A controversial teddy bear fence featuring thousands of teddy bears alongside one of SA's major highways has been destroyed, with many condemning the actions of vandals.

Two chemical leaks from metals processor Nyrstar have made their way into Port Pirie's groundwater and a waterway over the past two years, the ABC can reveal.

Hospital buildings where flammable cladding posed a major fire threat to the public in Sydney and across the state are identified in NSW Health safety documents, with Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital the only one where potentially combustible panels still need to be removed.

A New South Wales Appeals Court judge has condemned violence at the hands of up to seven police officers in relation to the Australia Day arrest of an Aboriginal man.??

Children of post-war European migrants call for permanent monument at Greta Migrant Camp in the NSW Hunter Valley.

The drought is dragging on but this Walgett cafe is bucking the trend and expanding and is the shot in the arm this little town needs.

A rugby league player is handed a jail term for a "ferocious" on-field assault that left an opponent with major facial injuries, but immediately appeals against the severity of the sentence.

Findings from a probe into alleged cover-ups of child abuse within the Catholic Church in NSW have identified credibility issues among members of its upper echelons.

The Sharks wrap up a spot in the finals with a 25-8 win over the Tigers as Robbie Farah's career comes to a close, while the Panthers end a disappointing season with a 54-10 thrashing of the Knights.

The National Party wants urgent changes to the NSW Independent Planning Commission, fearing there is little certainty for investors following the rejection of the proposed Bylong Valley coal mine.

Brenda Marney, 73, is charged with animal cruelty offences after a mutilated magpie is found at her home on the NSW mid-north coast police believe she lures animals with food before capturing and torturing them.

During the final week of the Federal election campaign, National Party ads accuse Rob Oakeshott of having never "done a hard day's work in his life".

A coastal paradise town becomes a safe haven for refugees, despite being outside of a government-supported resettlement zone.

Bound by tradition but using honey from stingless bees and Australian botanicals proves to be more than just a silver lining for a NSW distiller.

A pharmaceutical giant owned by the Sackler family in the United States is using flaws in regulation to push its latest product deep into regional Australia.

A health facility able to meet the needs of acclaimed Aboriginal playwright Jimmy Chi was not available at the time of his death, a coronial inquest has heard.

The Browns Range pilot plant in remote Western Australia has been touted as a project that could have global significance, particularly if the US-China trade war escalates.

Most people associate child malnutrition with developing countries, but an increasing number of Australian children are relying on the kindness of strangers to get a proper feed.

There have been calls for greater transparency on remote cattle stations after a FOI request revealed a push to keep the mass death of a critically endangered species under wraps.

A power company is remotely turning home air conditioners off in a trial to manage peak electricity demand, but will consumers hand over the remote control?

A husband and wife team one a butcher, the other a wildlife carer is doing wonders for injured and orphaned wildlife in WA's remote Kimberley region.

Residents of northern Western Australia have issued a desperate plea for help, saying it is only a matter of time before a resurgent youth crime wave sees a child killed.

Amid international efforts to find a vaccine for the deadly pig virus, Australian authorities and industry are bracing for an outbreak that some pig farmers fear is "inevitable".

A finishing school for western ringtail possums is not about airs and graces it's about helping orphaned possums get used to fending for themselves.

Labelled "exceptional" by the state's most experienced equine vet, twin fillies delivered by a mare in WA's Wheatbelt are still alive through a crucial period after being born.

From electronic pet trackers, paying cyclists to commute to work and driverless cars, Hobart City Council is floating some innovations to make it a smarter city. And, strangely, that could also mean Wi-Fi free zones.

Tasmanian MP Madeleine Ogilvie is the descendent of Labor royalty but this time around, the new Member for Clark is at pains to prove she's her own person, Emily Baker writes.

Lucienne Rickard will draw an extinct species every day for a year but at the end there will hardly be anything left to show for her work.

Scuba divers can reach depths of 40 metres, but there's a small group of hardcore divers who venture more than twice as deep. You just need a sense of adventure and the right gear.

As Tasmania heads towards its busy summer tourist season, residents in popular locations are bracing themselves to share the road with tourists.

Reports from people convinced they have seen Tasmanian tigers in the wild are released, with observers describing encounters with "cat-like creatures" they were "100 per cent certain" were thylacines.

A botched effort at censoring a scathing report on Tasmania's juvenile detention centre reveals a litany of shortcomings, including "very little real security", CCTV that is "rarely monitored", inadequate reporting of force being used and a fence that would not stop an escape attempt, only "slow it down".

Until now little has been known about what penguins get up to when they head out to sea to forage.

A diver in the Derwent River has filmed the underwater site of the original Tasman Bridge, which collapsed in 1975.

Tensions are rising within the Tasmanian Liberal party as some look to drop veteran Eric Abetz from the top spot on the Senate ticket in favour of his apprentice, Jonathon Duniam.

The head of the Royal Hobart Hospital's emergency department tells an inquest of a large increase in the number of mental health patients trying to access care, and of more suicide attempts at the facility.

Using cameras and wind disturbance, a Tasmanian wind farm will be the first in Australia to deter wedge-tailed eagles from flying into the turbine blades.

Researchers have used marsupial lion fossils discovered in Naracoorte and the Nullarbor to discover that the Thylacoleo was similar to a tree-climbing Tasmanian devil, ambushing its prey in forests.

Port Lincoln, on South Australia's west coast, celebrates four decades of a tuna-tossing competition that commemorates the city's fishing history and is proving popular with hammer throwers.

Survivors of sexual assault in regional Australia are driving for hours to access forensic medical examinations, even though any GP or nurse can be trained to administer them.

The Federal Government pledges to extend cashless debit card trials, designed to curb drug and alcohol abuse, but reports of the card's success are mixed.

An ancient lizard fossil found in north-west Queensland shows the ancestor of the modern skink had a crushing jaw, equipped with hard-rounded teeth, rather than the sharper teeth of today.