The 7-metre boat left Badu Island on Wednesday afternoon bound for Dauan island, just south of Papua New Guinea, with two men, two women and a nine-year-old boy on board, but it never arrived.

Lego is being used in both informal and clinical sessions to improve the communication and cooperation skills of children with autism.

Police call off the search for five people missing in the Torres Strait since Wednesday after they set off by boat from Badu Island to Dauan Island, prompting a large-scale operation.

Australias largest barramundi farm is calling for a halt in whole-fish imports from Asia not because around 60 per cent is imported, but for biosecurity reasons.

People who experience homelessness are more likely to be exposed to trauma, but experts say creative therapies could help them heal.

A North Queensland Cowboys feeder club hopes its American import is more than your average Joe when he trots out for his first QRL game this weekend.

A court releases the video of a police interview that shows the murder confession of Matthew White, who strangled Cooktown woman Donna Steele in a botched extortion bid and has been sentenced to life in jail.

Drought has collided with high demand for soybeans, lifting prices by around $500 a tonne, prompting warnings of a price hike for soymilk, tofu and tempeh.

A 10-year-old boy writes to Queensland's Environment Minister pleading with authorities not to remove a giant crocodile that has been sunning itself on a creek bank.

The supermarket giant is criticised in court for its "recalcitrant attitude" after being caught selling out-of-date baby formula for the second time at a Cairns store in Far North Queensland.

A potential vaccine for streptococcal infections is being tipped as a game changer in remote communities after a recent outbreak was detected in Cape York.

A woman is recovering in hospital after a wild dog, believed to be a dingo, burst into her Cape York house and attacked her while she was cooking dinner.

Scientists fear Cape York's Iron Range (Kutini-Payamu) National Park could take decades to recover after weekend fires.

What's driving Australian families overseas to gamble on "magical" stem cell treatments at sky-high prices?

Stakeholders call for an overhaul of the government's $5 billion fund that promised to turn northern Australia into an economic powerhouse.

A Far North Queensland tourist island, left lying in ruins for years, will undergo a multi-million-dollar redevelopment in an effort to create an international tourism drawcard.

As Queensland Opposition leader Deb Frecklington weighs in on the state's chroming crisis, BP recalls how it went about combatting misuse of its own product almost two decades ago.

The world's second-deadliest fungus, the poison fire coral, is found in Far North Queensland for the first time, a long way from its usual home in the mountains of Japan and Korea, and can cause a "horrifying array of symptoms".

Queenslanders who are visually impaired say they're at risk of serious injury in busy carparks and on roads because they don't have the right to use disability parking spaces.

A man is dead and a woman seriously injured after falling more than 10 metres from a zipline in the Daintree rainforest in Far North Queensland, police say.

As the wet season approaches, saltwater crocodiles are getting ready to lay their eggs and at croc farms across the north hay is an essential ingredient for good breeding.

An estimated 75,000 backpackers working, or that have worked in Australia, could be back-paid hundreds of millions of dollars after the Federal Court ruled the so-called backpacker tax invalid.

Witnesses say it was "pandemonium" when a Gold Coast nursing home shut down yesterday after paramedics attended the village to help find emergency accommodation for 70 residents. The closure is believed to be over a contract dispute.

The operator of a Gold Coast aged care facility is accused of taking money from the bank accounts of residents at the same time they were being evacuated because the centre was closing.

Former Commonwealth Games competitor Matthew Levings trained for years alongside Sun Yang. Now the Gold Coast tradie says China's Australian coach, Denis Cotterell, would never train swimmers he knew to be doping.

A teenager from Byron Bay says regularly seeing a psychologist has helped him tackle crippling anxiety. The only problem is he can't afford to keep going.

Gold Coast woman Theresa Dalton is sentenced to six years in jail for hiring a hitman to kill her husband during their divorce battle, telling a Brisbane court it is a "catastrophic miscarriage of justice" because she is innocent.

Gold Coast police are searching for a man and woman after they stopped their car in the middle of the Pacific Motorway before attempting to hijack two vehicles.

A woman who says her daughter has been denied a wheelchair asks her local MP who's also the Minister for the NDIS to sit in on a meeting about the girl's needs.

Whether it's poor merging or illegally remaining in the overtaking lane, drivers who break the law and behave badly are contributing to road congestion in Queensland, experts say.

One of the region's major dams is already at half capacity and with another dry spring forecast, Seqwater warns mandatory water restrictions could be in place by mid next year.

The Queensland Rural Fire Service says weather conditions indicate there will be an extreme to locally catastrophic fire danger in the Darling Downs, Granite Belt, Maranoa and Warrego today, as thick smoke hangs over the Gold Coast hinterland.

A research team is deployed in response to persistent smoke from a bushfire that has been burning for nearly two months in underground peat on the NSW Mid North Coast.

The Raiders miss the chance to move up into third place by narrowly losing to the Warriors, while the Bulldogs knock off the Broncos and the Dragons pile even more pain on the Titans.

All fires across New South Wales and Queensland are downgraded to watch and act or advice as nightfall eases conditions somewhat. Look back at out coverage as firefighters battled blazes across two states.

Free fuel, meals, and animal feed are among the supplies donated to volunteer firefighters and people affected by bushfires, as the emergency continues to unfold in southern Queensland.

Acting Queensland Premier Jackie Trad says the Gold Coast hinterland fire that swept through the area over the weekend included areas of rainforest a highly unusual event, but one that experts say is occurring more frequently in recent times.

After fires tore through parts of Queensland in an earlier-than-expected bushfire season, emergency services are warning of the growing threat to suburban backyards as the weather gets hotter and drier.

A Gold Coast couple who funded a "lavish lifestyle" peddling MDMA and cannabis on the dark web is jailed after pleading guilty to drug trafficking.

Visitor numbers plummet on the Gold Coast hinterland and Scenic Rim after devastating bushfires razed parts of the regions earlier this month a double tragedy for local businesses.

Australian surfers Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbons will have to wait until next May for confirmation they have been selected for the Tokyo Olympics, despite satisfying the qualification criteria.

A defamation trial is underway, with a high school principal suing five parents for comments they made on social media.

A software firm develops smartphone keyboards specifically designed to write in traditional languages to help people protect their language.

Authorities say complacent city dwellers need to learn from their regional cousins and have an emergency kit ready for when a natural disaster strikes, including three days' worth of water.

After a police car is pelted with bottles, a senior officer says Gold Coast industrial estates are increasingly becoming gathering places for illegal car hoons.