The school holidays are about to get ugly with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting thunderstorms and some wild weather for Friday, the second last day of the Perth Royal Show.

A severe weather warning for Tasmania's east coast is cancelled but heavy rain continues to fall in the region, with snow in the highlands.

The Catholic Church says it will not follow new Tasmanian laws that require priests to break the seal of confession to report suspicion of child sex abuse.

DAILY BRIEFING: Injured formula 3 driver Alex Peroni will return to Hobart in the next few days as questions are raised about why he was allowed to walk from a crash scene in Italy instead of being taken off by stretcher.

DAILY BRIEFING: A Tasmanian shark attack victim commemorates a year since the incident, cattle deaths hearing delayed and basketball stars arrive in the state.

Scientists hope a drill that can plunge 3 kilometres down into an Antarctic ice cap and withstand temperatures of -55 degrees Celsius will help solve one of the last great puzzles in climate science.

A 59-year-old man who died at Hobart's Nyrstar Zinc smelter yesterday has been named as Michael Lewis Petterwood of Risdon Vale.

Despite a bid to move Tasmania's time zone 30 minutes earlier than eastern standard time failing to win support, Prime Minister Scott Morrison tells Liberal Party faithful their future remains bright thanks to the revived fortunes for the island state.

DAILY BRIEFING: Two people plead not guilty to charges relating to the deaths of 16 polo ponies, police charge two men after last week's stabbing, and there are concerns over the second Bass Strait interconnector.

DAILY BRIEFING: A motorcyclist dies in the state's north after crashing into the back of a parked truck, and a 29-year-old charged with the murder of Jarrod Leigh Turner pleads not guilty.

Almost six years after her father died in a mining accident on Tasmania's west coast, Tameka Sylvester is still waiting for answers with the family learning of inquest news via social media.

The death of 17-year-old Maggie Lore at the Blackmans Bay blowhole in 2017 prompts a southern Tasmanian council to conduct a risk assessment of several areas in its municipality.

A bushfire burning north of Hobart could pose a threat to the city's suburbs and critical infrastructure if uncontrolled, a fire officer warns, as Tasmania prepares for hot weather and strong winds over the next few days.

DAILY BRIEFING: Firefighters downgrade the alerts for four bushfires which are burning out of control north of Hobart and in a shack area of the Central Highlands.

As bushfire conditions ease around Tasmania this weekend, the firefighter's union wants laws to back volunteers leaving work in an emergency as the bushfire season extends to as long as six months.

Parents in Tasmania are struggling to access speech pathology treatment for their children because NDIS funding has caused an explosion in demand for services.

Isabella Corbin can remember sitting on her dad's lap in the cockpit of his helicopter when she was just a baby. Two years after his death, she's determined to keep his legacy alive.

The man accused of murdering a 29-year-old man on the Nullarbor Plain is remanded in custody after appearing briefly in court in Ceduna, in South Australia's far west.

A severe heatwave threatens to break all-time records in South Australia and Victoria today including the maximum of 46.1C in Adelaide set in 1939 as experts warn that "nowhere is going to escape the heat".

The search for two people missing off the coast of South Australia's Eyre Peninsula ends tragically as the bodies of a 35-year-old man and his five-year-old daughter are spotted in waters after they were swept from rocks at Cape Carnot.

Cape Carnot south of Port Lincoln is popular with tourists because of its rugged cliffs and caves, but another two drownings are forcing the site's owner to rethink its future.

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.

Beach wheelchairs and special matting are finally out of mothballs after two years, thanks to the Whyalla City Council's decision to cover public liability insurance.

A video showing an off-duty police officer stoning a wombat, apparently to death, leaves Aboriginal elders divided with one condemning the incident as "wrong" but defending traditional hunting.

A woman has faced court charged with murder following the death of a man at Port Augusta in South Australia's north.

Violent standover man Hizir Ferman may have "progressively suffocated" to death when Victorian prison officers used their body weight to pin him to the ground after forcibly removing him from his cell, an inquest has been told.

A man has been found not guilty of killing his 13-week-old son in regional Victoria, eight years after the baby died.

A GPS clock rollover, which experts predicted would have little impact because of years of advance notice, causes the grounding of the Bureau of Meteorology's weather balloons.

Finding the seal that is tangled in fishing line is the easy part for the Marine Response Unit, but helping the animal while staying safe from the rest of its colony is much more difficult.

Tanya Day died of traumatic brain injuries after she was arrested for public drunkenness in December, 2017. Lawyers for the Indigenous woman's family are now asking the Victorian coroner to consider whether systemic racism was a factor in her death.

Prison officers and nurses could have done more to prevent the death of underworld figure Hizir Ferman, who suffocated to death inside a Victorian prison after a stand-off with guards, a coroner finds.

A judge indicates a woman who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving over the death of cyclist Jason Lowndes, who was killed when he was struck from behind while on a training run in 2017, is unlikely to go to jail.

Energy Australia finds a unit controller at the Yallourn power station, Graeme Edwards, 54, was doing nothing wrong when he was fatally injured performing a routine task in November last year.

Costs are eroding Australian dairy farmers profit and hitting confidence, with the number of farmers positive about the industry the lowest in 15 years. Poor seasonal conditions are mostly to blame, with high feed and irrigation water costs.

An Indian Catholic priest who claims parents' adultery and masturbation causes autism in children, and who claims to have "cured" autism through prayer, cancels a series of religious retreats in Australia.

A man has been ordered to stand trial over the death of his partner, who was hit by a car in the driveway of her Traralgon home.

A neighbour describes hearing a man screaming to be handed the phone on the afternoon a two-year-old boy died in Melbourne's outer-south-east. Police have arrested a man and a woman over the death.

Storms and erosion at Inverloch reveal never-before-seen parts of a 155-year-old shipwreck, the Amazon.

Resident Michelle Gatt says the smoke and falling ash from the 45-day fire in the Hazelwood coal mine left her constantly coughing and without a voice.

Bioscientists are developing 3D printed artificial tissues that may help heal bone and cartilage typically damaged in sports-related injuries.

It's an old joke in Bathurst that locals can spot an out-of-towner because they turn the wrong way around one of the historic lamp standards in the city's CBD. But what's the reason behind this road rule and is it unique to Bathurst?