The art of blending fact and fiction

Greetings!

After a very long time away I'm back, with a (first round) complete story and I'm now at work on edits. I have a couple of questions relating to the art of blending fact and fiction.

The first relates to the timeline. There are two recent real life events which I would like to include as they seem to fit my theme and would anchor the story to a real time and place. The first is the death of a cricketer while playing and the subsequent social media campaign to display cricket bats at the front doors of homes, cafes etc. The second is the hold up of the Lindt Cafe in Sydney by a man who had been given refugee status some years earlier. These two events, in real life were separated by only a couple of weeks. In my novel it needs to be more like a couple of months for the rest of the timeline to work (FMC to go from pregnant to heavily pregnant, MMC to descend into madness). Is this OK? If you are Australian, would this manipulation of real events bother you?

The second is somewhat similar. I want to set the story in an Australian city, and in a Women's Hospital. However, since I potentially have a serial killer on staff of my imaginary hospital, I need to make it pretty clear that I am not basing it on one of our fine establishments. I could make the entire city imaginary but I think it adds something if my characters can catch ferries and go to the blue mountains for the weekend or can catch a tram and go to the footy. Any tips?

Well that was a good question to ask. Thanks for the responses.
Consistent answers, and pretty much the opposite of what I had intended to do. My thoughts were that it would be ok because, like Anna Spargo Ryan, I couldn't remember exactly when the first event occurred, it was only through google that I realised how close they actually were.

It wasn't so much about creating a timeline, as improving the setting. Unfortunately it doesn't fit with my story's timeline and that can't be sped up because of the whole pregnancy thing. I really like the social media campaigns that occurred with both these events #putoutyourbats and #illridewith you, but I can probably use the first, and then make up something different to replace the second one.

In defiance of what others have suggested I don't want to make up a generic anytime/anyplace town. I really like a novel that transports me somewhere and I think setting should be as vibrant as character. If I pick bits and pieces from both Sydney and Melbourne to create a new town, such as having a person take the tram to the harbour instead of the bay, both Sydneysiders and Melbournians will say I've got it wrong. If I make it completely generic, and have my character instead take a bus to a shopping mall, it loses all its colour. I think I will just reduce our three big hospitals to one and make sure it doesn't come out sounding like any one of them in particular.

So far it is probably fitting mostly into a psychological thriller type book. So maybe setting is less important than keeping the story moving. What do you think? Do you notice the setting of books, or do good characters and a fast-paced story mean setting doesn't really matter?

Oh. The country. I've heard of that. Never been there. Despite the cricketing hall of fame. Do women have babies out there?

Actually, that could work. That could definitely work. A little rejigging, but I've been wondering why she doesn't just change hospitals to avoid the potential killer and being in a regional location would certainly limit her choices. Thanks!