What does it take to prepare for a pandemic? Many hospitals around the world are already overwhelmed by patients infected with COVID-19. Australian doctors and nurses are bracing for something most of them have never faced before. In our country hospitals, resources are already stretched: beds are in short supply and there’s a greater proportion of older people. Preparation will, in many cases, be the difference between life and death.
 ABC National Regional Reporter Jess Davis takes us inside the Wimmera Base Hospital in Horsham, Victoria, as the team tries to prepare for the unimaginable.

Is modern capitalism, itself, a threat to the survival of capitalism? Or will corporations always find a way to monetise misery? Paul Barclay speaks to Yanis Varoufakis and Antony Loewenstein

A source has told the ABC that a teenager found dead in a remote Pilbara town this morning had recently given birth.

Flames fanned by strong winds caused extensive damage to the resort site, destroying the heritage-listed wooden lodge building that had stood since the 1930s.

A hospital in north-west Queensland says emergency department admissions have fallen by 20 per cent during the coronavirus pandemic.

Queensland's first digital driver's licences have been rolled out on the Fraser Coast and developers and cyber experts agree, the technology gives users more protection against identity theft.

Police say they are concerned for the safety of a man who has gone missing in a well known crocodile habitat in Far North Queensland.

A 14-week coronavirus drug trial involving volunteer military personnel has resumed despite previous concerns from doctors and veterans about its ethics.

The Mount Isa Medical Centre is taking over the testing service to ensure people with respiratory symptoms are checked, despite no cases being recorded in the city.

A grand slam of a different kind has seen two Brisbane nurses take on the world's best tennis players high in the sky on a hospital rooftop.

A 79-year-old "miracle man" blows kisses to the medical team at Dubbo Base Hospital and fights back tears as he heads home after making a full recovery from coronavirus.

Coronavirus survivor, Jayson O'Brien has thanked medical staff at Western New South Wales Local Health District for saving his life.

A judge finds BOC Limited is not responsible for the actions of a "disobedient" contractor involved in a gas mix-up at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital that left a newborn baby dead.

Ms Berejiklian says there needs to be better communication between aged care facilities and relatives after a 13th person has died from coronavirus at the Newmarch House.

Sick of isolation? It might be time to explore the slow TV genre. From the comfort of your lounge room you can cruise down the Manning River as video producers live stream their tranquil journey.

The Broncos answer a number of their critics by ending a four-match losing streak with a convincing victory over the Sharks, while the Tigers snare a win against the Titans in Tamworth.

A decision to prioritise a controversial coal project over the protection of Indigenous sacred sites has landed the Federal Environment Minister at the centre of a fierce legal battle.

Residents in the regional city of Armidale are using their own water to save trees in their heritage-listed park, as the drought continues to deplete the district's water supply.

Public health officials are investigating the recent movements of a worker at Latrobe's Mersey Community Hospital, in the state's north, who has caught coronavirus.

An investigation is underway after two staff members of the North West Regional Hospital in Tasmania test positive for coronavirus.

The Tasmanian hospital where two staff members have tested positive to coronavirus will remain open, authorities say, assuring the public they can be "confident about the care they receive".

One of the two coronavirus cases confirmed in Tasmania is a staff member from the North West Regional Hospital, a day after two other staff cases were revealed.

Two more staff at the North West Regional Hospital test positive to coronavirus, taking the total to six, prompting a ban on visitors to the facility as well as the Mersey Community Hospital.

The Tasmanian Government bans visits to all of the state's hospitals, with some exceptions for parents and on compassionate grounds, under new social distancing measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Tasmania's Premier Peter Gutwein says the North West Regional Hospital and North West Private Hospital in Burnie close today because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Tasmania’s Premier Peter Gutwein has announced the North West Regional Hospital and North West Private Hospital in Burnie will close because of the coronavirus outbreak. All staff and their households will go into quarantine. That’ll involve more than one thousand people.

Medical staff working in a coronavirus hotspot in Tasmania's north-west say a relaxed attitude towards hand hygiene and social distancing made it a "slow-motion disaster waiting to happen".

The widow of a north-west Tasmanian man who died of coronavirus pays tribute to her late-husband, calling him her "soulmate".

An investigation into a coronavirus cluster in north-west Tasmania finds some staff worked in local hospitals for several days while experiencing symptoms, but the Premier stresses no-one is to blame.

A man suffers head injuries when he is hit by a car that mounted a tram stop outside the Royal Adelaide Hospital, narrowly avoiding other bystanders.

A Gold Coast electrician fishing on the Murray River on the NSW-Victorian border was startled to find that what he thought was a log, or a dead Murray cod, was in fact a partly-skinned freshwater crocodile, thousands of kilometres from its natural northern Australian habitat.

A coroner finds clear and ongoing inadequacies in the care of a pregnant Indigenous woman, who later died from sepsis, by doctors and staff at Tumut Hospital.

The family and friends of Naomi Williams, who died, along with her unborn son, after 20 attempts to get help, say the apology they have received via a statement from the health district is not good enough.

A woman is in a serious condition with head injuries, while NSW Ambulance is treating dozens of other patients after a bus crashes near Harden, 125 kilometres north west of Canberra.

Italy's ongoing coronavirus problems spill over into the country's top football league, as five Serie A games are postponed until May.

All sporting events in Italy will take place without fans present for at least the next month due to the virus outbreak in the country, while Australian cycling team Mitchelton-Scott withdraws from a slew of races.

Efforts to reduce the spread of coronavirus see Italian authorities suspend all sports leagues, including Serie A and Six Nations rugby union matches, until at least April 3.

Austin Health chief executive Sue Shilbury resigns after just three years in the role, telling staff of her "difficult decision" to leave after a series of negative reports involving the Austin Hospital.

An investigation is launched after relatives were told their loved one had been discharged, prompting a search for the missing man whose body was actually in a Melbourne morgue all along.

New red light cameras in Victoria generate more than $12 million in extra fines, catching out thousands more speedsters and red-light runners. Ten intersections in Melbourne and Geelong have proved particularly lucrative.

Each Thursday in a back-alley warehouse, a group of volunteers come together to meticulously clean, repair and catalogue artefacts collected from the remnants of a Chinese temple that once stood proud in the Cairns CBD.

The month long festival showcases contemporary professional Australian and international photographers alongside amateur photographers.

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?

An unsealed road leading to a family farm between Albany and Denmark reveals an unexpected treasure trove of military artefacts.

Every year at the start of spring the streets of Port Pirie are filled with the colour, sounds and sights of a festival with its roots in a medieval Italian fishing community.

The Nurses Union is putting pressure on the health board to act on IRC recommendations

In Maffra's memorial hall almost a million Lego pieces are being constructed into dragons, landmarks and streetscapes in an exhibition to raise money for the Central Gippsland Health Service.

It's been two years in construction at a cost of $91.3 million but the first phase of the redevelopment of Dubbo Base Hospital is about to open.

There is no shortage of heritage to celebrate and preserve at the New Norcia Monastery in Western Australia's Mid West.