He says there is still a sense of panic on the Indonesian island, where he manages a resort in Senggigi.

He estimates 70 per cent of the property's guests have made their way to the airport, desperate to get off the island, but they are stuck there, with flights unable to cope with the mass exodus.

"The panic is quite severe. It's very hard to console the people," he said, adding relief flights must be a priority.

Mr Burns is no stranger to natural disasters, having endured other earthquakes, cyclones and tsunami scares, but Sunday's magnitude-7 quake was the most terrifying of his life.

"We weren't sure we were going to make it out alive."

Mr Burns has contacted Australian consular officials, who have told him help is on the way.

Earlier on Monday, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australian officials were making their way to Lombok to help Aussies caught up in the disaster.

So far there are no reports of dead or injured Australians.

3. AFL player faces year-ending ban for one-punch attack on fellow footballer that broke his jaw.

Andrew Gaff ended Andrew Brayshaw's AFL season and now Gaff faces the same fate.

The West Coast star will front the tribunal on Tuesday night for the punch that left Brayshaw with a broken jaw.

The Fremantle 18-year-old cannot eat solids for a month.

Gaff was referred directly to the tribunal after the incident during Sunday's tumultuous Western Derby.

It is the biggest tribunal case of the year, eclipsing the five-game suspension for GWS star Jeremy Cameron.

Precedents point to a seven-game ban for Gaff and that would end his season.

Gaff is expected to appear in person at Tuesday's Melbourne hearing and throw himself at the mercy of the three-man jury.

His direct referral means the penalty is up to the tribunal jury.

Gaff had a spotless tribunal record before Sunday and he is shattered.

It is understood he meant to punch Brayshaw in the chest.

Whatever happens at the tribunal hearing, he faces a lengthy suspension that will also be a huge blow to the Eagles' premiership chances.

4. A threat to preschool funding has been revealed several months after the Federal Budget was released. 

As the Federal Government prepares to cut nearly half a billion dollars of spending, preschool and early-learning education for more than quarter of a million Australian children is under threat, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Budget papers seem to show the end of Federal Government’s $440 million National Partnership Agreement on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education from next year, meaning that children's placement in four-year-old preschool may not be government-funded, at least to the same level it is now.

Alys Gagnon, executive director of The Parenthood - a not-for-profit parent lobbying group -  said she was shocked that the Government would be even thinking about not renewing funding for preschool programs around Australia.

"Parents would be outraged by this cut. It creates uncertainty for parents who have no idea what their preschool fees will be," she said.

"It makes it impossible for mums and dads who are trying to balance their budgets, and increases the risk that some parents will simply withdraw their children from preschool."

5. There has been an appeal for fresh information on a missing South Australian mum.

The tight-knit community connected to suspected killer Michael Burdon could be withholding crucial information about the whereabouts of his wife, South Australian police have revealed.

Detectives working on the mysterious case have now turned their attention to the two days after 23-year-old Tanja Ebert disappeared.

Ms Ebert, a mother of two, was reported missing on August 10 last year - two days after she was last seen. Mr Burdon, 41, fatally shot himself at their remote Manna Hill sheep station less than a week later, leaving police with no clue as to where Ms Ebert's remains might be.

But, one year on, police say people known to Mr Burdon could be withholding information that would uncover his secret.

"We suspect Michael has committed the murder of his wife, we don't believe anyone else was involved in that," Detective Inspector Billy Thompson told reporters on Monday.

"Whether other people chose to assist Michael after the murder is a question that we need answers to."

Police have announced a $200,000 reward for anyone with information that could lead to the recovery of the woman's body. Officers are now focussed on tracing Mr Burdon's actions between the last sighting of Ms Ebert and the time she was reported missing.

"We've conducted some inquiries in relation to Michael's movements from (Tuesday) the eighth of August until the time of the report of Tanja's disappearance," Det Insp Thompson said.

"There's a period on the Wednesday of a number of hours that we can't account for, there's also a period on the ninth that we can't account for as well.

"We suspect someone does know what he was doing during those two days."

The couple and their children had spent August 8 in Adelaide visiting the SA Museum, with the last confirmed sighting of Ms Ebert in the city that afternoon.

While Mr Burdon initially told police his wife, carrying $2000 in cash but no phone or passport, got out of the car in the town of Roseworthy, they now believe she returned to the property at Manna Hill.

The sprawling 410 square-kilometre station has been searched three times, but nothing of interest has been found.

Det Insp Thompson urged anyone with information to come forward for the sake of the couple's two young children, who are now in the care of Mr Burdon's family.

6. The Thai cave boys have returned to school.

A dozen boys rescued from a cave in northern Thailand have returned to school.

At Mae Sai Prasitsart School in Chiang Rai province where six of the boys attend, all of the 12 boys were given a warm welcome back to school in a ceremony marked with Buddhist prayers, Chiang Rai officials said on Monday.

Dressed in their respective school uniforms, the boys were also given team shirts of Germany's Bayern Munich football club by a club representative.

A dramatic 19-day search and rescue mission for the group, a local youth football team, gained much attention, sympathy and admiration from around the world.

Many international football clubs have invited the group to come and see matches abroad following their dramatic rescue that involved an international team of scuba divers, including a contingent from Australia.

The group visited Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non Cave, 1000km north of Bangkok, on June 23.

They were trapped inside for more than two weeks after a flash flood blocked their only exit, leading to Thailand's biggest-ever rescue operation.

After a successful rescue of all members of the group on July 10, the boys aged 11-16 recuperated at a nearby hospital for a week and then at home for another week.

11 boys, with an exception of 14-year-old Adul Sam-on who is a Christian, entered a nine-day monkhood as an act of gratitude for their rescue. They left the monastery on Saturday.

Their coach, 25-year-old Ekapol Chantawong, the only adult in the group trapped in the cave, is expected to remain a monk for three more months.

A museum is being constructed near the cave to commemorate the rescue.