Thousands of hectares of native forest north of Noosa, which was due to become national park, will now remain open to the timber industry in order to save hundreds of jobs.

The Denmark Shire is proposing a plan to replace the leases at a popular holiday spot with more traditional ownership rights.

The holiday community of Peaceful Bay in WA's Great Southern is struggling with the question of how to protect its slice of paradise against the tides of change and bureaucracy.

Leaseholders in the Western Australian south coast holiday community of Peaceful Bay have expressed concerns over a proposal to transfer their property leases to more conventional ownership titles.

The Jerramungup Shire says it is working with Bremer Bay residents to address concerns about proposed bushfire safety measures.

After a US magazine visited the far-north NSW coast town, Byron Bay was abuzz. Dig a little deeper and the stories pour forth from angered locals.

A father who lost his son in a shocking crash 13 years ago channels his grief into a mission for better road safety with a driver-training centre that could save countless lives.

The hunt for the missing Belgian backpacker, who disappeared after a night out on May 31, is formally referred to the NSW coroner in a move that ends the official police search.

For nine long months, the main road into Byron Bay was adorned by one of Australia's most controversial pieces of public art. Until last night.

The tourist mecca's potholes are legendary, and locals are taking matters into their own hands as the mayor laments that the town's affluent profile means little to its financially-struggling council.

Ian Pearce's resignation is the latest to plague a small east coast council, blaming his speedy exit on age, health concerns and union harassment.

It was a bright crisp Queensland winter's day when Costa Georgiadis, host of ABC's Gardening Australia program, visited Tin Can Bay to celebrate 12 months of hard work by the local school in building, maintaining, and expanding their very own veggie plot.

Batemans Bay was once an isolated coastal frontier settlement that grew on the back of oyster farming, timber cutting, and as a port servicing nearby goldfields. As the closest coastal town to Canberra it's now dominated by large shopping malls servicing surrounding suburbs of retirees and holiday homes. The architecture of its heritage has been lost, but two of its earliest and most significant buildings remain hidden and unknown behind 1960s shopfront facades. Will they be saved and restored?

Spring is the busy season for WA Sea Bird Rescue rehabilitator Carol Biddulph, who cares for a menagerie of injured and orphaned birds at her Torbay home.

Scientist Richard Connor has discovered that Monkey Mia's dolphins have the most complex non-human society on the planet.

More than 12 tonnes of dead fish have been buried after a council on the New South Wales north coast bowed to public pressure and opened a lagoon.

CCTV footage from Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula captures the moment a meteor lit up the night sky over the bay. (Supplied: Martha Cove Owners Corporation)

Alan Clarke thought completing a 500km run across some of Australia's roughest terrain would be his biggest challenge. But that all changed when he spotted something in the shallows.

Wallaroo locals welcome news that a cruise ship will visit three times over summer, but wonder what happened to their ferry service that was suspended two years ago.

One phone call closed a popular waterfront camp that has hosted thousands of children over 75 years but documents obtained by the ABC show that a NSW Government office went against the advice of experts.

A State Government-commissioned review finds the risk of a NSW coal ash dam wall collapsing in an earthquake is "reasonable", but more work is needed to determine the level of risk.

Jervis Bay one of Australia's world-renowned coastal tourist hotspots, celebrated for its idyllic white beaches, nearly became home to Australia's first nuclear power plant.

A 26-year-old woman is charged with 11 offences after allegedly stabbing members of the public, as well as her daughter, in Salamander Bay near Port Stephens.

If you suffer from trypophobia, or an aversion to the sight of clusters of small holes, you might want to take a deep breath before laying your eyes on a Suriname toad.

Five dolphins found stranded at low tide on a beach at Broome's Roebuck Bay have now died.

Plans to relaunch a South Australian ferry service hit a snag with the vessel the Aurora V caught up in political turmoil in South America.

A series of killings that happened 170 years ago have created deep rifts in South Australias Waterloo Bay and a new cliffside monument is at the centre of the debate.

Champion jockey Kerrin McEvoy's hometown of Streaky Bay is fundraising to install a life-sized bronze statue of their hero on the town's foreshore.

Volunteer whale spotters believe they've photographed more than 50 whales at South Australia's Sleaford Bay this year, raising questions about how the marine mammals might be affected by a desalination plant proposed for the area.